The Real Reason I’m Building a Law Practice
sometimes I wonder if it's because Big Law didn’t let me accept acorns as payment
The First Business I Ever Built
The first business I ever built ran out of the back of a boat trailer. I sold sticky pine needles stuck to sun-dried pine cones, and accepted acorns as currency.
It was the summer I was four years old. At our northern Canada cottage, I cranked "ice cream" from the winch on my dad's sailboat trailer and opened a shop beneath the trees to my easily-fooled younger siblings and cousins.
I don’t remember how many acorns I accrued, but I do remember how it felt: fun. Creative. Free. And even then, something about creating something from nothing lit me up.
My Why Was Never About the Money
Lately, as I build my law practice, I find myself thinking about that little girl under the trees.
Everyone says to "start with why." And Simon Sinek was right to tell us to ask the question. But the real WHY isn’t as clear as a business’s mission. Sometimes it isn’t about money, legacy, or solving a market problem. For me, the truest WHY to every business I’ve built has always lived just beyond business talk: Joy. Freedom. The thrill of making something out of nothing.
Some people start businesses because they need to make a living. Others because they want to change the world. And some are chasing a legacy. And, they might achieve those goals—all reasons to start a business. But I have to ask: did they live too?
Me? I want to build a life I love. I want a life that is both a reflection of what I care about and gives me time to care about it. That was true in the pine cone days, and it’s still true now in my mid-forties.
This is my vision of Having It All. Welcome to my Substack.
Building for Others, Not Just Myself
At a law conference recently, a speaker shared that her WHY for building her legal consultancy was that she wanted more time in her kayak.
I was intrigued. During the Q&A, I asked, "Isn't your WHY supposed to be... business-related?"
She smiled. "I need rest to be better at work. We don’t work for work’s sake. We work to live."
That struck me. Because I know how easy it is to forget. We build the business and forget the life we meant to fund with it. We race toward revenue and forget the relationships. The goal isn’t the grind. The goal is what the work makes possible.
This Is the Empire I'm Really Building
So I’ve been asking myself: what am I really building?
Why don’t I want a boss? Why not choose the safety and salary of a Big Law job?
It’s not because I dislike structure. It’s because deep down, I’m building something else: a business that blesses my family. A life where my (future) grandchildren might say, "I work in the business my grandmother started."
I want to be generous. I want to be present. I want to ease my children’s burdens as they (one day) become parents. I want to hand them a way of life.
Your Goal isn’t Your Goal
Now, when I sit down with clients, we start there. Not with numbers, not with legal issues, but rather with meaning.
And you can rewrite your goals into a deeper reason, too.
Yes, you may want 500K in revenue. Or maybe you want to protect your brand. But what do you really want?
Maybe it’s four week-long vacations with your kids every year. Maybe it’s never missing a bedtime. Maybe it’s paying off your parents’ mortgage.
Those are your real reasons. That’s your real business. That’s your WHY, no matter what service you provide.
The Joy Was the Point All Along
I’ve always been a business builder. But I never chased profit for profit’s sake. I chased joy. I chased life. Like my kid sister, I want to suck the pine sap out of my life.
Whether I’m guiding clients through incorporation, cheering on a creative friend, or dreaming up a new service over green tea, I’m still that girl under the pine tree. Still building. Still playing.
Because the business I’m building isn’t just for income, it’s for joy.
And building something that may help others feel how I felt selling pine-cone ice cream, and that’s more than enough reason to keep going.
P.S.
If you’re building a business and want legal and strategic support that feels more like partnership than paperwork, I’m here for that. I help visionary founders turn their ideas into protected, profitable, and peaceful businesses.
You bring the mission. I bring the legal structure and smart systems to help you scale it—without selling your soul.
👉 Learn more at sonyaszabo.com
This was so inspiring and a great reminder that finding joy and delight in what builds families and connection is truly the reward.
Building for others & focusing on relationships. I love that!