Ooh I need your love, babe,
Guess you know it's true
Hope you need my love, babe,
Just like I need you.
Hold me, love me,
Hold me, love me,
I ain't got nothin' but love, babe,
Eight days a week.
Love you every day, girl
Always on my mind,
One thing I can say, girl,
Love you all the time.
Hold me, love me,
Hold me, love me,
I ain't got nothin' but love, babe,
Eight days a week.
Eight days a week I love you.
Eight days a week
Is not enough to show I care.
Oh, hold me, love me,
Hold me, love me,
I ain't got nothin' but love, babe,
Eight days a week.
Eight Days a Week
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Released: December 4, 1964
Beatles for Sale
Whether you are a new lawyer, a mid-career lawyer or a seasoned lawyer, a common complaint I hear from all of these groups is that we attorneys are working much too hard. OCBA members are working on a regular basis 10 hours a day and most weekends. Many of my OCBA colleagues lament to me that there are not enough hours in the day to get both their work done and to have time to market and grow their law practice. Unfortunately, the tremendous time constraints of practicing law also carry over into our personal lives, taking away from the precious time we would like to spend with our family and friends.
The Beatles were also under constant pressure throughout the 1960s to produce new and high-quality recordings at a prodigious pace. Just like we OCBA practitioners, they experienced intense pressure to perform at an incredibly high level day-in and day-out.
One of my favorite early Beatles albums is "Beatles for Sale." At the time the "Beatles for Sale" recording sessions began in August 1964, The Beatles were worn out. From February 1964, when The Beatles first appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show," until the end of the summer of 1964, The Beatles worked at a manic pace. This time period was just a blur for them.
During that time, The Beatles filmed their first movie, "A Hard Day's Night," and wrote a 13-track album of original hits for that movie. In addition, The Beatles were touring and were making appearances in both Europe and North America at an unsustainable rate. The tired, worn faces of John, Paul, George and Ringo on the "Beatles for Sale" album cover speaks volumes about their lives at that time.
One of my favorite songs on that album is "Eight Days a Week." The title came from a chance remark by a driver chauffeuring Paul McCartney to John Lennon's house. McCartney casually asked the driver if he had been busy. "Busy?" the driver replied. "I've been working eight days a week." This off-the-cuff remark served as the genesis for the song, which was included on "Beatles for Sale" and which was a number-one single for 10 weeks in the United States.
Observing how hard The Beatles worked in 1964 and throughout their entire career, and seeing how their approach to business turned a club band into the most successful rock and roll group ever, their success begs the question, "What can we as OCBA members and legal practitioners learn from them about developing a successful law practice and not go crazy in the process?"
One component of The Beatles successful business model was to push the boundaries of their industry. The Beatles completely shattered previous conventions regarding what music, and specifically, rock and roll music, should sound like. Their sound was different from anything that had ever preceded them. Their approach to rock and roll music shifted the landscape as they came on the music scene, but even more so, the band always reinvented their own sound. As the band continued throughout the 1960s, they constantly evolved and did not rest on their laurels.
The practice of law demands that we as lawyers constantly look for ways to reinvent who we are and how we deliver our legal services. Technology is forcing lawyers of all ages to change how we market our services, how we deliver our legal services, and how we reach out to new and established clients. Lawyers who embrace and push the ever-changing boundaries to market their law practice and deliver legal services to their clients these are the lawyers who will be in demand now and in the future.
A second part of The Beatles success story is that no matter what they were asked to do as musicians, the group always delivered by giving 100 percent. 1964 is a perfect example. During that year, The Beatles came off a U.S. tour at the end of September and went into the studio and started a new album. The group then went on a United Kingdom tour and finished the "Beatles for Sale" album in five weeks while still touring, and had the album available for sale for the Christmas season. This was an unbelievable accomplishment that may never be duplicated by any other rock and roll band.
We OCBA practitioners need to ask ourselves: Do we give 100 percent with every client effort? A related question is: Have we given 100 percent toward every employee's request for development and growth? Furthermore, have we legal practitioners given our all in every appearance we have been required to make? If we are not giving 100 percent to all of the aforementioned situations, we are missing an opportunity for professional growth and success. We should take a lesson from The Beatles and put on our game face every day in meeting all of these opportunities.
A third component of The Beatles successful business model was that they surrounded themselves with other great people. There is no question The Beatles were extraordinarily gifted musicians, but their success wasn't earned totally by themselves. The Beatles had a prolific record producer in the late George Martin. They also had an incredible manager in Brian Epstein. Last, they had the biggest media ambassador during the mid-1960s in Ed Sullivan.
While recognizing their own strengths, The Beatles also knew their own weaknesses. To solve these weaknesses, the band leveraged the strength of others and it paid off 10,000-fold. We lawyers need to surround ourselves with incredibly talented support people. Every time we hire somebody to fill a clerical position, secretarial position, paralegal position, associate position or any other law office position, we need to surround ourselves with the best and the brightest talent we can find.
All of us need a George Martin in our law offices to make them as productive as possible. All of us need an Ed Sullivan to market our law firms to the legal community and to our clients so we can reach our maximum potential and success as lawyers. Knowing who to surround ourselves with and then hiring these talented people is essential in reaching our maximum potential.
A fourth component of The Beatles innovative business model was building and nurturing a fan base. Today this concept is referred to as "building a brand." The Beatles realized they were always on stage. Like all good businessmen, they were constantly looking for new ways to reinvent themselves and cement their brand with their fan base.
As legal practitioners we must recognize we are always auditioning ourselves as lawyers in front of judges, in our community and in front of our clients. In order to build our law practices and make them more noticeable, we need to nurture these contacts and relationships and build upon them, cementing our brand in a positive way. The Beatles constantly nurtured their frenzied fan base and we need to cultivate our legal clients in the same way.
Last, The Beatles' business model used the band's creativity to make music that was accessible. The Beatles knew their music was for the masses, and as such, they created music for that audience. The Beatles communicated their music with crystal clarity, and in turn, people the world over loved their music.
As legal practitioners we need to make our services accessible, understandable and affordable by our target market. We need to perfect our business elevator speech and be able to communicate succinctly and persuasively regarding what our law firm is all about and what it does better than any other law firm. If we are unable to do this, then we need to step back and start over in defining what our purpose and message is to our prospective clients.
By utilizing the five components of the business model discussed above, The Beatles realized heights of success they could never have imagined when they first started playing at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. In order for we members of the OCBA to reach our maximum potential as lawyers and to avoid having to work eight days a week to achieve this result, we need to learn from the business lessons The Beatles have provided to us. While The Beatles will always be a source of inspiration to me from a musical perspective, I am only now realizing how many other important lessons they have to share with we legal practitioners.
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David Carl Anderson, of Law Office of David C. Anderson PC, is the 83rd president of the Oakland County Bar Association. Share thoughts about the OCBA or anything else with Anderson at 248-649-5502 or dcalaw08@att.net.
Published: Mon, May 23, 2016
