Many people have a business that makes them money by default rather than by design. Michael Gerber in “The E‑Myth” declared that the entrepreneurial myth is that most businesses are started by people risking capital to create value. In reality, Gerber contends, most businesses are created by frustrated technicians. Gerber goes on to discuss the three common roles in business: the entrepreneur, the technician, and the manager. So in this blog series, I will be expanding on what Gerber believed, based on my extensive work with more than a thousand small estate planning law firms over the past 15 years.
Gerber’s assessment is spot on and a macro approach. I will apply it in a more micro way to show what is needed at all levels of a successful law firm. In my experience, five key roles must be fulfilled to truly have success in any practice or business. Those five keys roles are the entrepreneur, the visionary, the transformer, the performer, and the leader. Let’s distinguish the subtleties of each role and how they interact to achieve ultimate success.
The primary role essential to success is the entrepreneur. In my experience, the role of entrepreneur often gets confused or blended with the role of visionary, yet they are separate roles. While both are often fulfilled by the same person, each requires a different skill set and achieves different results. Let's examine the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is “one who pursues opportunity without regard for resources currently controlled,” according to Harvard Business Professor Howard Stevenson. It seems appropriate but broad; I prefer a definition that sorts entrepreneurs into two levels. A Level One entrepreneur is an individual who identifies, creates and delivers a vision the world benefits from. I call a Level One entrepreneur a “solopreneur.” A Level Two entrepreneur is an individual who identifies, creates and delivers a vision the world benefits from, and is able to have it created and delivered without his or her direct involvement. Most lawyers are Level One entrepreneurs; that is, the success of their business is wholly dependent on them. As a result, they can be profitable, as many lawyers are, but their reach or impact is restricted by their individual capabilities and time. A Level Two entrepreneur is one who can create value without having to create it and deliver it themselves.
The entrepreneur is distinguished from the visionary in that a visionary is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “someone who thinks about and plans the future with imagination or wisdom.” An important distinction is that entrepreneurs can implement either their own vision or others' vision. Did Ray Kroc invent the hamburger or the restaurant? No, but he had a vision. He had a vision of how to do it differently. Conversely, do you need to be Ray Kroc to own a successful McDonalds restaurant, or to be a successful entrepreneur? No. Entrepreneurs can implement the vision of others, as in the case of a franchise owner. The key point here is that both roles are needed. While entrepreneurs can implement their own or someone else's vision, not all visionaries can create and deliver their vision, and therefore, would not be an entrepreneur. For example, do you know who invented the Post-it note? Obviously, being creative and a visionary does not make you an entrepreneur, and this is the key distinction.
Lawyers with Purpose is an organization created by a successful entrepreneur and visionary who created a system that enables any attorney to implement it with the same success. Come discover. In the remaining parts of this series, we will discuss other key roles necessary for success: the transformer, the performer and the leaders.
If you aren't a Lawyers With Purpose member and want to discover how to be a successful entrepreneur and/or implement the ideas of other successful entrepreneurs and visionaries, join us for our FREE Having The Time To Have It All Webinar on Thursday, July 23rd at 2:00 EST. Register today to join the conversation and build the practice of your dreams!
David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center
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