This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, iPleaders

Is there a burning desire, raging like fire, inside you?

There is a nicer way to say this. Are you really connected with your goal?

Most people say I want to be this, I want to be that. But what they really want the most is, no trouble. They want an easy life more than anything else. They want to be comfortable. They don’t want to risk what they already have – which is usually not much, except for comfort.

That’s not a goal. The people who stay comfortable do not achieve much. They cannot take a risk, so they do not get the rewards. They do not stand up and say, speak their mind, or do something new, something radical.

They do not care enough about their craft to labour at it for years and years, improving every single aspect of the work they do. They do not have the pull to keep focussing on their work when there are distractions abound. There is always some Netflix series, or the TV, or Facebook, which easily distracts them from their real work.

All of us are like that. We all have that lizard brain which cannot handle complex calculations and only think of fight or flight. That part of us would rather be safe, than chase greatness and risk the momentary comfort we are enjoying. Some of us learn to tame that part of us, and others never realise what the problem is.

What is your goal? What do you really, really want? Do you think about it when you go to sleep? Do you think about it when you wake up? Do you wake up in the middle of the night because you dream about it, and the intensity is so much that you can’t contain your excitement?

Of course, if you keep doing what others do, you will get the results they get. If you want something out of the ordinary, you have to take actions that others do not take.

Usually, that is risking your comfort. For that, you have to learn to defeat your lizard brain. For example, learning new things that are hard to learn. Or go out there and build a network that respects you, benefits from you and appreciates your contribution to them.

It requires you to give unquestionable value to others before you seek something for yourself. And you have to be unquestionably valuable for that. That requires practice, training, self-discipline, long-term effort, concentration, a supportive environment. But more than anything else, a burning hot desire to succeed.

How far will you go to achieve your goals? If you say whatever it takes, and is actually living that, then that’s what a burning desire looks like. That’s a goal that is going to be achieved, no matter how ambitious.

What is your major career goal going forward? Hit reply and share with me.

Do you think learning a bunch of new career skills will help you to move forward? Will increase the chance of you landing your dream job? Will it help to do your job 10% better? Will it increase the likelihood of you cracking your next interview? Will it lead to progress?

We definitely think of these questions all the time. My burning desire, that keeps me awake at night, and makes me wake up from sleep extremely excited at times (much to the chagrin of my wife), is to create a next generation legal education system that will change the face of lawyering.

I was just talking to my landlord yesterday. He has a lot of land in Goa, and many, many cousins. He has been litigating since last 10 years. Every single case he ever filed or defended was screwed up by one lawyer or the other. They have screwed up even simple matters like partition suits.

There are too many incompetent lawyers in India, with little skills but big egos, big ambitions but no idea as to how to convert opportunities into success. This is where we want to make an impact. I know it is going to change not only the practice of law but our country itself when we succeed, and it excites me to no ends.

We must go far beyond what the law schools are teaching. How can we train lawyers and law students in such a way that a law firm or a corporate legal department will be delighted to hire them? How can we train them to find their own clients, build lasting relationships with important clients and build a law practice?

All the courses we make and run are created with this objective in mind. Here is a schedule of upcoming courses in case you are interested in any of these things.

Courses commencing from 1st November, 2018:

• Diploma in M&A, Institutional Finance and Investment Laws (PE and VC transactions)
• Diploma in Advanced Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
• Executive Certificate Course in Arbitration: Strategy, Procedure and Drafting
• Executive Certificate Course in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Courses commencing from 15th November, 2018

• Executive Certificate Course in Companies Act
• Executive Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws
• Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations
• Diploma in Industrial and Labour Laws

In any case, work on developing that burning desire for something. That’s the easiest and only straight way to lasting success!