Small Law Firms

Being Focused And Fearless To Achieve The Impossible

Some inspiration to achieve the impossible -- and some practical advice on how to do it.

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Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space (public domain via Wikimedia)

Think of a task that you see as practically impossible. Maybe it’s something seemingly mundane, like getting a brief filed or a deal closed on a very tight timeframe. Maybe it’s something grander, like making partner if you’re an associate, or having a $5 million book of business if you’re a partner. Maybe it’s something positively delusional, like writing a New York Times bestseller or building a billion-dollar business.

Achieving the seemingly impossible is, by definition, extremely difficult. But if you don’t even dream of achieving the impossible, then you definitely won’t succeed.

That was the core message of Colonel Chris Hadfield, who delivered an amazing and inspiring keynote address at last week’s Clio Cloud Conference, one of the very best conferences for small-firm lawyers (or really any lawyers interested in innovation and success).

Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, is a huge celebrity in Canada (and beyond). He has more than 2.2 million followers on Twitter and 62 million views for his YouTube videos. At the Clio Con, he spoke about how he and his fellow astronauts turned their dreams of space travel into reality.

Where did Hadfield get his inspiration? Much of it came from the Apollo missions, which culminated in the first landing of humans on the moon. “If ever there was a program in history where someone envisioned the impossible,” said Hadfield, “it was the Apollo space program.” The 1969 moon landing  of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin inspired in Chris Hadfield, just nine years old at the time, his dream of traveling in space.

Armstrong was not a particularly imposing or impressive-looking individual, Hadfield recalled; rather, he looked like “a guy you’d see at the hardware store.” The young Hadfield thought to himself: if Armstrong could reach outer space, why can’t I?

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Of course, dreaming the impossible is just the first step towards achieving the impossible. It also requires a tremendous amount of training and hard work. For Hadfield, that involved joining the Canadian Air Force, then coming to Houston to study and train with NASA.

Hadfield’s time at NASA bolstered his inspiration, reminding him of the human ability to grow, to change, and to become the people we want to be. The astronauts at NASA weren’t afraid to dream big dreams. “If you give people a goal beyond the normal,” Hadfield said, “there will always be people who will try to achieve it.”

Hadfield identified another important (and perhaps surprising) part of achieving the impossible: visualizing failure. Indeed, astronauts visualize failure, by imagining all the things that might go wrong on a mission, all the time — and then preparing for them.

During one of Hadfield’s missions, the space station he was on experienced a leak of liquid ammonia that could have had potentially catastrophic consequences. But he and his colleagues had spent four long years planning and preparing for their six months in space, so when the leak happened, they were ready. Two of his colleagues left the station and went out into space to fix the leak. It was a dangerous and difficult mission, conducted in extreme temperatures and challenging conditions, but they did it — thanks to their having visualized, and prepared for, such a crisis.

Making it to outer space might not be in the cards for you, but maybe there are still some things you’d like to achieve that are giving you difficulty. How can you accomplish your goals? A second superb presenter at the Clio conference, David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, the largest online provider of CLE, offered concrete advice and practical tips that nicely complemented Commander Hadfield’s inspiration.

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In 2011, Schnurman ran the Philadelphia Marathon, just a few short months after having never run farther than three miles. How did he achieve this feat of running a marathon (on many a lawyer’s bucket list)? By keeping his commitments. That’s what marathon training is all about. You make a calendar and you stick to it, running on the days when you’re scheduled to run, rain or shine, no excuses.

What holds people back from realizing their dreams and keeping their commitments? It’s often a lack of confidence — a fear of failure, a feeling that you’re a fraud.

When David shared his fear of inadequacy with his father, his dad offered this response: “You don’t know how good you are.” This is true of so many of us — but as risk-averse, often fearful lawyers, we convince ourselves that we don’t have what it takes to achieve greatness.

What prevents us from achieving greatness? Schnurman shared the story of Craig Valentine, one of the world’s leading public speakers. Valentine dreamed of leaving his day job to make a career as a public speaker, but he kept on putting it off. Why? He kept on getting raises and other inducements to stay in his job. When did he finally resign? When he realized that he was “too good to be great, too comfortable in his good life to achieve his greatness.”

This is also a dilemma faced by many of us. We have certain dreams, but put those dreams on the back burner to focus on our day jobs. We’re good at our jobs, and our jobs earn us a good living. But eventually these realities form walls around us, and the walls turn into a box. We enjoy ruling our little fiefdoms — and lose sight of the many worlds outside our boxes, just waiting to be explored.

How can you break through these walls to achieve your greatness? Schnurman offered a two-part solution: you must be fearless, and you must be focused.

While on safari years ago, Schnurman heard a lion roar, and it embodied for him the concept of fearlessness. The lion “nips fear in the bud,” which Schnurman turned into this handy acronym, “N.I.P.”:

N = Not Alone. When you experience moments of fear, anxiety, or inferiority, remind yourself: you’re not alone. Everyone experiences these moments, including the people you look up to as seemingly successful.

I = I Will Get Through It. How do you know? Because you’ve gotten through it, and overcome difficult times in your personal and professional lives, many times before.

P = Play The Part. Assume the role of the successful person who’s confident in their own abilities and not concerned about what others think of them.

Schnurman recounted a conversation he once had with an executive coach who was helping him deal with a lack of confidence. The coach asked him, “What if everyone thought you were a moron?” Schnurman said he wouldn’t care, since he knows he’s not.

The coach then asked, “What if everyone thought you were a genius?” Schnurman responded, “Well, then I’d play the part.”

The coach’s advice: “Then play the part, all the time!” That’s what fearlessness is all about.

But fearlessness by itself isn’t sufficient for success. You also need to be focused. Schnurman offered another mnemonic: “W.A.Ke Up and Focus.”

W = What is your 26.2? For a marathoner, the goal is to run the 26.2 miles. In your case, what is your particular goal? How would you define success?

A = Agree to a training plan. Again, think of marathoning. A good training plan requires KPIs — key performance indicators. When Schnurman was training for the marathon, he closely tracked his distance, speed, and other relevant metrics.

Ke = Keep your commitments. For this, accountability can be helpful. When Schnurman was preparing for the marathon, he had a training partner, his friend Kyle. Kyle and David helped each other stick to the training schedule and keep their commitments. It’s a lot harder to flake on a training run when you know that your partner got up early to meet you for it and is counting on you to be there.

Thanks to Chris Hadfield and David Schnurman for their awesome talks. Maybe you have no interest in orbiting the earth or completing a marathon, but you can draw on their inspiration and advice to achieve whatever dreams you might have.

DBL square headshotDavid Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

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