Medical Professional Pep Talk

Winston Churchill said that success is moving from failure to failure with enthusiasm. Elvis, Michael, Dr. Suess and Henry Ford all failed dramatically. Michael was cut from his high school basketball team. “Green eggs and ham” was rejected 23 times before a publisher said, “What the hell. What can I lose?” Elvis got an “F” in music and Henry Ford went bankrupt twice. Their vision was clear. It just took the rest of us a while to see what they saw. You have a dream to make a difference? Protect it. Guard it. Wait until the time is right. Don’t ever give it up.

The real battle is conquering yourselves. Think about it. Be present all the time. Stay wide awake. I think that you can do a whole day at work and never notice what is going on around you. You are a medical professional. There is more to that job than what they taught you in the classroom or laboratories. You may be less human than you were four years ago.When that little old black lady who still believes that her red, white and blue Medicare card will get free prescriptions starts to cry from desperation, it is your job to serve her with all the compassion you have in your heart. Think generics. If you prescribe the “drug of the month,” she won’t even get it filled. Keep a soft heart, an open heart. A hard heart is very dangerous to you. Direct her to a pharmacist with a heart that has scars.

Get the hell out of the world of virtual reality a couple hours a week. Go to the beach and leave the cell phone at home. Virtual reality may seem to be colossal, but, trust me, the real world is infinitely larger and infinitely more interesting. It is just a quantum away. Drop to your knees in the surf and feel the waves surround you. Experience the power of nature and, please, take your kids with you. An hour or two , sitting on a bed of cedar needles, during a rain, in a hollow cedar tree in a Pacific Northwest forest, silently with your ten year old daughter, waiting for Raven, the creator, to appear is sublime. The bonds that grow from a silent experience will never be broken. Raven, by the way, did appear that day.

Of course, you will have people who don’t understand, come to you and say, “Get real!” They will want you to march to the same drum beat that everyone else marches to. Treacherous footing, my friends. You are young. You may think that you want to stretch out and do it your way. That is not a bad thing. I just have one thing to say: it is best if you ride the horse in the direction it is going. At least until you get your own horse.