What Makes A Professional ?
There are two elementary factors to find an answer to this question, the first being a profession and the other is as to how much one is involved into that profession and the resultant is the journey of a professional life.
We all know that Usain Bolt has won 9 gold medals in last 3 Olympics. At the same, it is also a fact that he has run less than 2 minutes on the track to win such gold medals .
“That’s an economy of effort.
Usain Bolt ran for less than 115 secs in total in his 3 Olympics and made $119 million dollars! That’s more than $1 million for each second he ran!
“But, for those approx. 2 minutes (115 seconds), he trained himself for 20+ years!
“That’s an investment !
Same applies for professionals including Lawyers also. Client thinks that a Lawyer give advice by just examining the case for few minute. But it took the seasoned Lawyer his “entire youth” (15+ years) to learn how to examine the case, in hand, to give right legal advise to save the client from unforeseen litigations or to avert liabilities and/or to defend with success or with minimum damage.
This is apt for an in-house Counsel as well, since the journey of learning and implementation is same for every lawyer irrespective of the fact that they are sitting on which side of a table, the expectation of delivery will be at par.
This also reminds me to share the quote of Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer by himself, before becoming the President of US.
“A lawyer’s time and advice are his stock in trade!
These facts are equally a truth for every professional !
“Every professional has to undergo the same process of learning, analysis, implementation of such learnings, risk averments, assessments, developing situational decision making skills and over the years, in a collective manner it turns into a wisdom of advise.
For the youngsters and budding professionals, it is my advise that ;
“You should always be conscious about your mindset and rest will be taken care by itself as it brings you into a discipline to avoid what is not to be done. Ironically, everyone will teach as to what is to be done but no one emphasise on as to what should be avoided. This forms the invisible ladder of a professional life.
At the same, i must also quote, the world’s most successful erstwhile Captain of India, M.S.Dhoni, who has always been an ardent believer of process and often found saying that;
“I often talk about how the process is more important than the result, the result is just a by-product of the process. But in today’s world, we are so focused on the byproduct that we get away from the process. So take care of the process, all the small things and eventually you will get the desired result. We often complain that we should have gotten more as a result but actually, we got whatever we had prepared for. If we prepare well, we execute well, if we are honest to ourselves more often than not, we will get the desired result. And if there is a shortcoming then there is always learning.
It’s not about sports but it’s about a wisdom of consistency to have a uniform mindset as in the game of cricket, it is often claimed that “a form is temporary but class is permanent” and that is actual a professional life.
Hence, experience always matter and it counts with the years invested in the realm of those professional journey which one choses to walk through. This actually makes a professional.
by Anandaday Misshra, Founder & Managing Partner, AMLEGALS
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