“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” from Invictus by William Ernst Henley

Inspiring quote, right? Henley wasn’t going through litigation when he wrote it, I’m guessing. When you’re in litigation, you don’t feel like the master or captain of anything. You feel like the victim of lawyers,  judges, and the opposing party. Mediation can be the path back to being the master of your fate, but only if the mediator gets how important your self-determination is.

Here’s a talk I gave at Minnesota CLE’s ADR Institute a few months ago about why party self-determination is such a big deal: