Next week marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which happened because John F. Kennedy had a vision that disrupted the status quo. President Kennedy had the foresight and motivation to match up the emerging technology for space travel with the opportunity to create a sense of purpose and exceptionalism in America.

The public was behind him and the future was one in which children everywhere began dreaming about going to the moon.

Are you driven by your visions and dreams? I know the best decisions of my life have been based on mine.

I started my own law firm because I dreamed I could balance my law practice with my life outside the law. The opportunity to spend more time with my kids, especially while they were young, kept me highly motivated. OK, not exactly a moonshot, but for me, a great example of how a vision combined with motivation and commitment can make a dream a reality. But more, I learned that overcoming my fears and taking a risk could lead to huge benefits.

Even more, I discovered that letting your vision lead the way is much like developing a muscle. It gets stronger with every repetition. Our family had a vision of taking a year off and traveling—and because I already knew I could start a law practice from scratch, I felt motivated to take the risk of a year off work and make that vision a reality.

Each of these steps helped me realize that my dreams were possible.

Discovery Genie is another vision—the idea that there should be a way to use technology to eliminate the worst part of practicing law (discovery, duh), and make the whole process cheap, easy, and—dare I say it? —maybe even a little bit fun.

What’s your vision for what your practice (and your life) could be?

What dream or vision is waiting in the wings?

Are you motivated enough to try something new?

I sure hope so.

Take care,
Dan

P.S. A quick question: What if you could spend minutes, instead of hours or days, reviewing, indexing and producing documents? Do you have a vision of what you would do with all the time you saved? Are you motivated to turn the most tedious part of litigation into something easy, fast and effective? Motivated enough to try something new?

The Genie may not grant your wish of going to the moon, but it sure could transform the most expensive and tedious part of your litigation practice into something much more appealing.

Motivated to take a risk to gain more hours and happier clients? Go for it!