Going Solo

I have talked to several different patent solos recently and it seems that each of us has our own reasons for going solo, our own work habits, and our own preferences for an optimum work situation.

I am the kind of person that thrives on large amounts of work. I seem to do my best work when overloaded. It forces me to concentrate and focus on the work at hand. When I am concentrating, I can really turn the crank. And these cases tend to be my best, even though they come at a rapid pace. I have a very hard time when the work is light. I tend to be less focused and have a hard time getting started. I also tend to get burned out after an intense period and need some recovery time.

Contrast that with an attorney I spoke with the other day. He seemed to like a much less hectic pace and preferred to do much more involved and complicated patent applications. He was not very interested in high volume work, but he wanted very challenging and difficult cases.

Another attorney had a real sweet spot: not too much, but not too little. When he had too much work, it became a real problem for him and he had a tendency to freeze when he felt overloaded. However, when work was very light, he had a hard time getting started. When he had just the right amount of work, he wrote the best cases.