As I looked at his name I remember that day in the office back many years ago (something like 1987). We were talking about what he’s planning on doing. He said he would just simply leave his current employer and take several clients with him. But it was done with such an incredible smugness, smile, and appreciation for the fact that that’s the way the game is played, that I really didn’t know better because, I was out there for the very first time practicing law myself.
At the same time, I felt uncomfortable because it really wasn’t the way I played and I didn’t really realize whether that was the right answer or not. All I knew is that at that moment in time I was uncomfortable with the way we were dealing with this scenario.
I look back years later, many years later, and I wonder, as I hear people saying similar things today, why I just simply smile, recognizing that it is wrong—totally wrong—but that there really isn’t any other way to play it at this moment in time except just simply let them experience it.
The primary difference now is that when the bucks – young and old – start that type of language, I remind them very quickly that is not only not the way the game can be played, but that it’s better not to play the game that way at all. Can I ever tell them that’s not the way the game is played? Of course not. Because many people do it and many people do it well. But the question is whether we simply opt out.
Original writing date: November 11, 2006