Monday, September 7, 2020

Lawyers Purpose, Vision, Core Values

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Lawyers: Purpose, Vision, Core Values I rarely, and maybe never, have written about anything religious, but I wanted to share some thoughts with you after listening to our pastor’s message (aka sermon) titled:  Explore God: Does Life Have a Purpose? It was a message that resonated with me, in part because it was only late in my career that I began thinking about my life purpose. For many years, I was more simply focused on becoming a better lawyer, generating more revenue, and making my clients “Raving Fans.” Some of you know I have written on this subject several times. Here is a link to a blog post from 2013-Say Ciao to Chow Mein: Finding Your Purpose, Vision and Values. You may also be aware that I addressed these subjects in a presentation to the Texas  Young Lawyers Association.   I haven’t recently looked at the videos above, even when drafting this post, but I bet I didn’t mention God during my presentation. In his message, our pastor said: You know, if you look up the word “purpose” in the dictionary, you’ll find it speaks to intentionality, and I wonder if that’s any clarity for the question today…is there any intention to life? Any meaning? Later, he put the message in the context of those of us living in the United States in 2019 The United States is perhaps the most advanced, affluent, and comfortable culture in all of human history, but at the same time it is arguably the most depressed, medicated, and directionless culture in all of human history. Sitting in church, listening to our pastor, I knew God would be mentioned at some point. Sure enough, our minister finally put the concept of purpose in our relationship with God. He said: God is love, and by definition, needs something to love that is capable of loving Him back And we are made in that image, requiring to give love and be loved …otherwise we’re miserable and we start asking, “why are we here? What’s the point?” As some of you know, I recently spent several days in a hospital with doctors and nurses fighting an infectious  bacteria that came up all of a sudden several weeks after surgery. I felt really, really lousy and I was too tired to work, write or even read books. I will end by first saying I saw three doctors yesterday and I am making great progress. Second, I will say how thankful I am I did not have this problem when I was a busy lawyer. Finally, I will simply confess  that while I had reflected a great deal on my purpose, vision, and core values as a lawyer, I was not seeking God in those things or in the day to day mundane work I was doing. If I had it to do over, I believe I would have found even greater joy in my career and life had I sought to seek God. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.

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