Dr. No #43 – Start Before You’re Ready (The Unfair Advantage of Discomfort)

Hey lawyer,

Here’s a hard truth no one puts in performance reviews:
If it feels easy, you’re probably not growing.
If it feels safe, you’re probably too late.

Let’s talk about discomfort — and why it’s secretly the best growth strategy you’ve got.

1. Food for Thought
What’s one thing you’ve been “getting ready for” that you could just start today?

Waiting for certainty is professional procrastination.
Start messy. Fix while moving. That’s how value gets built.

2. Book Insight – Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
(Yes, again. It’s that good.)

Top performers aren’t braver. They’re just more willing to be bad before they get good.

Here’s how to bake that into your legal leadership:

• Start Before You’re Ready
  Launch the pilot. Make the ask. Present the legal strategy. You don’t need 100% confidence — you need momentum.

• Set Learning Goals, Not Just Performance Goals
  Instead of “reduce contract turnaround time by 20%,” try:
  “Test three new workflows and analyze which reduces back-and-forth.”
  Learning is a KPI too.

• Adopt a Spiral Mindset
  Progress isn’t linear. It loops, stumbles, backtracks, then leaps.
  Teach your team that doubling back isn’t failure — it’s mastery in progress.

3. Mental Model – The Map is Not the Territory
(Alfred Korzybski via Munger)

Your plan is not reality.
It’s a model, a guess, a framework. Useful… but always incomplete.

Don’t confuse clarity on a slide with certainty in the real world.
Adapt fast. Update often. Move forward even when the map is fuzzy.

4. AI Tool – Gavel
Gavel helps law firms and in-house teams automate workflows, generate docs, and build smarter systems.

It’s perfect for legal leaders who want to stop wasting time on repeat work — and start using their time to grow their people.

5. Quote to Reflect

“Character is often confused with personality, but they’re not the same. Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts.” - Adam Grant

PS – Tired of high-stakes legal work bottlenecked by bandwidth?

That’s where Ámbar comes in.
We’re the technology GCs use when:

• You need a domain expert who’s already 10 reps in.

• You want fresh energy on a stale, political issue.

• You don’t want the overhead of another FTE.

• You need help that scales with you, not against you.

Elite lawyers. Zero drama. Just sharp minds in your corner.

Let’s talk.

Rosa & Manuel