I watched "Only in America" last week with Charlie LeDuff. Okay, I did not watch it with Charlie, but he was the host of the show. The premise of the show is that he does something or goes somewhere to experience America. He has gone to a gay rodeo, a street fighting club, etc....
Last week he went to 8 Mile Road. For those of you who do not know, this is the dividing line in Detroit between the city and the suburbs. It is the name of a Marshal Mathers (I refuse to call the guy by his stage name) CD and movie. LeDuff went there to check out the rap culture of Detroit.
One of the rappers he met was an Arab-American who is in medical school. He goes to school during the day and raps at night. The rapper said he had to have multiple personas: medical student, Arab, rapper (who he related to the black part of his personality), and a white personality to fit in. He was saying how hard it is to have all of these personas and to keep them separate.
I see a lot of attorneys who try to pull this off too. They like to have different personas. One for the courtroom, one for clients, one for other attorneys and one for the rest of the world. I am not sure why they try this, but they do.
I think you are much better off being yourself in every situation. My clients see me as I am. I do not change into "Super Jon" or something in court. It is fake. People catch on. You need to be who you are. If you try to put on a different persona, people will catch on. They will figure you out. They will understand that you are not being genuine.
Imagine you are out at your kid's soccer game. You meet someone and talk to them. They tell you that they need legal help and it happens to be in your practice area. They see the regular you. Then, they come to your office for an appointment and you are a completely different person. How do you think that will go over with them? Probably not well.
Be yourself and you will be better off. Multiple personas should go the way of 8-tracks!
-------Jonathan
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