Archive | Entrepreneurship

People want to be appreciated

A friend/client recently told Melissa and me that his father, a long time judge in Miami, often told him that “People just want to be appreciated.” We were discussing the frequency with which lawyers often seem not to appreciate the effort that goes into, for example, “free proposals.” (As a digression, while I interact with […]

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When David and I recently heard this phrase, “People just want to be appreciated,” from our friend, we reflected on this truism. Regardless of who one is, the status one has achieved in life, and other variables, all of us want to believe our contributions have made a difference in someone’s life. I learned this […]

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Cream & Sugar

Recently, I met a client/friend, or perhaps friend/client for “coffee.” Coffee is in quotes because I rarely drink it; I ordered iced tea. Here’s what went down. Robert asked for a coffee, with a little room for cream. The barista dude said “We only provide milk products for our lattes and cappuccinos. Our brewed coffee […]

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Readers of David’s and my posts often remark to me that they wonder when, or if, we will ever deplete our supply of topics about which to write. I believe this is highly doubtful, due to the colorful lives we live and our unique ways of looking at the world around us. Who would have […]

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“You’re Making Me Look Bad” (Because I Didn’t Read the Contract)

More often than one may think, I’ve been told by attorneys, who are the majority of our clients, that they never read our contract. This usually emerges when some detail “surprises” them. Yes, they received and later signed the contract to authorize our work. Yet, they often indicate that they did not see or understand […]

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It has been my experience, more often than not, when someone says “You’re making me look bad,” it is actually the case that the person saying this is making himself/herself look bad. Think about it. How many times has someone else made you look bad? Looking bad is something most people can do on their […]

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Life and Work – Have Fun When You Can

This concept presents itself in many ways. The saying “life is short, eat dessert first” is one way. But, aside from that, building fun into “the plan” is one benefit of operating a small business. While we’ve written things along these lines in the past, recent discussions with family and friends are reminders of the […]

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I can’t begin to count the number of times David’s mother, Carole, said, “Have fun!” when David and I were leaving her house to meet with a prospective client (the opposite of having fun, in my opinion); conducting mock jury research (very stressful and hard work, involving long hours); selecting a jury (the ultimate stressful […]

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Dialing for Dollars

Part of my job operating a small business is marketing; part of that marketing effort involves making sales calls. I think most business people, small or large, can relate. It (the business) is (almost) all about the marketing. Some of these are to “friendlies” – that is, past clients or contacts. Some of these calls […]

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In our business, sales and marketing calls are a fact of life. I daresay I have spent more time during my career in marketing/sales pursuits than in doing any other task. If there is no marketing, in fact, there will be no work for anyone at Magnus to perform. Over the years we have been […]

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30 Years

30 years. Sounds like a long time. Sometimes it feels like a long time, but I’m here to say, having being married to Melissa for 30 years, I’m left wondering where has the time gone – it has gone so fast! We recently celebrated this milestone and, although some of the readers know, I’m sharing […]

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In many ways, celebrating a 30th anniversary is remarkable! The divorce rate in America is approximately 50%, with many marriages breaking up well before the 10 year mark. David and, I are, as many people describe, “happily married.” This is not to say we agree on everything, enjoy doing exactly the same things, or don’t […]

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Cars and Errands and Challenges

The life – work balance thing hit home again this past week when, during a period during when our work load is high, that is, we’re busy and Melissa’s schedule is very full, “life” intervened. First, my car acted up – turns out it needed a software upgrade (pretty hard to imagine) – but it […]

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As usual, David’s post has reminded me of song lyrics. In “Beautiful Boy,” by John Lennon, there is a line that says: Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. How true! Just when we think we have our lives neatly organized and compartmentalized, something unexpected happens, causing us to adapt to our […]

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Horn Blowing

Horn Blowing is a topic I’ll always associate with the late, great, Buddy Payne, Esq. Buddy was one of the top trial lawyers, anywhere, ever, and was from the plaintiffs’ old school in Miami (or as he said “Mia ma” – even though he was from Virginia). After he retired, Buddy coached Melissa and me […]

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I will begin my part of this post by thanking David for reminding me to write a post dedicated to Buddy Payne. Buddy taught David and me a lot of things, most important among them, that if we don’t tell potential clients about how wonderful we are, they might never realize it. Our clients are […]

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Corporate Retreats

Although Melissa and I own a “mom and pop” business, one that is not large, we have always tried to think larger than we are! We’ve discussed some of the ways we think and act large – employee manuals, training schedules, etc. Another way we emulate larger entities is to take time, on an annual […]

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David and I rarely have an opportunity to discuss goals, plan for the future, or dream big dreams during the work day.  Most of our days in the office are spent getting ready for the next case, preparing reports based on research findings obtained in the previous case, and marketing to clients regarding future cases.  […]

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No One in Family Gets It

When one chooses a non-traditional career path like Melissa and I have as trial consultants, it is difficult for some family and friends to understand what we do, and why we do it. (Heck, it’s even hard to decide what to call ourselves, as discussed in other blogs; it could be trial consultants, jury consultants, […]

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David’s topic is hilarious to me! Absolutely hilarious! For the most part, my family and friends are relatively unsophisticated people. I love them dearly, but there are few among them who really, truly “get it” when it comes to understanding what I do for a living. David describes his family’s and friends’ incomprehension about his […]

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