| ain't been fixed,
it's gonna break." Another clue to Howard's personality and business philosophy
is contained in the name of his latest business venture, Eager Enterprises. Howard has important advice for other unhappy lawyers: "Starting your own business can be a lesson in humility--doing your own cleaning and copying and worrying about making ends meet. If you don't have the mental and physical capacity for it, don't do it. If you're thinking of looking for another job, be realistic. The marketplace will value you differently after you leave the law firm womb. "Lawyers often suffer from what I call 'client disease.' They encounter clients in times of weakness, error, or stress, and they come to believe that all clients are stupid, and they, the lawyers, could do a better job of running the clients' business. This is serious self deception. It can be fatal if you try to run another business and really don't know what you're doing. "Be sure it's the legal profession you want to leave, not the law firm you're in, or the kind of work you do. You'll be giving up the ultimate security blanket of knowing that it's the clients' money, not your own rear end that's at risk." Would he ever return to law practice? "Never," he says. "Being a lawyer today is more like plying a trade than practicing a profession. There is no longer any real prestige attached to it in the public's eyes. I might consider teaching first year law students, because I still think the analytical skills I learned then are the most valuable tools I've used to succeed, and I'd be happy to pass them on to others." |