Intersection Legal · The three questions

We believe a true relationship starts with giving.
This guide is one of our first gifts to you.

The three most important questions you’ve been meaning to ask yourself.

Are you ready to take your practice to the next level, or perhaps you’ve been thinking it’s time for a change? The most expensive decision is doing nothing at all.

4 sections10 questions6 goalsRemains confidential, unless you ask otherwise

How long does it take? Some finish in fifteen minutes, some take an hour.

How it works

  1. 01You learn the difference between means goals and end goals.
  2. 02You write how you want to grow as an individual, what new experiences you want to have and how you want to contribute.
  3. 03You finish with a sense of professional clarity and the option to email that clarity to yourself.
Disclaimer This is a tool for life, not advice and you are the only one that can guarantee the outcome. If you decide to change course, hire someone or do nothing at all, you are responsible for your decisions. The only guarantee we make is that you have never set goals like this before :)
Part 01

Do you know the difference between Means goals and End goals?

Means goal

A goal you set for yourself, or that somebody else set for you. It does not lead to a feeling of fulfilment.

The GPA, the degree, the partnership, the 2,000 hours, the A+, the $500,000 a year goal. You hit it, you tick it off the list, and the feeling you wanted never arrives.

  • A third party grants it: a partner, a parent, a client, a judge.
  • Once you achieve it you think to yourself… “and then what?”
  • You can reach it and feel nothing.
End goal

The experience itself. The destination and the journey, and in this case you enjoy both.

There are three driving forces inside every human being: how you want to grow, what you want to experience and what you want to contribute.

  • Nobody can withhold it.
  • Nothing comes after it. That is the point.
  • When you achieve it, you feel it.
Part 02

A short test to see if you understand Means Goals and End Goals

Answer all ten. Choose before you read the verdict.

01

Two weeks a year with your children, phone off, nobody able to reach you.

End goalNobody grants it and nothing comes after it. And notice the part that stings: it costs less than almost everything else on this list. It was never a money problem.
02

Graduating at the top of your class.

Means goalAnd you probably paid for it in full, or are still paying for it. Nobody reaches the end of a life grateful for a transcript.
03

Making partner before you turn forty.

Means goalA committee grants it and the same committee can withdraw it. Ask what is on the other side: security, respect, control of your own calendar.
04

Arguing a case in a language you cannot speak today.

End goalThe case is a means; becoming someone who can handle it in a second language is not. And it is an amazing feeling to accomplish something in a foreign language.
05

$500K a year.

Means goalMoney buys experience; it is not one. Do the exercise below: write down what you would buy with it. We bet it costs less than you think.
06

Teaching a young lawyer everything it took you years to learn, so that it outlives you.

End goalContribution, and the most generous kind there is. What you hand over lasts longer than your practice and your name on the door. Odds are it is already happening during your week without you feeling it as an achievement.
07

Being the one your friends call when they have a problem.

End goalExperience and contribution combined to create your personal brand. That call came because you are a person who cares, not because you are successful.
08

Learning something new purely because it inspires or interests you.

End goalMeaning lives inside passion. Not for what it gives back, but for how it makes you feel. Perhaps you have been struggling to set time aside for yourself. We are here to inspire you.
09

A firm that runs for thirty days without you touching it.

Means goalThis one often catches people off guard because it feels like freedom, but it is the vehicle, not the freedom. Thirty days of what, with whom, where? Without that answer, building it will not make you happy.
10

Writing the guide a young lawyer uses ten years from now to close their first cross-border deal.

End goalA contribution to humanity, just like this guide. It is a lot of work, but the reward is worth it.
0of 10 correct

Part 03

Three questions to figure out what you actually want out of life

Answer the following questions as if you had unlimited time and money.

Each section should be answered in 2 different ways, once for your professional life, once for your personal. That is why there are six boxes. Try to provide at least three answers in each section.

The horizon

Write for where you want to be in three years. Not ten, not twenty — three. Most people overestimate what they can get done in a single year, which is why three is the horizon that keeps this honest. Picture that point and write from there.

Growth

How do you want to grow as a lawyer?

Professional life
2:00
min
  • The area you cannot yet handle without help.
  • The language your next client speaks.
  • The skill you avoid because you are bad at it: negotiating, speaking in public, pricing your own work, saying no.
  • Whose judgement you want to have in ten years.
  • What you want to be able to charge for that you cannot charge for today.
  • The thing you still fake in a meeting.
  • The kind of client you are not ready for yet.
Growth

How do you want to grow as an individual?

Personal life
2:00
min
  • Character: patience, courage, honesty when it costs you something.
  • How you want to handle the next piece of bad news.
  • What your physical self would look like in five years.
  • Your spiritual life, your practice, your beliefs.
  • What you want to stop needing from other people.
  • Books that have nothing to do with law.
  • The father, mother, partner or friend you want to be.
Experiences

What do you want to achieve in this profession before you stop practising?

Professional life
2:00
min
  • The kind of matter you would take even if nobody paid you.
  • The room you want to walk into: a courtroom, a boardroom, a closing table in another country.
  • Who is sitting across from you.
  • The client whose problem you want handed to you.
  • The team you want beside you on the day it gets ugly.
  • The moment you would want on video.
  • The call you want to make when it is over, and to whom.
Experiences

Imagine an extraordinary life and what is possible. What kind of experiences would you have?

Personal life
2:00
min
  • Where you wake up on an ordinary Tuesday.
  • Who is at the table on a Sunday.
  • The trip you have postponed three years running.
  • What your body can still do at eighty.
  • The house, the road you drive, the food on the table.
  • Your last day: what has to have happened for it to have been a life.
Contribution

What do you want to contribute through your practice?

Professional life
2:00
min
  • Who has access to law because you exist.
  • What you would teach for free.
  • The young lawyer whose career you want to change.
  • Your firm as an employer: what is true for the people who work there.
  • The standard, the precedent or the practice you want to leave behind you.
  • The matter you would take pro bono every year, forever.
  • How the legal sector would change in the country you work in, because of your contribution.
Contribution

What do you want to contribute as a person?

Personal life
2:00
min
  • Your family: what do they get from you that nobody else can give them.
  • Your street, your community, your country.
  • What you would fund if nobody knew it was you.
  • What you want said about you in a room you are not in.
  • The thing you would fix in your country if you were able to.
  • Your legacy in one sentence a child could repeat.
  • Who is better off in ten years because they knew you.
Part 04

The essence of being a Human/Lawyer

Now we take action!

Perhaps it is time for a change, or time to go all in. Either way, you need to take massive action!

  1. 01Put the most important goals in your calendar right now.
  2. 02Share your goals and your dreams with someone you care about, someone who will hold you accountable.
  3. 03Ask for a copy sent to your own email and keep it in your inbox as a commitment to yourself.
  4. 04Share this quiz with a partner or a colleague. Who do you know that needs to answer these three questions for themselves?

Do it now