I think when people see a successful business they automatically assume that the people involved in that business had a wonderful run, things went well, and success flowed easily.  That certainly was not the case for me. I opened my law business in 1995, having just finished my articles with David Levithan who largely did commercial work, insolvency law and who previously had a name for high profile divorces including that of Anneline Kriel-Kerzner.  I thought that I was hard working and always had been and it would not really take too much for me to be successful.   

The harsh reality hit home quite soon after that.  Within a few months I was not able to pay my rent at Constantia Centre in Rosebank just off Jan Smuts Avenue, and shortly thereafter I received a summons for my rent.  Eventually things turned around, but very slowly.  I made the mistakes that young attorneys sometimes do – for example I did work for a client who later pointed out to me that while I had done the work for him I never had a fee agreement signed by the entity on whose behalf he was instructing me and in whose name the litigation was done, namely a family Trust of his, and he promptly failed to pay my bills.  Other work that had been given to me by another attorney turned out to be given to me on a “1,000 year tradition of attorneys not charging attorneys for their personal work” an apparent legal principle, confirmed by the Law Society, that most people don’t see to honour now.  He too did not pay me for the work I had done for his family members, saying he gave it to me so I had something to do!  It really was touch and go sometimes as to whether I would survive or not and if it was not for a loan from Nedbank and an overdraft for a princely sum at that time of R25,000, I might not have made it.   

I guess what I am saying is it did not come easy and the thing I learnt is that it does not matter how many University degrees you have (3 in my case) or how hard working you were, because if you could not attract the work and bringing it in through the door then your hard work and intelligence would count for absolutely nothing because you would not have any work to do.  The most important thing in law or any other business, if it is your business, is the ability to bring in the work or in legal terms “to be a rainmaker”.  Any business can find people to do the work, although that doesn’t mean they will be as good as the attorneys at my firm.  Its harder to find someone who can not only do the work but bring in the work or attract work to the firm.   

That person is often also the most stressed individual in the firm and it is certainly not a role that most people would choose for themselves – and I don’t blame them.  I guess with hindsight it all seems so obvious, but it is bizarre, between all of those degrees at University that nobody at any stage ever tells you that it does not matter how good your marks are or how hard you work, if you open your own business and you cannot bring in clients, you will never be able to use your ability.