Barrister's wise counsel

A retired barrister from the "county" Dorchester recently shared a piece of wisdom with me. He offered that "if you want to know how good a lawyer is, ask him how many cases he has lost. If he's lost a few then he's the man for you." This seemed like foolish advice to me at first but he explained that "if he has lost a few it shows that he takes cases that are tough. And he's willing to work like hell for his client."