I recently visited Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco. Until that point I had, I am pleased to say, never been inside a prison, so to start with one of the most notorious was quite something.
We had tried to obtain tickets before our trip to the States but without luck – they sell out months in advance. The only way to obtain the tickets was to join a queue at 5.30am on the day and hope to get one for the first trip of the day.
My daughter and wife volunteered to do this for us, leaving my son and I to lie in a bit longer. However, once they were out of the door I quickly followed to buy them a coffee and a hot chocolate to keep them warm in the queue. I wasn’t keen on them being up and alone in a foreign country at that time of day.
As it transpired, everyone that wanted to be on the trip had to be in the queue, so on arriving with their drinks, rather than being greeted with warm smiles, they were snatched from me whilst orders were ushered to run back to the hotel to collect my son otherwise we would not be able to go. Run I did, then run Sam and I did, and luckily tickets were obtained, phew!
I have to say that the trip was well worth it. It is still exactly as it was when it was a prison, so you get a real sense for how it must have felt to be there. Those cells are tiny!
On return to the UK we felt compelled to watch Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood (having also visited Carmel where he was the Mayor for some years).
It was good to see that they used the real prison in the film, the one we had been walking around just a week or so earlier.
In one of the scenes in the film one of the prisoners called English is speaking with Clint, explaining how the prison works to the new inmate.
He mentions how there are counts of the prisoners 12 times a day, so little chance of escape.
He goes on to say:
“Sometimes I think that’s all this place is. One… long… count. The prisoners count the hours, the bulls count the prisoners and the king bulls count the counts.”
That quote struck me. Even in prison the King Bull (Governor) checks that his staff are doing their numbers.
Are you, Mr or Mrs King Bull, on top of your numbers too?
How is your fee earner wage bill as a percentage of your turnover? If it isn’t in the right ball park, how will you fix it?
How can you dramatically improve your chances of reaching the targets that you set for your law firm to provide the life that you want? When I say improve, I mean improve by a factor of 45% no less? A significant improvement, is it not?
Both of these questions are answered in detail in this month’s issue of Marketing4Solicitors, which goes to the printer early next week. To secure your copy, you need to be a member before it hits the print run.
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