2. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• We live in a society obsessed with perfection.
• We take fourteen versions of a selfie to make sure
we look the best.
• We write and rewrite status updates and
messages to each other trying to sound witty or
smart.
• We buy clothes that accentuate our best features.
• Everyone wants to be a celebrity so we heighten
everything.
3. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• This obsession with perfection has leaked its
way into almost every facet of our lives.
• I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there
is no such thing as perfection.
• Thankfully so! There can be nothing more
stifling to creativity than the illusory need for
perfection.
4. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• Since law school, I have been consumed with
choosing the best words and constructing the
cleanest, most literary sentences.
• I lived my life according to the famous saying
by Mark Twain, “Use the right word, not its
second cousin. The difference between the
almost right word and the right word is really
a large matter. It is the difference between the
lightening and the lightening bug.”
5. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• Whenever I look at the transcripts of one of
my closing arguments, I can’t help but cringe!
They are replete with grammatical errors, filler
words, run-on sentences, and an overall
bastardization of the English language that
would have horrified my fourth-grade English
teacher.
• Yet, they were as real and honest as I could be
in that moment.
6. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• This resulted in an epiphany of sorts. The
numerous imperfections that I was so
ashamed of and that I spent sleepless nights
obsessing over were the very marks of
authenticity that the jury heard with their
hearts.
7. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• As Gerry Spence teaches, “People who speak
from the heart do not choose the best words
and render the most eloquent sentences.”
• As hard a pill as this might be to swallow,
jurors like the lawyer who repeats himself,
doesn’t finish his sentences, mashes the
syntax, and mixes up the tenses.
8. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• Why? Because it shows that he is human. It’s real
and honest and leaves jurors with a deeper and
longer-lasting impression than the most poetic
verse that can be strung together (Example: “To
be or not to be, that is the question”).
• Today, I no longer have to think so hard in order
to find the words to express the feelings that are
welling up inside of me. Instead, they come
gushing out of me like a spring – not from my
mind, but from my heart.
9. The Power of Words
• Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to suggest
that words are unimportant. The old
expression, “Sticks and stones can break my
bones, but words will never harm me” is false.
Words of rejection, words of betrayal, words
of hatred are as lethal as a dagger.
• For example, the death sentence handed
down by a judge is composed merely of
words.
10. The Power of Words
• As zealous advocates, we have to fight for justice every
time we step foot inside the courtroom. Indeed, justice
is as intense an emotion as any. It courses through our
veins like adrenaline, stokes the flames of passion, and
engenders impassioned pleas for justice. As a result,
we live on a tight rope – sometimes just one word
away from crossing the dividing line between heated
argument and offensive vilification. I like this dynamic
tension because it forces me to think clearly. It forces
me to choose my words carefully. While I strive for
utter spontaneity, I do so within the four corners of a
canvass. Any one of our words can be a hand grenade if
we’re not careful.
11. Get Off The Ferris Wheel of Perfection
• Tip: Get comfortable being uncomfortable!
• “Increase your tolerance for things that are
uncomfortable.”
12. Hang Out With The Black Dog
• To steel a page from Winston Churchill’s
playbook, hang out with your tension, just as
Winston Churchill did with his “black dog.”
13. Hang Out With The Black Dog
• Winston Churchill famously referred to his
gloomy periods as his “black dog.” Whenever
he’d wake up on the wrong side of the bed,
he’d say, “I have got a black dog on my back
today.”
• Rather than suppress the sadness, he’d allow
the black dog to follow him around and would
even take him for a good long walk.
