8 January, 2016
2015 has been a fun ride. It’s always interesting to reflect on the year that has gone by — January 2015 seems a lifetime ago now, and it’s the events that took place in the second half of the year that immediately spring to mind.
The year has been challenging in many ways, with the effects of the Malaysian economic slowdown being felt personally and professionally. Running a law firm is full of ups and downs (especially a law firm which is still relatively new), but I’d like to think that 2015 has been a year of positive growth which will hopefully set us up well for the years to come.
Some quick personal highlights for the year:
- Growth and stability for PLVG. We’ve welcomed some new faces. We’re edging closer to our goals.
- Being featured in The Edge’s edGY as part of a cover-story about young lawyers who started up their own law firms — Legal startups and Meet the young lawyers running their own firms. I also spoke to The Malay Mail Online about innovation in the legal industry.
- Being involved with MaGIC. Met many interesting founders and investors. I was a mentor in the first MaGIC Accelerator Programme (MAP), and was also invited to conduct a Law for Startups workshop at the MaGIC Academy 2015 — the contents of the workshop have been published in a series of posts on this blog.
- PLVG was recommended by The Legal 500 2016. A big deal for our still-new, small law firm.
- Making the list of “Top 40 Under 40” in Prestige magazine. This was a lot of fun for a corporate lawyer — a glamorous photoshoot, a full-page photo in a high-society magazine, and a ball!
- Of course, starting The Malaysian Lawyer with Lee Shih! The writeups on Office Parrots and Asia Law Portal summed up the inspiration behind the blog, and starting it in the final quarter of 2015 was always with the intention to build the groundwork for the blog to go full steam ahead in 2016. It’s been great so far — there’s been a lot of interest, and we’ve published 30+ posts so far, so look out for even more in 2016.
As usual in December/January, there will be a major recalibration of the compass. Here’s some of the stuff I do at this time:
- Revisit social media policies. In the past, this has led to deletions of social media accounts (Facebook twice!) — but I won’t be doing that this time. There will be a thorough re-setting of accounts I follow on my Twitter and Instagram. Social media is really useful (and lots of fun) if used intentionally.
- Take stock of 2015 goals — whether they have been achieved, and if they haven’t been achieved, whether they are worth carrying over to 2016. It’s important to come to terms with, and let go of, the (many) failures every year.
- Plan for 2016. Big goals, with bite-sized milestones. Lots of stuff to cover here — family, work, finances, reading and writing. Goal-setting is important, because without it I would end up attempting too many things, agreeing to too many proposals, and getting involved in projects which don’t lead to achieving things that matter to me.
Take the time to reflect on how 2015 has been for you.
Definitely spend some time setting goals for your 2016.
Turn the page. Let’s go.
Written by Marcus van Geyzel
