This article suggests that most lawyers make bad entrepreneurs, mainly because the way that lawyers are taught to think shuts down nearly every entrepreneurial instinct. Lawyers are taught to forecast problems and to remove ambiguity and uncertainty, while entrepreneurs must understand and be comfortable with risk and uncertainty. The author believes that the psychology and mindset of entrepreneurship should be taught in law school to inform the lawyers who may eventually leave law practice to enter the world of entrepreneurship and also to help lawyers better understand their entrepreneurial clients.
I found this article to be very interesting and applicable for those of us looking to enter the entrepreneurial world at some point in the future. While I found some of the points throughout the article to be valid, I wonder if the author has exaggerated the challenges and difficulties that lawyers face when they make the shift into the entrepreneurial environment. I understand the author’s points on a lawyer’s ability and fixation on forecasting potential things that could go wrong and how this will be detrimental to an entrepreneurial venture. However, I believe the challenge for the lawyer is to recognize the different mindset and approach they must have when beginning to be an entrepreneur. The cause of failure for many lawyers who make this shift is not that their past experiences of fire walling failure do not allow them to succeed, but rather it is in their inability to understand that a different mentality is needed. I still believe that after having practiced as a lawyer, an individual can maintain different perspectives to view business and entrepreneurial opportunities through, they just must recognize this need and act accordingly.