My roomie from law school, Rick Klau, sent me a note this past weekend.  Actually, he tweeted it!  (You, too, can follow me at www.twitter.com/matthewdevries).  I was excited to hear where Rick was visiting.

"Best Practices…" you ask, "Why are you posting about your old law school roommate? This is a construction-related blog!"

The best answer I can give you is that this former roomie of mine was asked to be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2009 of the University of Richmond School of Law and he had some great stories to share. After all, he went from law student, to founder of the first exclusively online law journal (JOLT), to author, to political volunteer, to owner of a start-up technology company that was purchased by Google ($$$), to technology guru at Blogger. 

Also, after reading the text of his speech, I am more convinced that his words hit the mark of Best Practices for any industry … whether you are involved in the law, technology, finance or construction:

Google didn’t get to where we are by following those before us. Nor will change come to the legal profession incrementally. To be an agent of change, a steward for the profession, you must think big. The forces at work are too large, too numerous, and evolving too quickly. You must have the audacity to, to borrow a tagline from another Silicon Valley company, think different.

To be a steward for the construction profession, you really have to think big … you have to think different.  If we were to take a look at the Top 10 contractors, design-builders, architects, or engineers in the industry, no doubt you would find these attributes that set a company apart from the rest … that is, the desire to think big … to think differently … to excel in their services.  Does your firm have a mission statement like Bob Moore Construction, Inc. in Arlington, Texas?  If not, it should. 

Rick, thanks for the great words of wisdom.  Whenever you are ready to write a guest post for BPCLaw, let us know.

Photo: tarotastic