Leadership Archives - Walt Hampton, J.D.

About Your Music

by Walt | Apr 3, 2025 | Success | 0 Comments

“Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out,” wrote Oliver Wendall Holmes.

Here’s the truth: We think we have time.
We think we’ll get around to it.
Next month.
Next year.
When the kids are older.
When work slows down.
When the stars align.

But time doesn’t stop; and life doesn’t.

That book you’ve been wanting to write.
The adventure you’ve dreamed about.
The business idea you’ve been sitting on.
The painting, the song, the story.
All of it—
still inside you.

You tell yourself you’re not quite ready.
That you need more clarity.
More credentials.
More money.
More time.

But clarity doesn’t come from waiting.
It comes from moving.
From starting.
From doing the thing, scared or not.

Getting ready to live is not the same as living.
You already know that.

So consider this your call.
A nudge.
A gentle prod forward.

You’ve got music in you.
Something only you can bring to the world.
And the world needs it.
Needs you.

Not someday.
Now.

Start where you are.
With whatever you have.
Even if it’s messy.
Even if you’re not sure.

Time will run out.
That’s the only guarantee.

So let it out.
Sing your song.
Paint your masterpiece.
Write the book.
Take the trip.
Say what needs to be said.

Before it’s too late.

(And when you’re ready to start making that dream happen, I can help. Email me: walt@walthampton.com

If I Call You Do Not Answer

by Walt | Mar 27, 2025 | Success | 0 Comments

During a job interview, a client of mine received a phone call. She answered.

A realtor friend told me that his broker expected him to answer every phone call he received, regardless of what he was doing; and, in no event, should he ever take more than 9 minutes to return a call.

The general manager at the hotel we stayed at took a phone call in the middle of a conversation we were having about my reservation.

We were at one of our favorite restaurants. Five women came in and sat down at the table next to us. Every one of them pulled out their smartphones and began to talk or text.

It is the paradox of connection: that the more our technology allows us to connect, the more disconnected and fragmented we become.

Research in the field of interruption science shows that, following an interruption like a phone call, it takes us (physiologically) 25 minutes to refocus. On average, most of us experience interruptions every 11 minutes in the day. Which means that, not only do we feel like we can never catch up, we never really can.

On top of the stress and overwhelm caused by living in a state of continuous partial attention, there is a huge relational cost. (You know how you feel when someone you’re with answers the phone or sneaks a look at a text.)

The young interviewee (of course) didn’t get the job. When my realtor friend takes a phone call while showing a property to a client, he dishonors both relationships. The general manager at the hotel couldn’t possibly take care of two guests at once. And the women at the table next to ours missed out on the opportunity to connect with one another.

So consider these ideas as possible ways to reconnect with yourself and those around you:

Voice mail exists for a reason. Use it
Turn your phone off when you are otherwise engaged
Don’t slap your phone down on the table at the restaurant; it tells your colleagues you’re already distracted
Don’t sleep with your phone; it’s toxic and depleting
Have a smartphone-free dinner (or weekend!)

When you’re in a conversation with a client, be in that conversation. When you’re on the phone, be on the phone. When you’re with your friends and family, be with your friends and family.

Relationships fuel our businesses (and our lives). Our real presence, our complete attention: these are the most powerful gifts of our humanity.

Do one thing; and then the next. And if I call, you don’t need to answer.

Before The Clay Hardens

by Walt | Mar 20, 2025 | Success | 2 Comments

Nobody grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

No quote has troubled me more over the years than this one from Saint-Exupery’s Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape, Tenth-Anniversary Editionwalt@walthampton.com )

When The Music Stopped

by Walt | Mar 13, 2025 | Success | 0 Comments

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Steve Jobs

I remember the day as if it was yesterday.

A Saturday morning in early October.

7:00 am.

Clear and cool.

Through my hermetically sealed windows on the 18th floor, I could see the sun glistening on the Connecticut River.

The leaves of a glorious New England autumn on full display.

All of the glitz and glitter from graduating from law school, taking the bar exam, and starting out at a prestigious Big Firm had faded away.

The succession of 70 hour weeks and mandatory Saturdays had begun to wear me down.

I looked across my mahogany desk piled high with files to the credenza with my time sheets on which I marked the value of my existence in six minute increments.

I thought about the long day ahead.

I thought about the harvest festival fair that I’d miss with my kids.

This beautiful fall day that I’d spend working on a brief that would suck my soul.

And I asked out loud (to no one because no one was listening): Is this the way it will be for the next thirty or forty years?

Indeed, it was 25 years before I freed myself from what one therapist called “the golden handcuffs.”

Yes, I made a lot of money.

I got the corner office.

I got the nice car, and the sprawling house in the suburbs, and the big boat.

Yes, I’d become a “success.”

But I wasn’t happy.

Truth be told: It wasn’t easy to escape.

In fact, it was pretty scary.

But now, I wake up every single day, excited and on fire about the work I get to do.

I don’t have many regrets. But I do regret not having the courage to pivot sooner.

Because life is short. And joy is your birthright.

If your heart is telling you that it’s time for a new chapter, listen.

(The work I do is helping folks create their exciting next chapter. Email me when you’re ready to talk! walt@walthampton.com )

If You Were Not Afraid

by Walt | Mar 6, 2025 | Success | 0 Comments

I help mid-career professionals create their exciting next chapters.

My clients are amazingly diverse. They’ve enjoyed careers in myriad arenas. They are lawyers, doctors, allied health practitioners, mortgage brokers, realtors, and financial planners.

They’re ready for a change.

But there lies the problem.

Because change is scary.

My clients have made money, earned accolades, established reputations, and climbed their ladders of success.

And now are starting out anew.

Which can cause them to get stuck.

Here’s the question I ask: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

They always know.

The question is valuable not only in career change, but at every inflection point in our lives: A new product or program; a book idea; some time away; a grand adventure; the possibility of a new relationship.

When you feel the fear, ask the question: What would I do if I weren’t afraid.

Then do that.

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Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

About Your Music

If I Call You Do Not Answer

Before The Clay Hardens

When The Music Stopped

If You Were Not Afraid

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