Why you should stick to your thing

Coming off a busy week, think I missed one of my emails as I usually send around 3 each week.

As many of you know, while running the legal tech company I cofounded, I am also still practicing law, and earlier this year changed my practice area from immigration to family law.

And one thing I failed to appreciate is the amount of time you save after becoming an expert at something.

Here’s what I mean.

This past week was especially busy because I was preparing for a motion next week.

For those of you smart enough to avoid the practice of law, think of a motion as a mini trial. No witnesses or testimony, instead you’re arguing based on an affidavit/sworn statement (usually from your client) and other written evidence.

But that’s not all.

In most cases you need to prepare this very well written affidavit with your client (as it’s the key piece of evidence), fill out additional court forms and usually include a factum, a more formal document where you write about the facts of the matter, the law/legal tests that should apply, and your argument as to why the law is in your favor.

Depending on how complex the situation and legal issues are, these documents can range from being somewhat simple to extremely long and complex.

I’d say this motion is on a relatively simple legal issue, but the documents took longer to prep because I haven’t prepped for a motion in a while. This is no surprise, and obviously once I shake off more rust I’ll be able to prep them quicker, but it got me thinking.

The compounding effects of your experience are so powerful.

Since I spent ~7 years in immigration law, I got so much better and quicker at doing everything. Now that I’ve shifted to family law, I have to rebuild some of that back up.

Same for you or whatever you are doing.

If you’ve been doing X for Y amount of years, don’t discredit how much better and faster you now are at doing X. Or the quality of your X.

What’s the lesson here?

A few come to mind:

• do your best to commit to a certain skill, industry, product, etc., for as long as you can. The better you get, the easier it’ll be and the higher your value in the market;

• if you’re thinking of making a switch, don’t forget to factor this in, as you may need to do some learning or in some cases, start from zero in some ways.

It’s yet another reason why niching down and commitment are so important, I think, in business. Pick a niche and work at it for a decade or two, and you’ll be pretty damn valuable to that niche.

Not the overnight success stuff we see on social media, but the reality.

And if you’re a solopreneur finding yourself a bit lonely on the business journey, have no fear. I’m finalizing the details and re-launching the Solopreneur Grind Mastermind, which will focus on weekly check-ins, virtual work sessions and other low-commitment things to keep you more accountable and focused with a small group of like-minded folk.

Have a great day,

- Josh Schachnow

Canadian lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai, host of the Solopreneur Grind Podcast