Excellence Through Iteration

Atlas Law’s firm tagline is “Excellence through Iteration.” The phrase is very meaningful to me, and it represents and encapsulates what my team has worked on for the two years preceding the existence of Atlas Law. Of course, we wanted to create a slogan that was “accessible” or made sense to anyone reading the motto. Still, other slogans did not hit the mark of what we are as a group, so I stayed with what was genuine: “Excellence through Iteration.” I’ll explain…

            A few years ago, an agent-friend of mine was chatting with me about her business, and we were talking about long-view approaches to real estate agency—what worked and what did not work. During our conversation, through inadvertence, she said that she favored “quantity over quality,” and the mistake sent me spiraling into thought about whether it was possible that quantity could sometimes out-benefit quality.

The notion has since bothered me, that there is an extreme preference to quality over quantity. I think the relationship between the two is far more complicated than one versus the other. I think you cannot really understand quality without quantity first. The phrase should be quality through quantity.

            In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers popularized the idea of the 10,000-hour rule. The concept is very simple—it takes 10,000 hours of practicing before you begin to master any skill. Without the actual act of practicing though, no amount of planning or education can bring you to be an expert. Rationally, this aligns with long-held beliefs about many professions/occupations. There is no substitute to experience, and if you have not done it, than could you possibly know how to do it well?

            How interesting, then, that we call it “practicing” law? That phrasing has been used for centuries, but it is my earnest belief that very few lawyers put it into the core of what they do. Most lawyers hold their law school training or job pedigree out as the mark of their expertise, but any seasoned lawyer will tell you that there is no substitute for practicing law.

            I would say that in transactional law practice, this holds especially true. In our transactional practice, especially with respect to real estate closings, the outcome for most clients is the same… the deal closed. There are an uncountable number of variations on the process by which we bring a deal to the table and actually close and disburse it, but in almost every case, the outcome is the same.

            So, if the outcome is the same every time, how do you get better at doing it? How do you become an expert? How do you grow?

            One of the things we preach in our office is the idea of 1% better. Conceptually, 1% better comes from a book by James Clear called Atomic Habits (both Outliers and Atomic Habits are must-read books for anyone serious about business or life-improvement). The idea is that if you can get 1% better every time you do something, each tiny gain compounds into an incredible result when replicated over and over again.

            For us, each real estate closing ties threads of the same process together. The people are unique, and the problems/challenges are unique, but the underlying process is consistent and repetitive. When you apply the unique experiences of each closing to help mold and better a system by which you work, through iteration that system improves in an exponential and unmistakable way. The quantity begets quality—you can’t have one without the other.

            So, what does “excellence through iteration” mean? We think we have an outstanding system and irreplaceable team of people that are the backbone of Atlas Law. Our ambitions are better than being competent, or good, or high-quality, or even better than others. We want to be the best real estate closing law firm in the state. Not good, but great—excellent even. The only way to get there is by getting better every day at the practice of law. Our team is committed to that pursuit of daily iterative improvement.

            As mentioned previously, the first few posts on this blog are going to be focused on our team and what Atlas is all about. As we get into 2022, you’ll see more informational and education content, but we’ll always try to stick to the roots of what makes our firm a little different. Thanks for reading!

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It is the thing you do that makes you good.”

                                                                                                - Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers