Hey guys and welcome back to the Medical Entrepreneur podcast.
My name is Adam Sewell, and this is where we teach you how to break free from traditional medicine, to carve the career of your dreams and still do what you love.
So the thing that all medical professionals have in common is that we go through a lot of training.
I mean for some of us, we might spend as much as a decade of our lives training in order to get the position that we want.
And while most of us see this training as a good thing – the reality is that a lot of it can hold us back in ways that we might not even see.
And in today’s episode, we’re gonna go through the most common 7 ways that our medical professional training can hold us back, and what we can do about it.
So first of all:
When it Doesn’t Count to be a Pessimist
Anyone who has trained as a medical professional will know about this one – especially someone who specializes in surgical procedures.
We are always trained to notice things that could go wrong. We have to be able to scan an environment and look for everything that isn’t right or imagine ways in which things could go wrong.
And the problem with this is that if you’re in anesthesia for example, it’s very common to be you know, we were always taught anesthesia, like when you’re in the operating room, take a look around and imagine
What could go wrong?
What happens if the circuit gets disconnected?
What happens if the power goes out?
What happens if your vaporizer doesn’t work?
What happens if the airway gets removed by accident?
And the reason why this is an issue for professionals is because in their personal lives, they can’t see the positive things because they’re always so focussed on the negative.
Like in your family life, you will fail to notice all the positive things that are happening, you’ll always be looking at things through the lens of ‘What could go wrong here?’, which is not healthy at all.
Learning to Focus, but not Critically…
Another thing that I see with medical professionals is that they are always thinking too critically.
And it makes sense, since in medicine we are always taught to be able to back things up with science and data. So if someone comes to you and tells you about this amazing opportunity that they have, you’re naturally going to be skeptical about it.
And even if someone could provide some kind of solid evidence, if it’s not full proof then you’re very likely to just dismiss it anyway.
This is a big problem especially for medical professionals who are trying to start their own business, since they may be blind to the opportunities that are laying right in front of them.
Over Relying on Data
This point is quite similar to the last one, but we often have too much of a reliance on published studies or data.
The reason this is a problem is because there are a lot of people who make a living through these studies.
And so for example, if a company comes in and offers them a six-figure fee to perform research, they are normally happy to do so.
And that’s why you’ll hear that 75% of studies cannot be reproduced.I’ve seen so many times in my career, examples of when supposed ‘experts’ have been exposed falsifying data. Simply because they wanted to get the money that they were being offered.
While some of it may be useful, you always have to make sure that you don’t have an over reliance on it.
Being Perfect All The Time
In medical training, we can be dealing with situations of life or death, so we have to be as perfect as we can, right?
The attitude of perfectionism is totally baked into our medical training. But in the real world, it’s not like that at all.
So for example, if you’re starting your own practice, things don’t have to be perfect, right?
I mean if you have a website it doesn’t have to be perfect, your marketing doesn’t have to be perfect, your sales team doesn’t have to be perfect at what they do.
As long as they are all good, and you have enough of them working together, then nothing actually needs to be perfect.
So this is something that a lot of medical entrepreneurs struggle with, they will think that everything needs to be 100% perfect, but in reality, 80%, 70% or even 60% is good enough most of the time.
The Wrong Attitude to Have
In my training especially, I noticed that this attitude of sacrifice is really baked into our training.
It’s all about this attitude that you sacrifice yourself to help others all the time. While it’s good to have, if you take it too far you just end up hurting yourself and hurting everyone else involved, too.
I mean there is a reason why the rates of suicide, drug abuse and depression amongst physicians and all other medical professionals is so high.
It’s because they are encouraged to sacrifice, sacrifice and sacrifice until they have nothing left to give all of a sudden and that’s a very, very dangerous place to be in.
Because once you reach this stage, you have nothing to give yourself, and you have no-one left to give it to.
Why You Can’t Feel Entitled
Another big problem that I see in the medical industry is a real sense of entitlement.
People often think that just because they went through all this training or because they were able to graduate that they will be living this kind of ‘rockstar’ lifestyle and have great success and all that.
And while there may be a very small minority of professionals like this, the truth is that it’s just not how it works anymore.
Nowadays, physician suicide rates are literally through the roof. There is a reason why so many medical professionals are going and starting their own practice.
While they once may have been able to live this kind of lavish lifestyle in a regular job, the reality is that it’s very uncommon nowadays. And that’s why you can’t afford to have this entitled attitude anymore.
Last but not Least
The last thing – which is really, really important, is to have a solid understanding of how business and economics work.
I literally cannot put into words how important this is. I remember when I was in medical school it was almost frowned upon to start talking about profits and costs.
If you can’t understand how business works, how economics works, then you simply cannot run a business in the medical industry.
Personally, I’ve always believed that this is done intentionally to stop many medical professionals from owning their own practice, and to encourage them to slave it out in a hospital.
And the truth is that if you don’t learn the business and economics behind it, you’re always going to lose out to someone who will. And believe me, that’s not a position that you want to be in.
If you think you’re ready to start your own journey as a medical entrepreneur, make sure to follow us on social media and subscribe so you never miss an episode!
Additional Resources:
– Join my challenge here!
– Check out my website here!
– Sign up for our Aesthetics training here!
—
Medical Entrepreneur is a podcast dedicated to those who are trying to escape mainstream medicine and start building the healthcare business of their dreams.
Subscribe on YouTube or follow us on your favorite podcast platform!