Articles
With apologies to Lennon and McCartney’s hit song (Day Tripper), an increasing number of our professional colleagues seem to be dropping like flies, disenchanted with the rigors, stress and sameness of the professional advisor’s role, seeking, instead, excitement, an outlet for creative expression and the keys to the meaning of life. These are not minor mid-course corrections, but rather fully-fledged rebellions against the golden handcuffs and the socially-acceptable life of quiet desperation, as Thoreau so aptly termed it.
They’ve inhaled the intoxicating whiff of freedom, far away from the Dark Star, where jackets, ties and hosiery are shucked, the commute no longer defines one’s day, and the thought of settling in for a ten- to twelve-hour work day stimulates the creative juices, not the gastric. As one who has undergone three significant changes of professional lifestyle over the course of a 42-year career, built and sold businesses and made geographical moves literally across country and ocean, I can serve as Sherpa guide for those contemplating change.
Move From One Career To Another
How does one confront the decision and the move? We’ll address the issue from two perspectives: those exiting the profession in search of a different professional life, and those departing the current job or firm with the primary goal of cashing out.
In the case of the former, it’s the more difficult transition—a death, in fact, with all of the attendant angst, emotional conflict and ramifications. Status, ego, self-image and self-worth undergo scrutiny and loss. Friends, associates, even spouses disappear or get replaced. Financial insecurity becomes the pervasive boogey man, parading at full force in the sleepless, early hours of the morning, when one’s protective shield is most permeable.
Text book advice is minimal for those contemplating such a move. Don’t jump without a financial safety net, if possible. Maintain a clear vision of what it looks like on the other side and don’t waver from that conviction. Surround yourself with a support team that can be called upon to cover your back and provide encouragement and validation when your resolve weakens and the naysayers start to sound convincing. And remember that a happy and contented professional life is the exception, not the rule. If the practice of law doesn’t deliver the psychic joy that parents or law school promised, it’s OK to break free. Don’t follow rules that don’t deserve to be followed. Barry Goldwater had it right: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” His context was political liberty, but it applies equally well to job and career freedom.
It’s Time To Cash Out
For those seeking to sell out, an exit strategy becomes paramount. Most professional service providers are nothing more than highly-paid, time- peddling salary earners, irrespective of equity partner status. They think and behave with a year-to-year to mentality, earning and spending as if on steroids, and counting on a significant retirement annuity. That traditional model won’t disappear but it fails to address the new crop of legal inductees who possess a much more entrepreneurial bent—understandably so—given that they see their college peers making the real bucks in tech start-ups, hedge funds and the more glamorous entertainment, information and media sectors.
This aggressive business model emphasizes the future rather than the present, and addresses how to get there with the greatest ROI on each hour of labor and every singular application of creativity and inspiration. It may call for leeching some of the nobility from the profession, but that seems to be the price that one pays for wealth and security nowadays.
Everyone Needs An Exit Strategy
How does this translate into everyday behavior and practice? First, there has to be an exit strategy; it’s an imperative for those working in intense professions in which a high percentage burn out, or in which an entrepreneurial itch in the form of a significant pay-out at a certain point of time can be scratched. The best exit strategies are developed in the early stages of career-building. You need to determine, with a certain degree of prescience, how long you’ll stay in the game, who you’ll sell to, and most important, what you have to sell, whether by lateral move or merger and acquisition. This is where business development earns its keep and delivers the return on its earlier investment.
Ultimately the payout price attached to your exit will depend upon your perceived quality and value as the acquired party; and your willingness to orchestrate and manage the transition, as well as to deliver a succession plan that will lubricate your departure from the firm. But the major determinant is still your book of business. The quality, personality, loyalty, profitability and longevity of your clients will determine the price of the deal, and the degree of leverage you bring to the transaction. Adroit business development will have added significantly to the quality and quantity of the clients in that book. Talk to any aggressive professional services firms driven by a strategy to cash out at a given point and they’ll confirm that investment in business development is both calculated and pivotal to end-term success. You’ve got to build it before you can sell it. And that means building it the right way.
Here’s one nugget of advice: If your career aspirations expand beyond being a good lawyer, if you want to be a smart businessman or woman, it’s never too early to consider the future. If that future calls for cashing out according to a plan, then don’t let luck or circumstance dictate the terms of what you will become and what you’ll be left with to sell. He or she who defines the rules wins the debate. The same is true for exit strategies.
