When I was young, I was greatly impressed by my father signing things. There was a sense of importance and gravity to what he put his signature to. He always looked serious when he signed something. And I saw him sign a great many things: documents, forms of various colours, shapes and sizes, cheques, credit card slips (*sheck shack*), registers, all sorts. After he signed something, something happened. I got a new computer, or new …
Branding and reputation are different ways of making ourselves known to others; the difference between them is night and day. To me: Branding is what we tell others about ourselves. Reputation is what others say about us. Enough has been written and sold about branding so I don’t intend to deal with it. I will simply sum up branding as – all the ways we tell others about ourselves and what we do with the …
My good friend Shan and I were once at a post-hearing meal in the company of a very senior and well known lawyer. Shop talk was inevitable since we were lawyers; inevitably, I suppose, we got around to the topic of legal consultation fees. “If they cannot pay my consultation fee, I will not advise them. I will not even see them. That is a rule won from hard experience,” the senior lawyer said before …
That was my father’s first piece of advice for me after I started practice. He gave that advice to every pupil that went through his firm. I don’t know whether he still does it anymore. “Bank it in, note when to pay it out, then forget about it. Those that keep looking at it or thinking about it are the ones that get into trouble. Even if you go bankrupt, or your family is starving, …