Month: October 2024

Saturday afternoon and early evening, I went over to a friend’s house for a fall gathering. Mind you I went in shorts because it is still plenty warm enough to do so, but at least the beverages had a fall flair to them. I was the first guest to arrive, so I got to help entertain the hosts’ child and try to prepare him some for having so many people over (and him needing to share many of his toys). We sat in the living room as I spoke with my friend about the uptick in work that we’re both experiencing while the little guy danced to the 70s playlist that was coming from the television speakers. There was even a very brief moment where the little guy snuggled into me sitting on the couch. Then a new song started and he jumped down to dance some more. He is already a better dancer than I am, but at least he recognizes me now.

By the time all of the attendees arrived there were something like eighteen people there, seven of whom were under the age of 4. In fact I was the only person there who wasn’t either a child or a parent, making me the outlier of the crowd. I had met most of the people before, but I only know the children’s names. Sorry??? Regardless, I didn’t feel out of place during the evening and enjoyed being around the children. It is refreshing to interact with children, to watch them create worlds in their minds, to see them taking steps towards becoming integrated people. The kids played alongside each other more amicably than I anticipated, at least until the end when tiredness kicked in and tolerance waned.

There was even some time around a fire pit to cap off the festivities during which the men and boys went outside and the women and girls stayed inside for whatever confluence of reasons. I did not partake in any of the s’mores that others enjoyed, but the smile on the face of one of the children and the mess he made of that face were still memorable.

This weekend, we went to Boston on a work trip. It was my first time back since I graduated law school, but it was a very quick trip that was almost purely work-related. We only decided to make the trip a few weeks ago, so our travel options were limited. We stayed in one of the very few remaining Airbnb options that had multiple bedrooms. It was a place to sleep in Cambridge; that was fine and all we needed from it. What has been much more of an issue so far this week is my decision to take a very early flight back on Sunday morning. It is a decision that goes squarely into the “penny wise pound foolish” category, especially given how much energy I had to expend on Saturday to be “on” at the conference and the reception that followed.

I don’t sleep well normally, and I was sleeping at a rental, and I don’t know why I even bother setting an alarm when I need to wake up during la madrugada (a word that we don’t have in English but should). I woke up for good around 4:30 and took a rideshare to get to the airport around 5 for the early flight. It all meant that I was back at my apartment before 9 AM on Sunday, but I was out of it. I went to church to try to maintain some normalcy to the day but had a hard time focusing. Then when I got back I ate lunch, took a nap, and woke up more tired than before. The afternoon was a wash. Then to top it off I regressed during curling Sunday evening and fell more than I have since the first week of the season implementing the form change. At least I didn’t fall on Monday night (though my performance still left much to be desired).

Even writing this on Wednesday morning, I’m still feeling the effects of needing to be on all day Saturday for the conference and then flying back so early on Sunday. This has led to new rules for booking work travel, but the short-term damage is already done. It is my hope that at least these new rules will improve things in what is already shaping up to be a busy 2025 filled with work travel.

When entering into a new venture or trying to add new skills onto an existing skill base, there is often a period in the early phase where results are worse than the starting point. Then things will bottom out. Then results will start climbing, first back to baseline and then above it. The net result is a gain, but there is short-term pain that must be experienced to get there. This pattern is called a J curve (as it looks a bit like an italicized J when plotted on a graph). I describe the J curve regularly to clients who are acquiring businesses, but it is not a regular feature of my own professional life currently. Recently, I invited the J curve into my personal life.

As longtime readers may recall, curling is one of my regular seasonal recreation activities. Going into this fall season, now about three weeks old, I committed to a significant alteration in my form. Despite what you see in the Olympics, most recreational curlers use a stabilizer to support them during their slide instead of relying on their own balance with a bit of assistance from their brooms. This leads to inconsistencies in the delivery, inconsistencies that I want to eliminate from my game. It is perhaps unfortunate that I learned using a stabilizer in the first place, but doing so makes it easier to get started so I understand why I was taught using that technique. I began practicing the new technique during the spring but did not use it during competition. Now I am using it exclusively.

Results so far are mixed. My teams have been winning consistently, but more in spite of me than because of me. I’ve made a few key shots, but my percentages are lower than in the spring and I’m still falling over on some of my shots (not to mention the other variances that affect my shots that are not as visible). Despite this short-term regression, I remain committed to the change. Once I accumulate sufficient repetitions to overcome my balance issues, something I’m devoting extra practice sessions to achieving as I’m not great at halfway doing things, my delivery will be more consistent and my game will improve. This will be the upswing of the J curve. I’m not there yet, but I expect to be there within a few weeks. In the meantime, I’ll keep practicing and hoping that I don’t cost my teammates too much while I struggle on my climb out of the valley.

I spent four days in Las Vegas last week attending the Rhodium Summit. It is one of the few conferences I consider a can’t miss (and also one of the few times each year I get to see any of my clients in person). I do wish the event were somewhere else, though. The hotel this year was on a more isolated section of the strip so there were fewer restaurants available. Being in a Vegas casino is always a bit disorienting anyway since there are deliberately no clocks or windows on or near the casino floor. This wasn’t helped by the daytime highs in excess of 100 degrees that largely kept me inside. But enough about the negatives.

There are no pay-to-play speakers at Rhodium. Each of the talks is voted on by the attendees. My topic about drilling down on particular client avatars did not garner enough votes for me to get a speaking spot, but I suppose that was always likely given that it is a conference for digital entrepreneurs and I run a law firm. The event is three full days of content, workshops, mastermind sessions, meals, and being surrounded by other people living a similar professional life. One of the great parts for me now is that I’m able to reconnect with people and follow along with their journeys from afar as this was my third year attending. There can be a loneliness to operating a remote business that is rarely discussed, but a conference like this is a reminder that there are others like me.

Coming back from this year’s Rhodium, my immediate business focus is on trying a few AI workflows that other people have used to great effect. We don’t prospect in quite the same way as any of the other conference attendees, but there are a few tools and methods I’m going to try in order to see how well they transfer to the law firm context. Something will work, but I’m not going to even try to handicap which thing it will be.

On Saturday, I drove down to Charlotte for the afternoon. This is not a normal day trip for me, but I had reason to do so. One of the people I’ve met through my business and with whom I speak on an almost weekly basis was visiting and it was a chance to shake his hand. Since a face-to-face connection is a deeper connection than a digital one, I made the drive to the Queen City.

I still find it amusing that no one is exactly the height that you expect based on video conferences. Camera angles can do weird things. Every time I meet someone in person after meeting them through a video screen this happens, a reminder that what is mediated through the screen doesn’t necessarily accord with reality. Sadly that can be true of much more important things than how tall someone is.

We walked around the neighborhood where I used to live and discussed business and football and why certain parts of the country are superior to others as we stopped for food and drink at a couple of places. It was jolting how much new construction there has been since I moved from Charlotte during the pandemic. It is still the same city in many ways, but there was more happening on Saturday than I remember. Of course, it was around 80 degrees at the end of September so there was ample reason to be out and about.

During dinner at the food hall that I consider the best in the state (and at which my companion still opted for a hamburger and fries instead of any of the myriad regional and global offerings), we came up with a few possibilities for new ventures. I’m excited about some of them and exploring them in the coming weeks will give me a break from the increased busyness that has finally come to the law firm.