Show Notes:

Raising all bars. “Almost everything I have I’ve learned from people like the lawyers in this room. When we help each other do better, we all do better. If there’s anyone here who hates my guts, I hope they won’t at the end of this.”

Legal marketing genius. “We have an entire creative team. Three times a month I meet with the Creative Director and the team where we talk about cases, what ads are running, and more. In these meetings, we talk about what’s going to be the next thing we do. If I see something that would make me nervous as a competitor, I like it. I want the idea to make me shiver as a competitor.” 

Choose the path less traveled. “When I was a young lawyer, I only ever wanted to practice personal injury. I got a job at a personal injury firm and was doing really well. I was great at getting business. I lived in union halls and union dive bars. At the 2.5 year point, they came to review me for the next year, and I wasn’t happy with what they gave me. These moments come to everybody and it’s like a fork in the road. When you come to a fork in the road, you can do one of three things: 1) Take it and go straight, 2) go right, or 3) go left and start your own thing. So when I got to the fork after my review, I went straight to my office, called some people, and within a week, I started my own law firm.”

The greatest threats to law firms. “There are three threats to law firms: 1) technology, 2) regulations (tort reform in particular), and 3) competition. But there’s one other threat, and I truly believe it’s the greatest one: you are the greatest threat to your law firm. People tend to become fat, happy, and lethargic — and for many, once they reach a limit, they stop growing. They don’t have that drive, and because of that, their business starts collapsing and falls out from under them. The key thing is to ask yourself if you’ve got the energy to make it happen. If you don’t, you’ve got to find someone who does.” 

How John Morgan stays on top. “I understand what I can and cannot do. One of the hardest things to do for a founder or a partner is to begin the process of letting go and transition. Most retire, shut the door, and get nothing for their business. As I’m getting older, I’m realizing what I can do. Time does this, and you can either sink with the ship or do as I’m doing and plan a strategy of rebirth and reinvigoration. I’ve got a great group of people around me.”

It starts with luck. “Today in the jungle, a lion and a sloth will be born. The lion is automatically the king of the jungle, while the sloth is just screwed — and neither one of them did anything except be born. Most people waste luck. When luck comes along, you’ve got to take it and get a return on your luck.”

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

Kentucky Wildcats
John Calipari
Boston Red Sox
Warren Buffett
Oprah Winfrey
Google
LeBron James
Russell Westbrook
Carrabba’s
You Can’t Teach Hungry: Creating the Multimillion Dollar Firm by John Morgan
Joe Fried
President Joe Biden
Nick Saban
Tom Brady