This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.
Imagine.
Last Sunday, a 16-year-old teenager from Pennsylvania, called Kyle Giersdorf, won a video game championship, the Fortnite World Cup and received a prize money of USD 3 million.
Shocking! So much money for playing a video game!
I hate my life. I work so hard and people are paid millions to play video games. My parents raised me wrong!
Just joking.
Before you feel like that, just think for a moment why this happened. There is nothing illogical about it.
Global revenue from online gaming competitions have hit 1.1 Billion USD! There is nothing shocking about video game players winning big ticket prize money just like sports professionals in cricket or golf do. This is a new trend, and it is here to stay.
I want you to take away to very important lessons.
The first is that if you are really good at something, whatever it may be, and you put in work to become the best in the world, there are great rewards in it.
Nothing is too small.
Even if you become really good at angling, karaoke or cycling down a hill, or do t, in today’s world you have the opportunity to showcase your talent, win prizes, and become a mini celebrity.
I recently went to an event, where I was called as an influencer along with some other kids. They were all in their teens! They were TikTok and Instagram influencers. They had accumulated millions of followers each, by posting 15-45 second videos of dancing, doing make up, cooking, hairstyle, funny faces and stuff like that! And they were being paid INR 10,000 each to attend the event for an hour or two.
I wanted to see if there is a lawyer on TikTok. Then I discovered the story of a TikTok lawyer. He posts 30 second videos on legal solutions on TikTok. And he provides his phone number to call. He charges Rs. 2000 per call, and it has been working like fireworks.
Still, the majority of people are mostly going after the wisdom their parents followed. They are thinking in outdated ways that preclude them from participating in the new opportunities of a fast changing world.
So here is the second lesson for today. Please pay attention to the emerging trends, there are great opportunities in them. The future is here, and you do not even know. If you are not clued in, one day you will wake up with a shock and realise the playing video games has become equivalent of Tennis, and TikTok has killed Facebook.
Please do not think like the rest of the 14,99,999 lawyers in this country. Think how you could be different. Where are the opportunities of tomorrow arising? Can you prepare yourself to capitalize on them?
The government has 64,000 crores lying with it in the PF account because a lot of people do not know how to claim it. Is there something you can do about it? Would you be open to being the PF lawyer who ensures poor and uneducated workers get their money recovered and take a cut from it? Imagine how much money you could make if you just created an information system and a way to handle clients for such a service.
Do you know that over 14,000 crore worth of insurance claims lapse because after insurance companies ask for documents claimants fail to provide them in our country? What kind of businesses could be built around that?
Once I started building a business around unrecovered money, and it took me 7 months to go from 0 to 8 lakhs revenue per month. I just did things differently. I reinvented the business model, and it worked like I never expected. I had to shut it down for personal reasons, one of them being that I was not in a position to handle such a fast growing business given my deteriorating health and need to move out of Delhi at the time.
Akosha did a great job with consumer cases back in 2014. They pivoted to become something bigger, leaving behind a golden opportunity, a vacuum and a blueprint of how to build a multi crore business. Nobody went after it. Till date.
This is the second lesson. There are secrets. Most of the people in the world do not bother to find out the secrets and only follow the crowd like sheep.
They are too comfortable following traditional wisdom. They do not have the courage to follow their own conviction, or to experiment, or to put their name, face and reputation in line for something new to happen.
When would we have people in the legal industry who go after the real opportunities instead of doing the business of law just how people have done for the last 10 generations?
I laugh at people who say there are no opportunities in the legal field, and it’s hard to make it as a junior lawyer. You are playing the wrong games. The older generations have an upper hand if you play their games by their rules. You will never win, unless you wait for decades.
CS was a great profession 10 years back, when there was a real shortage of CSs in the market. Not today, when everyone has 3 cousins who have done CS till various levels. But the same wisdom from 10 years back is being handed out to kids and their parents!
How about setting new rules? How about introducing technology and mediums that are going viral and the last generation have no clue about them yet? Where could you get that winning leverage? Are there waves you could ride if you position yourself right?
These influencers were complaining about how their payments are often delayed by brands, and how there is no clarity of whether TDS is 2% or 10%. They also have difficulty in managing taxes. Should they be paying GST? Most of them should set up a company or LLP, and they have no idea. They do not enter into proper contracts, and get into trouble.
Is there a lawyer amongst you who will make TikTok videos on such issues, or write blog posts and reach out to this new class of social media stars?
You could be the guy winning the 3m prize by playing a video game, but most of you are just trying to get into cricket, football or tennis till date. Waiting in the queue, as if there is no other game in town.
I get it, it’s better to win the football world cup, but what about the 3m? Not too bad, either, right? How many people would play Fortnite that seriously? Could not be as many people as those trying to get into cricket, or even badminton, I am sure.
What could be your fortnite as a professional? As a lawyer or CS?
Do respond back and share your thoughts.
You may ask me how I have implemented my own advice.
When I started blogging, it was a new trend. I started early, and managed to build a blog that has been read by 1 Cr people in last 12 months.
I decided that legal education system is broken, and that lawyers of future need courses that can teach them practical aspects of law business, save time and increase their earning potential. And that is what I have been doing since 2012.
Our courses at LawSikho are unparalleled. What we offer, no university or institute can offer. Just check our course syllabus, weekly exercises and learning objectives. And then go and ask a university or even online course provider if they can teach you those things. Also ask successful lawyers if you need to learn these things, and how learning such things will aid your career.
You will require no further convincing.
All the best! The future is here, and most people are still sleeping. Make the best of it! Be at the vanguard of the change in the legal industry.
Here are our upcoming courses that you should enroll into:
Diploma
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Judgment Writing and Drafting Course for Judicial Services
