BriffaWay – Blustery Day!

One of the superpowers that lawyers must possess is the ability to see into the future and avert disaster. While I suspected this was the case early on in my legal travels it was driven home to me at my first law firm interview. After the usual questions about why I wanted to be a lawyer and what I really admired about the firm I was interviewing at, we moved onto crystal ball gazing. The first question, ‘where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’ I had anticipated. Indeed I had spent the day before willing myself to imagine myself as a partner at said esteemed law firm. As a result I got away with that one. ‘Good’ came the reply but then before I had any time to relax I was hit by ‘But what if you don’t make it to partner? ‘What then?’ I was thrown. Having only just forced myself to imagine myself as achieving something which seems pretty farfetched in the first place I had not yet pictured a scenario where said event may not happen. My brain froze. No thoughts came. I had to break the silence and quickly. Into my head came a passage from Winnie-the-Pooh and before I could stop myself I could hear myself saying………………. It was a very blustery day and Pooh and Piglet were walking into 100 acre wood. Piglet was frightened. He turned to Pooh and said ‘what if a branch falls on our head and hurts us. Pooh thought about it for a minute and said to Piglet, ‘BUT WHAT IF IT DOESN’T!’ Piglet was reassured by this. There was silence for a while. Eventually one interviewer turned to the other and said I don’t think she took your question very seriously. Reflecting on that awkward interview some decades ago I realise that what makes me and Briffa lawyers different is our ability to assess risk and put it in perspective. Lawyers dwell on and obsess about things going wrong and I agree that it’s our job to see into the future and guide businesses around boulders. However often a sense of perspective is lost. Overplaying risk can rob a business of the confidence it needs and starve it of the really valuable support to move forward. As a business you will encounter many blustery days. Briffa can help you through them. If you haven’t met us yet make a point of getting in touch so we can help you though the wind.