It amazes me sometimes how highly people think of themselves, and in particular how much they think others think of them. (By the way we do not think about you).
I guess it is just natural that people that gravitate toward law have big egos. The self-esteem of many lawyers is fragile. Many just have an inflated sense of self-worth or, in philosophical terms, they are overly interested in themselves and in what others might think of them.
That is the reason that I took interest in Jay Fleischman's post at Bankruptcy Practice Pro. Not that he has an inflated ego, but because I think he helped define the cause why many attorneys just cannot stand the thought, or accept the premise, that they can move their law practices home.
It is the thought that "[l]osers work from home. Loners, people who won’t ever make much of their professional lives. They’re those lawyers who always look slightly beaten down, as if they’re carrying lead weights on their shoulders. Crumpled suits, scuffed shoes, battered briefcases. Jeez, you almost want to give them a dollar as you walk by". Great stuff really.
As Jay says, "[t]here is one reason for not working at home - fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of changing the way you think about your world. Fear of how people - your clients, your colleagues, your judges - perceive you".
You can call it a lack of confidence by those who cannot move it home, and certainly that can be a contributing factor. I tend to think, however, that the problem is not how others really perceive these lawyers, it is how they perceive themselves, and the very thought that they believe everyone is watching them. It is mainly about big egos. They come to believe that such things are beneath them because they think that they are better than everyone else. The problem is not with everyone else. The problem is with these egocentric lawyers -- the person who thinks it is wrong to move home -- and their inflated sense of self-worth.
It for this that they will give up keeping more of what they make, saving time in commutes, feel more comfortable in their surroundings among other benefits.
I have communicated with a lawyer that moved home to help watch and care for his children after his wife passed away, and never moved back out of the house when the children got older. How unbelievably humble is that? Putting your family over your business sense of self-worth.
To those who go over the litany of why they cannot move home, I just want to take a sharp little pin to that over-inflated ego and watch it buzz around the room wildly until it lands uneventfully on the dirty floor.
But, that is just my opinion.
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