The Lexstop Approach

Lexstop Law Firm would like to thank Valerie Snyder, Brian Mueller's godmother, for providing this beautiful mountain shot.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

-Walt Disney

“I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. “

-Sophocles

 

These two quotes sum up Lexstop’s approach to solving legal problems.  Almost everyone that comes to a lawyer has a problem.  A good lawyer’s job is to find a way, within the constraints of the laws, to come up with a solution to that problem.  A great lawyer can find a new solution to that problem without breaking any rules and this often involves very creative thinking.  By way of example, I will present a problem that many thought was impossible until Roger Bannister solved it.  Running a four-minute mile.

 

Many scientists believed that the strain of running a four-minute mile was too much for the human body to take.  Roger Banister did it on May 6, 1954.  Many people came close to the record, and some believe the record may have been broken years earlier although accurate record keeping cannot verify these claims.  As documented in the fascinating book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis Zamperini and many others may have had a good shot to break the record if not for World War II.  Even though Roger Bannister himself has admitted that four minutes was merely a number, it was still an incredible feat.  To my knowledge, he was the first to do it without breaking any rules and in a time when his accomplishments could be accurately verified.  The question is how did he become the first to do it.

 

The answer is a combination of hard work, creative thinking, a bit of luck, and help.  First and foremost, Roger trained very hard to push his body to the limit.  This was no small accomplishment as he was also training to one day become a very accomplished doctor.  I imagine his approach was similar to Gordie Howe’s was in hockey.  He sat down and wrote out his ultimate goal of becoming the best hockey player he could be and then set a bunch of small but realistic and reasonable intermediate goals to get to that ultimate goal.  Little by little, great things were achieved.  Everyone is capable of reaching farther than they think.  If you do not believe me, just before you go to bed, stand up and reach for something that is just out of your reach.  It should be just out of your fingertips.  Then, go to sleep for a night.  First thing in the morning, reach for the same object.  You will find that you can now touch the object that was just out of your fingertips.  This isn’t an accident.  Gravity compresses your body throughout the day, and resting decompresses the spine.  If you still don’t believe me, talk with Danielle Spath or Michael Glickert, two local Saint Louis chiropractors I know, who will confirm this strange but true medical fact.  Lexstop Law Firm actively encourages clients to stretch to reach their goals and solve legal problems regardless of what they are.

 

Second, Roger studied his own body’s capabilities, training methods, and technology to discover the optimal method to achieve his goal.  He spent countless hours carefully managing his workload.  He did not work his body to exhaustion the night before the race.   He did not have to as he had already put in the work.  He knew all his body needed was a quick warm up in the morning.  Further, he started the day sharpening his spikes to prevent cinder ash collecting on them which could have slowed him down.  He was constantly working to improve his shoes to give himself the best chance at success. During the afternoon, he spent most of the day worrying that the damp and windy weather would slow him down.  Great things do take time and effort.  There is a little element of fate and luck mixed in, but great things mostly take elbow grease.  Lexstop Law Firm will work as hard as it can to have you as prepared for your day in court as is possible.  Although we can’t control fate and bad luck, fate has a way of falling into line with skilled preparation.

 

Third, Roger had help.  He did not do it all on his own even though he gets most of the credit for this individual accomplishment.  Roger had two pace setting runners, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher (who were spectacular athletes in their own right), helping him stay on course towards the record.  Similarly, many people know Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest.  However, few people know that Tenzig Norgay was the second.  Sir Edmund Hillary never forgot the help of all the sherpas helping him along the way even though history largely has.  Along the same lines, Lexstop Law Firm will seek out all the help needed to help you with your case even if our firm is not the right fit for you.  Further, we will go out of our way to congratulate and thank all the support staff and outside help that made your goals possible or helped solve your legal problem.

 

Finally, we will work with you to make sure you are following the best method and looking at the right problem.  Roger Bannister himself admitted that he was much prouder of his achievements as a doctor than he ever was on the track.  The four-minute mile was simply a challenge.  The four-minute mile was an incredible achievement, to be sure, but it was not Roger’s sole achievement.  It was one of those challenges that Roger took on simply for the sake of taking on a new challenge.  Put another way, when George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he replied simply, “because it is there.”  Regardless of whether your goal or legal issue requires something as difficult as the scaling of Mount Everest or running a four-minute mile for the first time or something as simple as a routine traffic ticket, Lexstop Law Firm wants to work with you to help achieve your dreams and solve your legal problems.  This requires active listening.  Lexstop will be happy to work with you to discuss the who, what, where, when, why and how to approach your legal issue (who will you need, where you want to do it, when you want to do it, why you want to do it, and how to do it).  We will do this regardless of whether it is simply something that is there to do or because you were seriously injured in a car accident.  Once you are ready to take on the next challenge even if it has changed from running a four-minute mile to becoming a great doctor, we are here to help you.

 

Once the four-minute mile barrier was broken, it was broken many times over.  It took more than two thousand years to achieve a four-minute mile.  Roger Bannister achieved it, and world-class distance runners now regularly achieve it.  However, new challenges arose in the field of track and field among them running the sub 10 second 100-meter dash.   Along the same lines, it took mankind more than two thousand years to achieve flight when a pair of bicycle manufacturers did it in 1904.  However, once flight was achieved, it took less than a lifetime for mankind to reach the moon in 1969.  Lexstop Law Firm will always be there to help you with your next legal challenge regardless of whether it is trying to send a man to the moon or drafting up an estate plan to protect your family in case the unfortunate happens on the way to lunar orbit.

 

In closing, I’d like to share with you an alternative solution to the problem to running a four-minute mile.  When you hear it, you will probably laugh.  It reminds me of the suspected smuggler who used to cross the border every day with a wheelbarrow full of manure.  Every day, the border guards were convinced he was smuggling something so every day they sifted through every last piece of manure.  They were never able to figure it out.  The man was a smuggler.  He was smuggling wheelbarrows.

 

Almost every person is capable of running a sub-four minute mile with minimal training and effort without the use of performance enhancing drugs or anything else illegal.  The answer lies in the details.  The moon’s gravity is approximately 1/6 of earth’s meaning if you can complete a mile in less than twenty-four minutes on earth, you should have no problem doing a four-minute mile on the moon.  If you want to run a four-minute mile and despite all your training and hard work, you still can’t do it the solution is simple.  Run on the moon.