Finding our true North

If there is anything the last few years have taught me, it is not to take anything, or more importantly, anyone for granted. Life is full of surprises, and we get it very wrong sometimes when it comes to planning and expectations. Let’s take our 2020 new years' resolutions for example…I would love to know how far our plans were from reality that year, which is something I reflected on when I made this meme in a state of boredom and a hint of self-pity at the time!

It is however still an inevitable practice we all undertake in some way at the start of each year: setting some goals, targets, resolutions or whatever you want to call them, even if you paradoxically decide you're not making any resolutions this year!

Whether you are in the "this year I will run this far, read so many books or pursue 12 new hobbies" camp or not, it does give us all a sense of direction if we at least do some planning around what we are saying yes to this year and what we are saying no to.

This is perhaps the best way of looking at it, by asking yourself: what will be my focus for the year? This leads to various interesting internal debates, especially when you ask yourself what you will need to say no to in order to make each yes somewhat more realistic. This often means also being clear about the other good things that will need to make room for the things you want to focus on this year.

My wife and I have a "serviette chat" once a year, where we literally write down all the things we would like to do that year. It's a ritual we started impulsively a few years ago when we were having a meal together and wanted to jot down our plans for the year right then, and I think those conversations can be very useful, especially if there is some accountability as part of the package.

Something my dad used to engrain in us from an early age is that you don't need to be the best at everything, you just need to be able to be honest with yourself and ask: "am I doing my best?" Personally, I think this is probably a healthy approach as it takes comparison with others out of the equation and simply asks you to reflect on whether you are doing the best you can, with what you have, where you are. This could, however, still make us too critical on ourselves and have a crippling effect on our drive.

I listened to an interesting conversation recently between James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) about the practice of goal setting at the beginning of the year. He leans more towards deciding what the disciplines are that you want to develop and then making decisions around what rhythms you are going to strive to have in your day to position yourself to form habits that are good for you. This may require a bit more nuance, but the value is that it is more focused on things that you can control, than say a goal which relies on various external factors.

As a firm we have set ourselves the long term goal of becoming the most valuable law firm to entrepreneurs in Africa. Everything we do continues to keep that goal as our true north, even if that requires different contributions from each of our team members to make that goal attainable.

As we embark on the new year, I'm personally continuing to broaden my scope as a transactional lawyer by hopefully making progress on qualifications in other countries, to truly become an international corporate lawyer. I also have a strategy breakfast with my team this week, where we will think and dream about how we can continue to grow in stature in our ability to provide transactional support to our clients.

Meanwhile our founder Adrian is making big strides in growing his team with new faces to further his aspirations for the firm to be a key contributor to the South African venture capital market, as Jana continues to grow her commercial practice and make a substantial impact with the transfer pricing service offering she developed over the last few years, which is exactly what our clients and the start-up ?market need! We're also very excited to announce that Tim Kelly in Adrian's team has been promoted to senior associate, a thoroughly deserved endorsement of his consistent growth and relentless commitment to the firm's clients over the last few years!

Whatever we set our sights on this year, may our journey be meaningful and may we all be engaged to give it our best shot! As a firm we are excited about the year ahead and are looking forward to walking alongside our clients through whatever this year has to offer.