Business Law Firms

In the movie The Natural (based off the Novel by Bernard Malamud), Robert Redford plays the role of Roy Hobbs, a fictitious baseball player considered to be the most naturally gifted person to ever play the game. 

In the movie, Hobbs’ career nearly ended when he was only 19 years old.  He was on his way to his big leagues tryout when he was shot in the abdomen by a lunatic woman who was on a mission to kill the most talented baseball player.

A number of years later Hobbs returns to baseball – going through the minors and ultimately making the big leagues at age 36.  There he excelled and was called the greatest player to every play the game. 

Every baseball fan, including myself (go Cubbies), loves this movie.  People want to believe that some folks are so naturally gifted that they rise above everyone else at their craft.  These people are bigger than life itself.  They deserve what they have received because they were born with lucky genes.  In this case, Hobbs hadn’t played for over 15 years but returned and was hitting tons of home runs and led his team to the post season.  He had pure God-given talent.

In the business world, people believe this as well.  They believe that some folks just have what it takes to be successful.  They are born that way.  It is natural.  You hear people say things like “He is natural born salesmen”; “She was born to lead a company.” 

The problem is that this does not reflect reality.  If you look at the history and practices of people who really excel at business you will see a lot of hard work, dedication towards excellence, and practice, practice, practice, and then, more practice. 

In my profession, great lawyers learn to study the law.  They also practice - they write, read, read again, write again, then study more… when all is done, they read once again.

Late in his career, Larry Bird would still routinely show up to practices an hour or two before his teammates to practice free throws and three pointers.  This is what Geoff Colvin refers to as Deliberate Practice in his book Talent is Overrated.  It is the process of deliberately working on aspects of your profession in order to better yourself.  The goal is excellence.  The process is hard. 

Natural talent may exist in an extremely small percentage of the population, but most of us do not even know these people - and it is surely not the norm.  Most of us have to practice and practice and practice, and then do, in order to achieve excellence in our craft. 



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Alerding Castor is an Indianapolis law firm focusing on business law, information technology law (including SaaS law and legal technology consulting), private equity consulting, probate and business litigation.