It Isn't Failure?It's Practice!

One of the first things you learn in law school is that you can?t find ?the law? in one specific place on any given day.

Yes, you can look up statutes, cases, and the like, and they give you a lot of guidance. But you never know how a judge or jury will interpret these items and apply them to your specific fact pattern, until they do.

And as you know, from watching lots of famous trials that have been reported on TV, you just can?t predict what is going to happen, until it does.

Another very important thing lawyers are taught is something known as ?characterization.? The law may seem to be against your client, but you have to characterize his conduct as falling within the purview of acceptability.

Let me give you a quick personal example.

In Tacoma, Washington, I went to retrieve my car at a hotel lot, and when I came to the driver?s door, I noticed it had huge dent in it, the size of a half watermelon.

I contacted my insurance agent and he said I had a $1,000 deductible for collision, so I was out of luck. Undaunted, I asked him, ?What is my deductible for comprehensive??

?Zero,? he replied.

?Okay, let?s agree that this falls under comprehensive.?

He said, it seemed to him more like collision, and I said:

?Look, we don?t know what really happened. I didn?t drive into anything, that?s for sure. It could have been vandalism, and that?s covered by comprehensive, right??

And then I reminded him it is his duty to CHARACTERIZE an insurable event in a way that is more favorable to his insured, me, than to his company, when the facts are evenly divided.

He relented, and his company paid for the damage, which was appropriate.

That?s the power of characterization. When you have a personal or professional setback, or you experience a disappointment or a rejection, by all means, don?t see it as a failure, on your part.

Failing bears too much of a stigma. It sounds as if you, as a person are defective. Characterize what has happened, instead, as a learning experience, as PRACTICE.

When we practice, we?re allowed good days, bad days, and every sort in between. Given a choice, always characterize your experience in a manner that is more favorable to you, and you?ll turn out to be a winner, much more of the time.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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