The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Surgeon Dilemma

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
Hi, I am Javier, male, 43 orthopedic surgeon and currently reading Millionaire Fastlane and enjoying it, but I have a dilemma. I'm to the point in my career where I own my business and making about 100K per month and have about 1.5 million invested in stocks (what I call "my side business"). Also, there is also a thrill to being a surgeon and being able to cut on people and be able to fix them. And I also feel that I have enjoyed life, had my rockstar years so to speak and feel fullfilled in that aspect.

BUT, I do like the goal of $10,000,000 as a minimum to retire and have that freedom. There are two other things I feel very passionate about, finance/investing and coding. If I dedicated full time to those, there is potential for better than now, but not guaranteed.

So, my dilemma to get to that retirement goal is, do I leave my $100K a month job in hopes for something better in more of a fastlane venture? Or do I keep my $100K per month job and work on my limited free time (afternoons and weekends) on my coding projects and investing?

Interested to hear comments.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

beres8011

Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
May 2, 2023
49
44
77
Albuquerque, New Mexico USA
Hi, I am Javier, male, 43 orthopedic surgeon and currently reading Millionaire Fastlane and enjoying it, but I have a dilemma. I'm to the point in my career where I own my business and making about 100K per month and have about 1.5 million invested in stocks (what I call "my side business"). Also, there is also a thrill to being a surgeon and being able to cut on people and be able to fix them. And I also feel that I have enjoyed life, had my rockstar years so to speak and feel fullfilled in that aspect.

BUT, I do like the goal of $10,000,000 as a minimum to retire and have that freedom. There are two other things I feel very passionate about, finance/investing and coding. If I dedicated full time to those, there is potential for better than now, but not guaranteed.

So, my dilemma to get to that retirement goal is, do I leave my $100K a month job in hopes for something better in more of a fastlane venture? Or do I keep my $100K per month job and work on my limited free time (afternoons and weekends) on my coding projects and investing?

Interested to hear comments.
You describe an interesting dilemma. Most people on this site and other I have visited have "nothing" and want something. You have something and want even more. Here is my comment: Pick up the Millionaire Fastlane book and go to page 167. MJ describes the WEIGHTED AVERAGE DECISION MATRIX ( WADM) Try using that system to make a decision. When you finish, can you say that you are confident with the results? Can you defend the results when asked to justify it? Let me know if this idea was helpful.
 

Genius01

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Dec 18, 2017
239
289
Nigeria
I'm to the point in my career where I own my business and making about 100K per month and have about 1.5 million invested in stocks (what I call "my side business").

Yours is a really good problem to have. :smile:
Can you clarify what you mean by saying you've reached a point in your career where you own your business.
Does that mean you own your practice? Or you own another business different from your day job?

Because, as I see it...
If you already have a business that is earning you 100k monthly while in your career, why don't you just focus on growing that bigger? Or it's not scalable?
Since you already have things going for you there. And you have the advantages of knowledge, experience, expertise and established contacts in that field.
Rather than going to start something completely new and unproven, that may or may not succeed.

Unless you completely hate your job that is making you that money (which you apparently don't), or you feel the business you own is not scalable, or you have another idea that is so juicy and has such huge potential that it makes this one seem like peanuts and makes it worth the risk to go for it.

Outside of these scenarios, I don't see any reason why you should leave your job/business that's already giving you that amount of income. That's already a relatively fastlane income on its own (depending on your lifestyle and expenses though).
And you can focus on investing the excess income while at it, since you like investing as a field.

Or is there something I'm missing here?
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Work only half the year. 3 month on, 3 months off, 3 months on, 3 months off. Pick the best places in the world for each of those times of the year and go there. You will get bored of doing nothing, but also bored if you only work. So switching between them will keep you excited for both and can switch when you get bored of either.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,494
Utah

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,120
43,260
Scottsdale, AZ
The question here is, where the heck is all your money going? You make $1.2M as a 43 year old surgeon and only have $1.5M laying around? Seems like your issue is more of a spending issue, not of an earning issue.
That was my initial thought too. But maybe he just started making that much and his loans are finally paid off. Maybe he was a W2 and paid 50% taxes his first 5-8 years. But still being a surgeon for 10 years, you should have a bit more than $1.5m.

To the OP, I’m hoping you have a massive mansion that is paid off.
 

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
That was my initial thought too. But maybe he just started making that much and his loans are finally paid off. Maybe he was a W2 and paid 50% taxes his first 5-8 years. But still being a surgeon for 10 years, you should have a bit more than $1.5m.

To the OP, I’m hoping you have a massive mansion that is paid off.
Exactly, took me awhile to get to this point. I really started reaching that amount gradually after I moved from being an employee of a hospital to starting my own orthopedic business 3 years ago.

Plus, as I mentioned, I did have those spending spree years right after finishing my training. I’d been broke all my life and then overnight that sudden rush of money came in for me, then a 30 year old, my money skills were totally absent. So, travel, move around to bigger cities, dates, nightlife, etc. Then, at 35 or so I picked up “the intelligent investor” and my view of money took a 180 degree turn. I literally, didn’t really know what a 401K was until then. All I knew was medicine.

Overall, there were some good choices and some bad ones and I’ve learned and continue to learn. But from this point forward I want to make the best choice possible.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
Yours is a really good problem to have. :smile:
Can you clarify what you mean by saying you've reached a point in your career where you own your business.
Does that mean you own your practice? Or you own another business different from your day job?

Because, as I see it...
If you already have a business that is earning you 100k monthly while in your career, why don't you just focus on growing that bigger? Or it's not scalable?
Since you already have things going for you there. And you have the advantages of knowledge, experience, expertise and established contacts in that field.
Rather than going to start something completely new and unproven, that may or may not succeed.

Unless you completely hate your job that is making you that money (which you apparently don't), or you feel the business you own is not scalable, or you have another idea that is so juicy and has such huge potential that it makes this one seem like peanuts and makes it worth the risk to go for it.

Outside of these scenarios, I don't see any reason why you should leave your job/business that's already giving you that amount of income. That's already a relatively fastlane income on its own (depending on your lifestyle and expenses though).
And you can focus on investing the excess income while at it, since you like investing as a field.

Or is there something I'm missing here?
Hi. Thanks for your comments. Yes, the business generating 100K per month is the orthopedic business, but that’s essentially a full time job. Now if I could have a fast lane business 100K per month business that sort of “ran itself”, that would be awesome but would probably require me quit being a surgeon to pursue that.
 
Last edited:

David4431

Bronze Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
140%
May 25, 2014
102
143
Hi. Thanks for your comments. Yes, the business generating 100K per month is the orthopedic business, but that’s essentially a full time job. Now if I could have a fast lane business 100K per month business that sort of “ran itself”, that would be awesome but would probably require me quit being a surgeon to pursue that.
Assuming you studied pre-med in college, it took you 25 years to reach this point where you are making 100k per month with your practice. Not saying you can't build a fastlane business / become a successful investor in less than 25 years, but this reminds me of a scene from the book Irrational Exuberance (I think this is the book) by Robert Shiller. In that chapter, Shiller is exploring why Iceland imploded during the 2008 financial crisis. He interviews a fisherman who switched careers to become a banker near the height of the boom years when working in finance was all the rage in Iceland but eventually returned to being a fisherman after his country's financial implosion. At the end of that interview, Shiller is just chatting with the guy and asks what it's like being a fisherman. The fisherman's face lights up and he excitedly starts talking about fishing and getting into all the intricate and nitty gritty details of fishing for a living. Shiller is impressed and asks the guy how long would it take him to learn all this - a year or two? The fisherman vigorously shakes his head and says absolutely not and it would easily take 10-20 years or something like that to master all you needed to learn to become a fisherman. Intrigued by his answer, Shiller then asks the fisherman if it takes that many years to master the craft of fishing, why did he think it would only take a year or two master the craft of banking and finance? This stumped the fisherman who eventually said that he really didn't know why he thought this at that time now that he was being posed the question.

Again, not saying you wouldn't be successful building a business that makes more than your practice but make sure you think things through and are prepared for this to take longer than you expect. Longer might even mean never. I think the % of people even on this forum pulling in $1.2M per year in net profits (not sales) is pretty small. Also, if you leave your work as a surgeon for 5-10 years, can you go back to it? Or would you be too outdated / out of practice? I would recommend talking to some surgeons in your field who have successfully (or unsuccessfully) transitioned back after a long absence to see what that is like. Hope this helps a little!
 

ChocolateFactory

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
89%
Apr 2, 2023
57
51
Hi. Thanks for your comments. Yes, the business generating 100K per month is the orthopedic business, but that’s essentially a full time job. Now if I could have a fast lane business 100K per month business that sort of “ran itself”, that would be awesome but would probably require me quit being a surgeon to pursue that.

Why can't you scale your orthopedic business? Hire other surgeons to work for you? It's something that you already understand and where you have a massive competitive advantage. It's not like anyone can just open their own clinic.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,120
43,260
Scottsdale, AZ
Exactly, took me awhile to get to this point. I really started reaching that amount gradually after I moved from being an employee of a hospital to starting my own orthopedic business 3 years ago.

Plus, as I mentioned, I did have those spending spree years right after finishing my training. I’d been broke all my life and then overnight that sudden rush of money came in for me, then a 30 year old, my money skills were totally absent. So, travel, move around to bigger cities, dates, nightlife, etc. Then, at 35 or so I picked up “the intelligent investor” and my view of money took a 180 degree turn. I literally, didn’t really know what a 401K was until then. All I knew was medicine.

Overall, there were some good choices and some bad ones and I’ve learned and continue to learn. But from this point forward I want to make the best choice possible.
I don’t know why you would contemplate doing something else. It’s not like starting and growing a different type of business to $1.2m a year is easy. It would be more work and much harder work than what you are doing now for the next 3-5 years.

Your job is fastlane already. Would you tell an NBA bench player to quit and start a business? Or would you tell him to continue playing but invest well.

I think your issue is investing your money. If you can’t invest or save, making $1.2m passive will be even worse because then you’d have more time to spend it.

I’d continue working and really learn about investing and tax strategies in your off time. How much of the $1.2m are you saving and investing per year?
 

ZCP

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
336%
Oct 22, 2010
3,952
13,267
Woodstock, GA
Pay yourself first! Take it right off the top BEFORE it gets to you.

Time to strangle that budget and fill those investment coffers.

You have a GOLDEN opportunity that others do not. DON'T WASTE IT!

Time to get serious about investing and your life. Good step posting here. Now find some actionable items for THIS WEEK and get them DONE.
 

Genius01

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Dec 18, 2017
239
289
Nigeria
Hi. Thanks for your comments. Yes, the business generating 100K per month is the orthopedic business, but that’s essentially a full time job. Now if I could have a fast lane business 100K per month business that sort of “ran itself”, that would be awesome but would probably require me quit being a surgeon to pursue that.
Ok, I get that. So it seems what you would really like is a business that can give you time freedom while still generating that same large amount of money, as your current orthopedic business doesn't afford you time freedom.

So the issue would be, as others have pointed out, is it possible to grow this orthopedic business to a point where you can bring in other hands to replace you, and give you the time freedom you desire?

If it's possible, that would likely be your best bet, unless you actually actively dislike running your business and can't stand it for much longer.

If it's not possible, then you can consider doing other businesses, or simply focus on growing your investments till it starts giving you large sums.
(Though before you conclude it's not possible to grow your orthopedic business to a point where it doesn't require you, do think about it deeply. There may be possibilities you've simply never considered that make it possible to do so.)

But again, I understand the orthopod mindset to an extent, most orthopods tend to be very intelligent, highly driven, high achievers, so it's possible you might still achieve success in new businesses if you apply the same drive and dedication you've put into your career so far to it.

But is it worth the risk?
I think unless you already have a great idea that you've researched and are really convinced it would be successful, that's the only scenario I would consider it worth it, personally.
And even in that scenario, I would advise working on it in your spare time (learning coding if it's required or other things required, and creating an MVP), so you can test the market and be sure there's effective demand for the new business product, or even gain a bit of traction on it first, before leaving this your current career. So you don't simply jump off the deep end at once, from a thriving career.

My 2 cents.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
The question here is, where the heck is all your money going? You make $1.2M as a 43 year old surgeon and only have $1.5M laying around? Seems like your issue is more of a spending issue, not of an earning issueThe question here is, where the heck is all your money going? You make $1.2M as a 43 year old surgeon and only have $1.5M laying around? Seems like your issue is more of a spending issue, not of an earning

Assuming you studied pre-med in college, it took you 25 years to reach this point where you are making 100k per month with your practice. Not saying you can't build a fastlane business / become a successful investor in less than 25 years, but this reminds me of a scene from the book Irrational Exuberance (I think this is the book) by Robert Shiller. In that chapter, Shiller is exploring why Iceland imploded during the 2008 financial crisis. He interviews a fisherman who switched careers to become a banker near the height of the boom years when working in finance was all the rage in Iceland but eventually returned to being a fisherman after his country's financial implosion. At the end of that interview, Shiller is just chatting with the guy and asks what it's like being a fisherman. The fisherman's face lights up and he excitedly starts talking about fishing and getting into all the intricate and nitty gritty details of fishing for a living. Shiller is impressed and asks the guy how long would it take him to learn all this - a year or two? The fisherman vigorously shakes his head and says absolutely not and it would easily take 10-20 years or something like that to master all you needed to learn to become a fisherman. Intrigued by his answer, Shiller then asks the fisherman if it takes that many years to master the craft of fishing, why did he think it would only take a year or two master the craft of banking and finance? This stumped the fisherman who eventually said that he really didn't know why he thought this at that time now that he was being posed the question.

Again, not saying you wouldn't be successful building a business that makes more than your practice but make sure you think things through and are prepared for this to take longer than you expect. Longer might even mean never. I think the % of people even on this forum pulling in $1.2M per year in net profits (not sales) is pretty small. Also, if you leave your work as a surgeon for 5-10 years, can you go back to it? Or would you be too outdated / out of practice? I would recommend talking to some surgeons in your field who have successfully (or unsuccessfully) transitioned back after a long absence to see what that is like. Hope this helps a little!
This is great, thank you. Agreed. My approach here for now will be to continue my current orthopedic business and try to find ways to scale it. It's unusual where I live to see orthopedic surgeons in groups but not unheard of. They usually are solo practitioners. So, it probably would not be a simple task but, healthcare is a complicated and sometimes frustrating business, so if I can figure out a way to create a great system, maybe creating some software to organize an orthopedic practice really well, maybe other surgeons may wanna join as employees or even use the software for a fee to make their own lives easier.
 

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
Ok, I get that. So it seems what you would really like is a business that can give you time freedom while still generating that same large amount of money, as your current orthopedic business doesn't afford you time freedom.

So the issue would be, as others have pointed out, is it possible to grow this orthopedic business to a point where you can bring in other hands to replace you, and give you the time freedom you desire?

If it's possible, that would likely be your best bet, unless you actually actively dislike running your business and can't stand it for much longer.

If it's not possible, then you can consider doing other businesses, or simply focus on growing your investments till it starts giving you large sums.
(Though before you conclude it's not possible to grow your orthopedic business to a point where it doesn't require you, do think about it deeply. There may be possibilities you've simply never considered that make it possible to do so.)

But again, I understand the orthopod mindset to an extent, most orthopods tend to be very intelligent, highly driven, high achievers, so it's possible you might still achieve success in new businesses if you apply the same drive and dedication you've put into your career so far to it.

But is it worth the risk?
I think unless you already have a great idea that you've researched and are really convinced it would be successful, that's the only scenario I would consider it worth it, personally.
And even in that scenario, I would advise working on it in your spare time (learning coding if it's required or other things required, and creating an MVP), so you can test the market and be sure there's effective demand for the new business product, or even gain a bit of traction on it first, before leaving this your current career. So you don't simply jump off the deep end at once, from a thriving career.

My 2 cents.
This is great. Thank you. That's been my thought process as well. I've been taking coding courses in my free time and have created some apps to help efficiency that are quite helpful for my practice actually, so I imagine they could be for others as well. And I'm in the process of improving them and hoping to make money from it.

But, in summary, my approach will be to continue my current orthopedic business and focus on building software in my free time to improve efficiency in my business. And see where that takes me. Ie. maybe a great software that I can sell, or maybe scale by inducing other doctors that don't wanna deal with the complexity of healthcare to join as employees.

As an aside, the course CS50 (the Harvard Curriculum Computer Science course) is available for free online. It is an excellent course available to everyone. I do believe learning to code just opens up so many possibilities where there is potential to create a wonderful thing out of virtually nothing. Thanks again.
 

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
Pay yourself first! Take it right off the top BEFORE it gets to you.

Time to strangle that budget and fill those investment coffers.

You have a GOLDEN opportunity that others do not. DON'T WASTE IT!

Time to get serious about investing and your life. Good step posting here. Now find some actionable items for THIS WEEK and get them DONE.
Thank you. That's certainly been my focus that last few years.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
I don’t know why you would contemplate doing something else. It’s not like starting and growing a different type of business to $1.2m a year is easy. It would be more work and much harder work than what you are doing now for the next 3-5 years.

Your job is fastlane already. Would you tell an NBA bench player to quit and start a business? Or would you tell him to continue playing but invest well.

I think your issue is investing your money. If you can’t invest or save, making $1.2m passive will be even worse because then you’d have more time to spend it.

I’d continue working and really learn about investing and tax strategies in your off time. How much of the $1.2m are you saving and investing per year?
Thank you. That's certainly been the approach the last few years. I've recently reached that 100K per month. Out of that, 90K or so is being invested. I'm not into expensive cars, etc which helps. Like, I said, I got that out of my system right after finishing my training when I had a spending spree. After talking to other surgeons, a lot of them have had that spending spree phase right after training. I'm definitely over that now which helps. Now, I my focus is to put my money to work as much as possible. For me its been long-term value investing at this point...
 

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
Why can't you scale your orthopedic business? Hire other surgeons to work for you? It's something that you already understand and where you have a massive competitive advantage. It's not like anyone can just open their own clinic.
I've given some thought to that. Of course, I would love to reach that point. Where I live, the orthopedic culture is that each orthopedic surgeon is a solo practitioner. In other words, they each have their own one person practice. Why? I don't know, but my thought on that has been that, because of egos, etc, no other orthopedic surgeon would want to work as an employee of another and feel that they're being taking advantage of. But, at the same time, more and more I think some orthopedic surgeons may be ok taking a paycut as an employee in exchange for not having to deal with the hassle of managing the practice.
So, in short, yes, I will look more into that. Maybe the culture needs to change...
 

Drfixer

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
78%
May 24, 2023
9
7
Work only half the year. 3 month on, 3 months off, 3 months on, 3 months off. Pick the best places in the world for each of those times of the year and go there. You will get bored of doing nothing, but also bored if you only work. So switching between them will keep you excited for both and can switch when you get bored of either.
Sounds good but the problem here is, with a busy practice, who takes care of my patients the 3 months I'm away. I guess I could find a partner that wants to do the same. I've also thought a dynamic of working 3 days out of the week and have 4 free. Or one week on one week off. Interesting, I'll think more into this...
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ChocolateFactory

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
89%
Apr 2, 2023
57
51
I've been taking coding courses in my free time and have created some apps to help efficiency that are quite helpful for my practice actually, so I imagine they could be for others as well. And I'm in the process of improving them and hoping to make money from it.

If it's a hobby for you, keep doing it. If the primary goal is to make money, you should hire someone who can help you. You could then concentrate on being the product owner, which is time-consuming enough as it is.

Software development is a complex skill. Sure you can learn some "coding" in a few days and that may be enough for simple stuff, but you won't be able learn how to build commercial-grade software in your free time. I imagine it's simlar to learning how to use a scalpel vs. being a surgeon.
It would also be an inefficient use of your time - with the kind of money you make, it would be better to work an hour extra as a surgeon per day and hire one experienced developer for the whole day (I didn't actually do the math, but just to give an idea of what I mean).

But, in summary, my approach will be to continue my current orthopedic business and focus on building software in my free time to improve efficiency in my business. And see where that takes me. Ie. maybe a great software that I can sell, or maybe scale by inducing other doctors that don't wanna deal with the complexity of healthcare to join as employees.

Sounds like a great plan! There's a ton of money in medical technology.

If you have any questions about building software/coding, feel free to DM me. Happy to share from my experience of 20+ years as a software engineer.
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Sounds good but the problem here is, with a busy practice, who takes care of my patients the 3 months I'm away. I guess I could find a partner that wants to do the same. I've also thought a dynamic of working 3 days out of the week and have 4 free. Or one week on one week off. Interesting, I'll think more into this...
If you had a Dr working under you then you could move to fully remote and would only be around when you want, and could still make a good profit.

A great idea would be a partner who, like you said, would agree to a split. I think that's a major win-win. Your only issues would be if they change their mind about the split. ("I don't want to work during these months, blah blah") But then that's just an occasional problem you would work around when it comes up and could replace them.

Lots of options but I would pursue something that lessened your need to be at the office all the time.

Turning the practice into a business where you have other people doing the work takes it from a job and actually makes it something with inherent value, where someone else could buy it from you. Get some more patients, a few doctors working, have it produce 1m a year of free cash flow, sell it for 6-7M, boom, now you're done.
 

Jon822

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
272%
Nov 21, 2016
317
863
33
"I essentially have a Fastlane business that could get me to my $10 million escape amount in the very near future but because there are other skills that could theoritically produce a faster Fastlane business, I'm thinking about starting over."

"I've been losing weight for 2 years now and I'm almost at my goal weight, but I just read about this other diet that could lose the same amount in 1.5 years. Should I regain weight until I get back to my original starting point and try the better diet or keep going with what I'm doing?"

There will always be better options. Software engineering is probably one of the most valuable Fastlane skills there is and there are many others above starting your own practice as a physician, but who cares? They aren't relevant to your Fastlane journey. If you enjoy coding as a hobby, then keep doing it but you don't need to waste time monitoring each lane to see which one has the highest average speed. You're almost home -- just get there.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Mikkel

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
186%
Feb 25, 2016
815
1,513
29
New Hampshire
Recently I left a private outpatient orthopedic company. I was one of many physical therapists at this company. My assumption is you probably specialize in multiple types of surgeries on one or two parts of the body(Knee: Meniscectomy, ACL Repair, PCL Repair, Meniscus repair, Meniscus root repair, etc. Shoulder: Small/Large/Massive RTC, SLAP repair, Bankart, etc.) Maybe you focus on the spine, hip, or foot. Not sure. Regardless, I don't know any surgeon who is an expert on all regions of the body. Why not pair up with complementary surgeons, hire Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists(for hand and elbow), PA's, and nurses so people can come to your clinic for a one-stop shop?

The company I used to work for built out its own surgery center(small surgery center but got the job done) for patients that were not at risk for medical complications during surgery and would bring patients with increased risk for complications to the local surgical center at the hospital. They have a walk-in injury clinic that is open 7-days a week. Therapy services 5 days a week which the surgeons could refer out. They set up a system where we(the Physical Therapists) would see patients one-day post-op to ensure the patient knew how to clean their incisions properly. We would also instruct the patient on how to basically live for the next 3-6 weeks depending on the type of surgery. Most patients loved this aspect, as they would constantly tell me how during past surgeries they were left with little to no instruction on what to do. With us, they knew within 24-hours how to look out for DVT's and infections, what exercises they were allowed to do, and what they were not allowed to do. It led to happier patients and better outcomes with fewer complications long-term. This only happened because the surgeons had a team that brought the patient from injury --> Surgery --> Fully Rehab. This happened all under one roof. That is what you call control. That is what you call a business.


I am sure this is something you could build out with your current business. You make $100K/month. You make more than what most if not EVERY SINGLE coder in the world makes. If you want to have some sort of code written for your business, hire someone else. Your time is WAY more valuable than writing code. Your skillset allows you to build a team that would be Fastlane. I know this to be true, my boss(before I left) is living the Fastlane life. He is freakin' killing it. Not to mention he only hires the best surgeons.

In my opinion, don't waste your time coding. Stick to what you know, and build out your current business. The grass is probably greener on your side.
 

Kokaka

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
222%
Aug 9, 2019
267
594
Exactly, took me awhile to get to this point. I really started reaching that amount gradually after I moved from being an employee of a hospital to starting my own orthopedic business 3 years ago.

Plus, as I mentioned, I did have those spending spree years right after finishing my training. I’d been broke all my life and then overnight that sudden rush of money came in for me, then a 30 year old, my money skills were totally absent. So, travel, move around to bigger cities, dates, nightlife, etc. Then, at 35 or so I picked up “the intelligent investor” and my view of money took a 180 degree turn. I literally, didn’t really know what a 401K was until then. All I knew was medicine.

Overall, there were some good choices and some bad ones and I’ve learned and continue to learn. But from this point forward I want to make the best choice possible.
What about combining things. Medicine and business? Hire a surgeon to work for you, keep the profit, scale more surgery clinics or work on other projects while you have the surgery as a backup/investment?
 

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,120
43,260
Scottsdale, AZ
Thank you. That's certainly been the approach the last few years. I've recently reached that 100K per month. Out of that, 90K or so is being invested. I'm not into expensive cars, etc which helps. Like, I said, I got that out of my system right after finishing my training when I had a spending spree. After talking to other surgeons, a lot of them have had that spending spree phase right after training. I'm definitely over that now which helps. Now, I my focus is to put my money to work as much as possible. For me its been long-term value investing at this point...
It really feels like what you want is more free time now vs. more money. I don't know what your interest is with coding, or making software, but it feels like a step backwards.

I know time is important and you are 43 and want to do more in life besides surgeries. But there are two realities here.

One is that you spent alot of your money prior to this so you are behind in investing for the future relative to your income. Others would be totally happy with $1.5M in the bank at 43.

The second is that it is highly unlikely that you will create another business that will make as much as your currently income AND take up less time. My opinion and prediction is that going down this path with cost you alot of money and time and you'll wish that you just kept on doing surgeries 5 years from now.

Expanding your business to me, is the best path to maintaining or increasing income and gaining more freedom.

There are other ways for you to free up some time at the expense of your income. Would you be happy making $90k a month and taking every Friday off? Would a 3 day vacation be enough for you to be ok with your current business? Or maybe you take a week off per month instead. These would be detrimental to you income but would probably increase your overall happiness.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

More Intros...

Top