As I worked to address these problems in subsequent years, more harsh realities about professional life became evident. Unfortunately, I discovered that it was harder to generate asset-building work than to sell what I was already known for, already had methodologies for, already had written articles about, already had references for. If I took the line of least resistance in my practice development activities (i.e., sold what it was easiest to sell), chances were that I would milk my asset, not build it.

Second, I learned that doing asset-building work was often more stressful, and sometimes less fun, than doing what I was already good at. Doing the type of work that was easiest and most comfortable was not necessarily what was best for my career, in fact, it rarely was. I realized that, in professional life, if you’re comfortable, you’re heading for trouble.

In sum, I learned that unless I actively worked at it, my career prospects would inevitably decline, even when (or perhaps especially when) I was making lots of money. Having a good current year financially was clearly a necessary condition for my success, but it was far from being a sufficient condition. Keeping my career moving forward, even staying level, was going to take conscious effort.

There were two pieces of good news in all this. First, I discovered that, if I was prepared to work at it, then there did not have to be a trade-off between my balance sheet and my income statement. If I could be diligent and clever enough in my practice development, then I could be as busy on asset-building work as I had been on asset milking activities. Furthermore, if I did it right, I could deserve and earn higher fees for learning, growing types of projects that I was able to earn for the stuff I knew how to do years before. My current chargeability and realization did not have to suffer, I just had to learn to manage my flow of work and be sure to build new skills – continually and forever.

The second piece of good news was that it was possible to get hired for assignments for which I had no methodology, no references, and little, if any, experience. The secret turned out to be that while new clients were unlikely to hire me for such things, an existing client who had, during the current assignment, had a chance to see me in action and had learned to trust me, might, if I played my cards right, give me a chance. I learned that investing my practice development time with existing clients rather than new clients was more likely, by far, to help me grow my asset. The second (or third) assignment from an existing client (assuming the projects were different) was definitely more likely to deepen my knowledge, broaden my skills, and make an asset out of my client relationship than another “first” assignment for one more new client.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, pages 145 to 146