Love this thread, admirable progress....rep+
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.I find myself getting overwhelmed a lot. Realizing that there is so much to learn and so much to do. It's mentally exhausting and I feel like I'm never going to get it all done.
Thanks, Jack!Wow. Great for you. It's a great idea.
Thank you. This is awesome advice.How many times in medical school did you think this? You've already proven you can do the hard work, and you also know that the only way to succeed, just like the only way to become an MD, is by one day (class, assignment, exam, rotation, etc) at a time.
Keep pushing, and keep venting. The venting helps - do it here, do it with people you physically interact with who are like-minded.
It's likely they were so angry because they married the job a long time ago, and the only way they justify that to themselves is if they tell themselves that there is literally nothing else worth doing in life than being in medicine (something they were likely told by others, including their parents, at a very young age). When someone takes the "red pill" they get angry because you are shattering that little world that so many build for themselves - things that seem critically important within the medical field are suddenly exposed as not all that important in the rest of the world, and when you show that there is another path, you cause them to question their own decisions. Many people would prefer to stay within the microculture that they have carefully navigated at great personal cost.the other half (the ones not actively looking for another job) were vitriolic, hateful, and cold. Crazy. It wasn't as if I was saying "F-you guys, I'm out!"
Yep! Very well said. Having been in the military myself I can totally see your point and how it applies to my situation. Thank you.It's likely they were so angry because they married the job a long time ago, and the only way they justify that to themselves is if they tell themselves that there is literally nothing else worth doing in life than being in medicine (something they were likely told by others, including their parents, at a very young age). When someone takes the "red pill" they get angry because you are shattering that little world that so many build for themselves - things that seem critically important within the medical field are suddenly exposed as not all that important in the rest of the world, and when you show that there is another path, you cause them to question their own decisions. Many people would prefer to stay within the microculture that they have carefully navigated at great personal cost.
I see the same thing in the military, especially the officer world. People who have spent all their adult lives in the military, worrying about promotions, command billets, impressing their superious, getting a good OER, etc. literally can't understand that no one outside of their work-life culture cares about these things. Almost no one cares outside of the military whether you were an LTC or a COL, or a BG vs a MG, or an E8 vs E7. The vast majority of the population couldn't tell you the difference between a battalion or a brigade, or what a field grade officer is...to tell these things to people who have spent their lives caring about these things is an affront to who they are. When you tap them on the shoulder and say "hey guess what - all those hours spent at the office on those slide decks, all that time you spent away from your family, all that effort you put into getting promoted...your kids don't care, your wife probably doesn't care, and the civilian world you will eventually live in definately doesn't care beyond "thank you for your service" (in fact in their mind, your service is the same as the corporal's)" they look at you with bewilderment.
If you tap them on the shoulder again and say "see that guy over there? He's in his thirties just like you, but he's a multimillionaire, went to West Point but got out after his service obligation, started a business, and is thinking about which tropical island to visit next while you're worried about whether dropping your kid off for his first day of school in the morning instead of getting to the office by 0530 (and staying till 1900) is going to make you look bad to your boss and impact your promotion to major" their heads explode. You can literally see the wheels turning - wait, there are people who go to West Point but get out before retirement?! They don't care about making general?! They don't want to take special assignments, wake up at 0400 and miss their family's life because they could care less about advancement? Should I be caring about these things? Then they get angry.
Maybe it's just me - but I feel like this never goes away, no matter how easy it was in the past. I could cold call 5 people, get all 5 to sign up, be happy with myself and confident, and wake up the next morning finding every excuse possible not to call people. I don't really understand it, but all I know is that it just takes some massive mental energy on a daily basis to make it happen. Glad you got back on it.because I was afraid for some reason to call prospects
Thanks. Yeah, it really is weird how each day is like that. But it is addictive when you get "yes" especially.Maybe it's just me - but I feel like this never goes away, no matter how easy it was in the past. I could cold call 5 people, get all 5 to sign up, be happy with myself and confident, and wake up the next morning finding every excuse possible not to call people. I don't really understand it, but all I know is that it just takes some massive mental energy on a daily basis to make it happen. Glad you got back on it.
So as I alluded to in my introduction thread, I'm making the transition from SL with high intrinsic value (Physician) but no control to the FL. I have read quite a few of these progress threads and they are often full of good advice.
I am strongly considering a SaaS solution approach a la' Dane Maxwell versus some sort of distribution model.
I'm planning on using this as an external journal which might (if I am so lucky) garner some external murder-board type of feedback.
Bottom line, please feel free to ignore this but I would welcome any advice or commentary, negative OR positive.
=)
=============
[5.10-5.28]
[x] Decided that I need to get out of the SL
[x] Read TMFL with notes and highlights.
[x] Came up with about 10 potential ideas for FL pathways, some easier to execute than others. Easier ones look to make less per month and less overall potential.
[x] Discussed with The Wife the feeling that we need to get out of the SL. (She is now onboard!)
[x] Read through my employment contract and agreements to ensure that I wouldn't be violating NDA/Non-compete clauses (none found).
[x] Decided that I would like to launch in 8 weeks with "easy project," or 6 months with more ambitious one.
[x] Start reading Scientific Advertising
*** Realized that, as @IceCreamKid says, it's about Loving Others and Helping Them with Their Problems (paraphrase) first, money later.
[5.29 - Friday, 6.3]
[ ] Meet with friends in target industries for lunch, idea extraction, pain point identification.
[ ] Are there actionable targets there?
[ ] If so, could I pre-sell target solution in order to finance the initial development?
[ ] Watch an episode of "Shark Tank" for ideas, understanding, motivation.
[ ] Re-read TMFL in order to reinforce fundamental principles.
[x] Arrange and [ ] Attend meeting with Tax advisor in order to set up LLC vs. S-Corp.
[ ] Decide on a company name
[ ] Finish Scientific Advertising
[ ] Have a plan: 8 week launch versus 6 month, & what financial resources will be needed.
=================
Funny doctor story: Pt comes in complaining of an infection "on (her) stomach." Says that it's been there for a couple of days. She is VERY LARGE (think small moon of Jupiter large) and points to regions below. Oh, and by the way she's about 2 weeks pregnant but has yet to see her OB. So I go to examine her and I have to have two nurses in the room to help lift this woman's HUGE pannus. It turns out that the underside of the pannus is extremely red, swollen, and clearly infected. The kicker is that the underside has several (about 5-) wooden splinters which seem to be the infection sources. I asked her how they got there...
Well, her husband's friends had used a piece of wood to lift up the pannus so that her husband could "do her right" and get her pregnant.
Yeah, that actually happened.
Good luck to you guys!Hey doc! Great posts and I wanted to reach you to a) encourage you and thank you for sharing, and b) let you know that my wife is a doc - ten years in private practice and burning out on the hamster wheel. Wracking my brain to find ways to help her escape!
Met with the guy. Seems to be exactly the kind of guy that we need to help guide us through the rocky shores. In talking with him it came out that he has a lot of subject matter expertise and (I hadn't truly realized) quite the successful (retired) entrepreneur in my space. Sweet! Anyway, he was very interested in our product/vision and (I think) will be an ongoing mentor for us. Been a nearly life long friend & mentor to my wife (in a different space) so I know that we can trust him. Biggest take away from the meeting was that we apparently weren't thinking big enough. Thanks to the Wife for the intro! What a woman.* Set up a meeting with a savvy entrepreneur for tomorrow and hopefully he become a mentor. Fingers crossed....
Much appreciated. We'll get there or we won't but it's going to be an informative journey one way or the other.I can't wait for your guys to blow up. We need more doctors to think outside the box and serve the healthcare industry from the outside in. Doctors - not politicians - will lead our healthcare revolution.
Much appreciated. We'll get there or we won't but it's going to be an informative journey one way or the other.
Of course, I've got a burning desire to win so failure isn't really an option.
The big thing that your post highlights is that, because physicians are so averse to "getting involved," they cede control of healthcare delivery to everyone ELSE. And for sure everyone else has other agendas other than delivering the best care to patients (1,2). We as a country need to get physicians out of the "I'll tend to my garden and you tend to yours" mentality that just isn't viable in the connected economy that is 21st century America.
(1) of course, physicians are human too and there are legions of examples of bad behavior by doctors. The only saving grace is that there are ethical and moral boundaries in place that serve to put us on notice about what is and isn't acceptable.
(2) There's a nice discussion about human tendencies to do right/wrong and ideals of service to others in Robert Heinlein's, Starship Troopers.
Once were successful and rolling with this first app, I've had in mind developing my own Electronic Medical Record that is designed by/for physicians, with the relevant information useful to US and all of the non-essential crap hidden. It's amazing how much important stuff gets lost on the mass. A prime example of a class of products being built by people who don't actually use it in the trenches daily. And as I read about Lean product development, the founding of Apple v. Microsoft, I've come to realize that the Apple approach (design based on human beings and for human beings) is the one to be emulated in the EMR world, whereas everything to this point has essentially followed the MS route (we (engineers) build the product and tell you about our cool features).
Quoted for excellent insight! Thank you for your support, and I hope that you and your spouse find a way out of the grind.Doc, I love this thread, and bravo on your reference to Heinlein! As I mentioned, my wife is in private practice. She and I have been together since before she started med school, so I'm pretty familiar with the myriad dysfunctions of the system. In addition, I've been on the biz side of healthcare for many years (most recently working for an academic med system). Seems to me that there are three reasons physicians' tend to mind their own gardens: 3
First, as you mentioned, they are risk averse;
second, they have a time energy deficit, which impedes them thinking and acting beyond the narrow confines of their roles, and
third, our current model is rife with misaligned incentives, ie, most docs are not incentivized to improve the system, most are incentivized to maximize patient volume.
Not sure how to realign things, but hope your baby helps achieve that end.
I'm intrigued about your product - you've been on a tear!
Today the Partner and I met with the COO/CIO of a medium sized practice and got tons of useful feedback. He's really invested in seeing us succeed but we're going to have to meet several integration and performance metrics in order for him to use our product. He definitely validated our idea and concept though so it was a very useful exercise. We've definitely got another advocate.
As we go through the product validation process, we're discovering that different sized customers will require different solutions, which is kind of obvious. What hadn't been obvious was that certain types of customers will require more features than others. So another potential market has opened for us - smaller practices with simpler needs.
We're going to have to try and pursue tight integration with EHRs and this is definitely going to present a significant challenge for us since there's so much Balkanization of the EMR field. However, our CIO/COO suggested that we consider being affiliated with an EMR in order to use them as a distribution channel. Potentially very valuable since we would get access to their customers, but also challenging since it does expose us to the wider world of competitors early in the game.
I've got a validation meeting with a small practice tomorrow, and the Partner and I are meeting with developers today, tomorrow, and Thursday.
Initial product validation could theoretically be finished in two weeks.
I've got 50 sales calls to make this week. 10 down, 40 to go.
Damn. The barrier to entry in this space is really high.
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