A couple of months ago I was approached by the That One Case podcast to record an episode. This show asks lawyers to share the story of one case that has stood out over their careers. As they pitched it, that case could be a big win that defined my career, a turning point that took my work down an unexpected path, or simply the case of which I am most proud.
When it came time to record, I took it down a different path. I chose to focus on a case from my distant past that resulted in the worst jury verdict a client ever received.
Why, you might be asking yourself, would I choose to highlight a case that I lost? I believe that we learn way more from our failures than from our successes. Nobody wins 100 percent of the time. What's important to your professional development isn't that you may have lost the case. What's important is what you learn from the case and take to the next one. Wins are great, but it's the losses that make us better at our jobs.
In this particular case, I learned the valuable lesson of perspective and what a "win" actually means.
Click here to listen to the full episode (a quick listen, at 10:37), or find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Here's a clip to whet your appetite.