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Between leading a personal injury law firm and overseeing a high-caliber team, Dante Weston, Co-Founder at Donaldson & Weston, strives to maintain success in and out of the workplace. While it can be demanding for any business owner, being the best in the legal and entrepreneurship industry starts with a strong professional and personal life. Utilizing strategies of time management and collaboration, Weston is cultivating positive client outcomes all while staying healthy and happy.
Raised by entrepreneurial parents, Weston attributes the positive influences from his childhood to success and growth in his adult life. “My childhood experience was sitting in my parents’ office and watching them do their thing. I also sold bubble gum in middle school, so it seemed like that was always the path,” he shares. This motivation also became useful as he learned the professional side of being a leader with additional guidance to carry him forward. “Even when I was in law school, I felt I should be involved with a team running a company. Also, through my experience with managing other companies, I met some amazing people who had decades more experience than I did and were always there to bounce ideas off of,” he adds. As the co-founder of a company that protects the lives of others, this kind of support lives in his everyday work.
To do more and stress less, Weston finds time management to play a major role in cultivating the best outcome for clients and maintaining accountability across his team. “I’m very big on time blocking, limiting the scope of work, setting hard boundaries, and following a particular schedule. This is not just for my schedule while working, I also invite those I work with to have their own time blocking,” he explains. From regularly scheduled meetings to daily tasks, Weston values the work ethic of his team to also adopt the same mentality, favoring quality work above all. “It’s music to my ears when someone I work with says they’ve reprioritized and are not able to jump on a project because they’re focused on others. That tells me we’re focused on quality and not quantity, which is a big part of success.”
To strike the perfect balance between work and personal life, Weston prioritizes tasks by working smarter and not harder. “It is realizing you not only need to get yourself and your business through the week, month and year, but being in it for the long haul. Having those boundaries and asking yourself those questions of whether or not things need to be handled right that minute is important,” he states. In a profession that dedicates long hours to helping accident victims and their loved ones, working smart is a key factor in achieving happiness both professionally and personally.
While strategies among business owners tend to differ, Weston explains the importance of being humble and collaborating in the workplace to achieve success outside of it. “Any company with 2, 3, 4, or 5 other people is always going to be smarter than just one person alone. This includes delegating an outcome, goal, or vision and letting them run with it,” he says. Weston adds that surrounding yourself with skilled people is not only an act of humility but is what sets people apart, in a professional setting and beyond. “Sometimes, people fall in love with their ideas and don’t want pushback or to be told no. Instead, they want it their way and are hesitant to collaborate. For me, collaboration is one of the huge keys to success and that requires being humble.”
Continuing to maintain a supportive presence for his team, Weston shares exciting plans for D&W that involve the expansion of possibilities and services his firm can offer. “Currently, we’re expanding to the Orlando area and just rented an office in the Lake Mary area. If things go well, we look forward to opening more offices in the state of Florida and possibly beyond. The team will be able to do that on their own and we’re excited to see them grow!”
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