First off, I violated the golden rule of catching attention on a blog - a great title. So what.

This will probably turn into more of a rant than an attempt at discourse and communication. So what.

So what doesn't answer a lot of questions or really help solve problems, but it does provide a fair amount of focus. And that focus should remain on the objective, whether you're a startup company or a lawyer. What's the objective? If a company, then provide value beyond what you are being paid by the customer. If you are a lawyer, then solve the problem at hand as succinctly as possible, while still eliminating risk, and at a cost that is less than the relative value of handling the problem differently. So what.

So what does that mean? Focus on a path to the end result, without explaining how you get there. My guess is none of Patdek's customers care how we do what we do, so long as we deliver the documents and markups they expect. And as a lawyer, the client doesn't care if it takes five partners and four associates to arrive at an answer, only that the answer for the problem at hand is sound. And that the cost to get to the answer is reasonable to the problem faced. So back to "so what."

If you think about it, "so what" could be a filler for "but I have an excuse." Explanations stylized as excuses don't matter. I'll leave you with this video, which we've blogged about before. It's all about what's in it for your client or customer. Because the customers or clients have issues of their own and are self-interested. Not in a negative way, but in a practical way. So, so what if the customer is self-interested? Then solve that problem. They'll reward you if you succeed. And tell others.

Explaining it better than me, here's Kathy Sierra.