Do you think like an entrepreneur? Test yourself against these four simple points.
Over the years I have figured out that I am just wired a little differently from many of my friends, classmates, and fellow attorneys. It almost sounds cliché, but throughout my life I have always held the belief that pretty much any problem can be solved if we have the time. Where most see problems I, like many entrepreneurs, see opportunities. When others panic, I methodically think through a situation which can resolve the issue at hand.
One such infamous instance occurred one evening over a few drinks between some attorney friends of mine. As we meandered through small talk and the drinks continued to flow the topic of conversation turned to interesting legal issues we had recently encountered.
In my case, one of my clients had recently encountered a frivolous lawsuit which, because of the nature of the legal system, threatened to cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend. The kicker, he hadn’t done anything wrong. At this point I know what you are thinking. “Sure, nothing wrong you say.” Seriously. Nothing. Nadda. But being a savvy business person my client decided to settle the matter quickly and pay out about $50,000. The problem? If he had to pay off one frivolous lawsuit when was the next coming? He didn’t want to have to deal with this again. No one should. So when it was all said and done and the settlement check had cleared he came to me and said, “Matt, I never want this to happen again. What do we do?”
So we sat down one afternoon and brainstormed all of the possibilities. How had he gotten to this point. How could it be prevented. After a few hours of bouncing ideas off of one another we kept circling around and coming back to one theme, one possibility: an innovative corporate structure that would preclude the possibility of his being served with a frivolous lawsuit. Could it work? We wrote up the model. Diagrammed out everything that could happen. We tested and re-tested the model and tested it again. By the next day we had done it. We had created a model so simplistic in nature but so soundproof in design that he was, essentially, insulated from the form of frivolous lawsuit that had led us to this innovation. Success and opportunity inspired by need and stoked by the belief that a solution could be achieved. It was that simple.
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