I’ve spent the last decade plus in the world of start-ups,
which has given me a front row view of many different types of entrepreneurs. I’d love to say that I can pick out which
ones will be successful by now, but I’ve bet on the wrong horse a couple of
times because there is no one profile of a successful entrepreneur. However I have discovered that there are a
few traits that successful entrepreneurs have, and you’ll be surprised to hear
that successful in house lawyers share many of these traits.
Risk
Taking. Unlike our law firm brethren, in
house counsel are required to have a higher risk tolerance than what lawyers
generally are comfortable with. Likewise
a successful entrepreneur is most successful when taking risks that others are
not comfortable with. The difference
between success and failure for both is ensuring that those risks are very
calculated. Sure you can get rich by
speculating on new crypto currency, and you can lose your shirt just as
quickly. To court success you need to reach beyond what the status quo offers
but only in areas where the return on the risk makes sense. Investing your life savings in a better mouse
trap can have a high return, investing your life savings in beer flavored bubble
gum might not be the best risk to take. For lawyers, this means being comfortable
with letting the governing law be New York instead of Delaware but not letting
a bet the company litigation be handled by the lawyers at Better Call
Saul.
Leadership.
No one builds an empire by themselves.
To launch the next great tech product, at a minimum you need someone
with the skills to write the code, build the website, perform market research
and marketing plans, handle the finances, create the license or service
agreements, sell the product, etc. You
might be able to start small, but to grow into a successful company you’ll have
to eventually grow your team. And to
make sure they’re all rowing in the same direction, you need get people on
board with your vision. If you can’t
generate complete buy in by your early hires, it won’t matter how great of an
idea you have the company won’t be successful.
Similarly for the in house lawyer, you might be able to start out small
reviewing simple contracts. But to make
an impact on the company, you’ll need to get other leaders to buy in to your
advice in all areas. You’ll have to lead
them to their goals and help them get out of their own way. Like successful entrepreneurs, successful lawyers
lead their teams through the big and small challenges so that the company can
reach its ultimate goal.
General Business Sense. Some people are born with perfect pitch or an
innate ability to understand math.
Others have a high emotional quotient and are able to easily empathize
with others. To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to have a mixture of
common sense and business sense. While
you don’t have to have a degree in accounting, understanding a P&L shouldn’t
be difficult. Understanding the difference
between market forces and marketing efforts, and having some comfort with
regulatory requirements are also required traits. Successful in house lawyers
need this general business sense as well.
In order to know when to stand firm on that clause or when to advise
against registering that trademark that will only be used for the next month. You also need to have enough financial wherewithal
to know when it makes sense to add headcount to your team, fight for the budget
for that software, or hand something off to a non-lawyer.
One of the smartest things a
successful entrepreneur does is hire the necessary talent before going without
gets painful. This includes bringing in
a good in house lawyer. And sometimes it
means being a good in house lawyer.
Which is why I’m happy to announce that along with my fellow in house
lawyer, Christine Jones, and some incredible tech talent in Neil Proctor, I am
officially joining the ranks of new entrepreneurs with the launch of AloeTM
law department management solutions at Bigfork Technologies. (www.bigforktech.com).
