Years ago, I participated in a mutually beneficial potential partnership being lawyered to death, and missed out on a great win. As a small business that was ap

Years ago, I participated in a mutually beneficial potential partnership being lawyered to death, and missed out on a great win. As a small business that was approached by a large organization with potential to drive us a ton of new customers, I had a great opportunity. But, I also saw some risk, due to the sheer size. So, I let my lawyer review it, which initiated a death spiral. In retrospect, there was nothing onerous in the initial proposal. My attorney just wanted to cover all bases. That's how they envision their jobs: If a client ends up in a bad situation that could have remotely been avoided, then they have failed (in their eyes). But, there is sometimes no scale brought to bear. Any degree of risk--no matter how small--becomes a point of contention. The funny part is that I and the biz dev guy on the other side just wanted to get it done. But, we became unwilling conduits for lawyers who tried to eliminate all risk from their respective sides and we just wound up passing marked-up agreements back and forth until we (and the deal) were exhausted. So, I learned that all of this legal "protection" must be taken with a grain of salt for the small business owner in particular. The upside is generally so much greater than the risk for us, and in the off chance that the risk becomes a reality, it can generally be mitigated then. There is risk to simply being in business, especially in this litigious society. So, you cannot deny yourself an opportunity simply because your lawyer couldn't wrangle every last bit of risk out for you. And, when you assume that posture of trying to eliminate risk completely from your side, then you have to know that the legal folks on the other side will follow suit. That's when the show stops. The advice given to the author by his dad is exactly what I'd give to my kids, minus the expletives.