Fake It Until You Make It! Does This Really Work?
You have all heard this before right? It holds true in some circumstances doesn’t it? But is it a universal truth? I think not.
If you want to project more confidence you can certainly do this…..just decide and then “fake it until you make It”….this works all day long.
But what if you want to learn how to do a mandibular advancement surgery….can you simply just get started right now…”fake it till you make it”? NO! Sounds stupid right?
You need to first decide this is what you want to do, then find a program (mentors/professors = OMFS Residency) that will show you how, then practice in an academic setting, then execute consistently learning from your mistakes, and so on and so forth. It’s a process that starts with finding out the best way to do it first. Right?
If I asked 100 dentists that just got out of dental school today, will you place zygomatic arch implants for patients or complete mandibular advancement surgeries in your general practice they would all say NO…I don’t how to do that…or too risky…I’ll leave that to the surgeons.
Yet if I ask the same 100 students, will you own your own practice? Many will say Yes, absolutely….they say this with certainty….over 50% answer this way…
One question is answered with….”Heck NO” and the Other With Heck “YES” level of certainty. WHY?
B/C the “Heck No” folks understand what it takes to place zygomatic arch implants or complete mandibular advancement surgery…..therefore they associate great complexity with the tasks. Alternatively they may not understand what it takes at all but they understand that the OMFS folks do this so this isn’t my territory…I’m going to stay in my lane…what ever the reason they typically answer this with “Heck NO”
ON the other hand the “Heck Yes” folks understand little to nothing about running a practice and have therefore associated little complexity with the venture. They know of a few docs that have done it or have been sold the idea that this is the path to freedom…but not much more than that!
Unfortunate thing is…..many of those that say YES to practice ownership are making a fatal mistake….they are assuming that its easy…they are assuming that because they completed dental school the business side will be a piece of cake…how hard could it be right?
You don’t know what you don’t know
Herein lies the failure when you think you know it all. You really don’t know if you don’t know something. There are lots of things we know we don’t know. For example, I know I have no clue how to hard-code a software program. I know I do not know how build a scaffold safely. I can probably go and learn something about those fields if I was interested enough. But I already know the things I have no clue how to do.
Where transformational growth lives is in those AHA moments, when we learn about something we had no idea even existed. Call it a revelation, epiphany, discovery or whatever. I experience these moments a couple of times a day because I am listening for them. I don’t know what they are or when they will show up, but I know they are out there.
As dentists, we generally know how to diagnose the basics when we come into dental school. Then we take a few courses or continuing education courses and now we’re empowered with knowledge. Putting that to use is powerful because we have so much more clarity in our next clinical exam. Suddenly, we can see problems we didn’t see before because we weren’t conditioned to see it before. You take an implant program and suddenly all you see is missing teeth! You take an ortho program and all you see is malocclusion!
This is just a clinical example and seems obvious. After all, that’s why we go to dental school, is to learn from people who have done it successfully in the past. Exactly! This is how you need to treat your business if you want to have a high-performance practice. You will need to abandon any notion that you know it all and adopt a mindset that even though you know a lot, you have even more to learn.
Look, I am simply saying this. If you want to own a practice and run a profitable business don’t assume its easy. Get the facts before you jump in head first. That way you can prepare yourself and minimize errors while maximizing the chance for success. If this is what you want find someone that can help you get what you want. Someone that has done it already. A mentor!