E214 | The One Flaw That Will Ruin Your Career

On today's episode, we get into the concept of patience. I tell an incredibly interesting story of someone I met while at a kids birthday party here in Atlanta.  This person happens to be pursuing a career to become a cardiothoracic surgeon.

Episode Transcription:

Hey, what is going on, guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, and man, I've got a good one for you today. I'm excited to talk about this. This episode, we're, we're going to get into the concept of patients and man, why? That is such a hard thing for people. And I've got to say, and it's a super-cool story to tell you about somebody I met at a birthday party today.

That made me think about bringing this up on the podcast. So, as always, those of you that are longtime listeners, thank you so much for continuing to listen to the podcast if you're new. Thanks so much for tuning in. I think this will be helpful in, if you like it, go back and listen to some of the other 200 plus podcast episodes that we have.

Also, if you like this, take a screenshot of it, throw it up in your Instagram stories and tag me in it that way, you know, I know. What topics you guys like the most, and I can reshare it. So I'll get you in front of the people that follow my account as well. And, and it'll let me know that this kind of stuff is what you guys like.

So let's get into it. So let me tell you a little story about a guy I met today at a park, at a birthday party. Thus one of our friends trains at a gym here in town, and their trainer is somebody that got a chance to meet today. And, you know, we've; actually, it's been, it's been cold. I haven't met her before, but we've had a chance to kind of send people back and forth to each other and, and just an excellent, like high-level personal trainer here in the area.

And her husband, I got a chance to connect with today as well. And he is in school to become a cardiothoracic surgeon. So I was standing there talking to him for a little while where our kids are swinging around on a, on the playground, and it's hot as shit today. Here in Atlanta, it's like 95 degrees super humid.

So we're just sweating all over ourselves while we're, you know, whatever, eating a piece of cookie cake and talking about whatever the other person does. And I always love to try to ask questions. I'm more than I try to speak whenever I meet new people, something I very consciously have to make an effort to you because I can ramble about the shit that I find interesting.

Hence a couple of hundred podcasts. But it can be kryptonite as well with new people because Nobody wants you to talk about yourself the whole time. So I love to ask questions about what people do, and this guy was incredibly exciting, and I probably peppered him with, I don't know how many items, probably like 20 minutes of me just asking him questions and

The reason I thought it was interesting was that when I started talking to him, I didn't know how long it took to become a cardiothoracic surgeon. So I asked him, I said, all right, man. Well. So you have four years of undergrad and then like medical school after that, right. So another four years and he goes, yeah.

So four years in undergrad, and then two years as a research aid because he needed a new experience to get into medical school. Than four years of medical school, then seven years of general surgery, a fellowship, then three years of cardiothoracic fellowship, to become board certified. Let's just call CT surgeon cause cardiothoracic is hard to say.

There's a CT surgeon. Okay, so let's, let's add that up. So it's 10 20 years that this guy is putting in to become a specialist in CT surgery. Now, the reason I bring this up and the reason that I talked to him for so long, I was fascinated by the process that he's going through the patients that he has to have to be able to get to that point.

Could you imagine 20 years of school mostly, you know, some sort of ongoing school process? Now he's not like sitting in school, like in medical school, but they're still doing a lot of academic work as well as, you know, working with senior docs that they're, they're learning from that are there, they're educators and 20 years.

It is a long time. Some of you listening to this, you might barely be over 20 years old. It seems like an eternity. Right? And I asked him, I said, man, 20 years to get to this point, like you've got three years left. Like how do you stay motivated? Two, to continue to do this, to keep to. Try to, you know, achieve this, this board certification as a CT surgeon.

And he said, you know, it's all about focusing on, continually trying to improve every single day. And I've heard this. Over and over and over again from people that I've had a chance to meet, connect with mentors of mine, people that I find fascinating are people that are trying to become the best in the world at something.

I talk about this concept of trying to become the best in the world at something, and it never happens. I never actually get there, but if you commit to something, the process is part of what starts to become enjoyable. Nah, that sounds kind of odd if you think about it, right? Because this guy is, you know, going into his 18th year of.

Post high school education, you know, work that he's, he has put in, he's on his second fellowship. And so he's got two years left before he becomes, you know, a board-certified CT surgeon assuming he passes the board certification. Right? So he's got one big hurdle at the end, to be able to do. And what I thought was interesting, even more so was the amount of time over that long period that.

That it takes, so I asked him just about his CT, surgery, a fellowship. And I said, well, how many hours a week are you putting in for this fellowship? And he said, on average, around a hundred to 110 hours per week. That is not like that is a shocking amount of work—a hundred to 110 hours at the facility.

Per week for three years, making $70,000 per year. Now let's do the math on that. This guy's making 70,000 bucks. Hey, it is a substantial amount of money. Now, don't get me wrong, that's a good bit of money, but he's there on average 400 hours per month. He's making 14 and a half dollars an hour. He could go to any number of retail stores and make more than that per hour.

He can drive for Uber and make more money than that per hour. Okay. And yet he keeps his head down, and he focuses on the things that he has to get marginally better every single day. And he does it a hundred hours a week with two little kids. And he's been doing it now going into is 19th year.

Okay. That, in my opinion, is impressive. That I find fascinating, to have that amount of dedication to something is so rare, you know? And, and some of this is spurred on by a video that my friend Brett Bartholomew did on his Instagram page, believe this was two days ago. And the summary of it was—that one of the most significant flaws that he sees in the strength conditioning community and the clinical community.

He works with a lot of people within both of those is the lack of patients and the lack of committing to a process and working on trying to be a part of something and become great at something versus wanting something to happen fast without having the opportunity to develop a real skill set, which takes time and it takes experience.

And that's, that is challenging. I will say I struggle and have struggled with this skill of patients for years. I always wanted things to happen faster. Like if we implement a new, you know, revenue stream or our service within our business, I want it to explode the next month... That lack of patience sometimes forces me to abandon things that would probably work if I gave it enough time.

And it's something that I've had to work hard on it. And, and I think understanding your flaws is just as important as knowing what your strengths are and doubling down on those and not letting those flaws get in the way of you being able to achieve the things you're trying to make. So if you're listening to this and you're a little more on the entrepreneurial side, understand your kryptonite.

It's probably patients. Your kryptonite is perhaps to the long haul. Your kryptonite. Maybe it's the thing that you need to understand more than anything. Otherwise, it will derail you. You'll get frustrated, and you'll want to move on to something else. And this idea of committing to a process, and this, this, this idea of, know becoming a student.

To learn what to do in all of these other careers. You know, like the documentary, Jiro dreams of sushi, if you haven't seen that, watch it. I was shocked at the time that they allocate for his students just to learn how to make rice. It's like five years or something crazy like that before they're allowed to make rice like for the restaurant.

And could you imagine like taking a position, they're like, all you're going to do is just clean shit up and then practice making rice for five years. Then maybe no guarantee. Maybe one day, if you're good enough, you get to actually. Serve sushi at this restaurant, you know? And that I think is very hard for people to take.

And I'm not necessarily saying like, do that extreme that you need to, and you need to go there. But if you're a younger practitioner and you want all of these things immediately, it's easy to want to. Be known by everybody in your city, you know, as a, as a clinician, to have a platform and a digital business and to have, you know, your own, your brick and mortar business to go along with that and notoriety and this developed skillset to help anybody with the problems that they have, I think.

I think it's super challenging, and it's something that I see over and over again, frustrates young clinicians until they get to a point where they realize, wow. These people that I get a chance to connect with, and in particular somebody like, like my mentor Kelly's, you know, talking to him and, and asking him like, Hey man, you know, when I came on from mobility wide in like 2000 God, what year was that?

2013 to start teaching for them. I didn't know what Kelly had done before that. All I knew was these courses were top-rated. I would show up. And there'd be 40 or 50 people there. And then I would just fulfill. And I thought, wow, this is awesome. And, I'm like, I'm, I must be the man because I got 40 to 50 people showing up to see me.

And they were coming there to see me. They were coming there because they thought Kelly was teaching. And you know, sadly for them, I had to explain the fact it's. Know, it was me, and I was the one that they were, they were going to have to deal with and was, was teaching, but I would sign his name on people's books occasionally if they asked for it.

Just cause, just cause they want to meet him so badly. But before that time for three, four years before that, he was gone three to four times a month teaching. And in many cases, he would teach Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Full days, 40 50 people, and if anybody's ever done that, you know how exhausting that is.

Mentally draining. I've never done anything that's more mentally draining than trying to hold the attention of 40 to 50 people for an entire day in the course that we would teach for CrossFit, and then he would get home late. He would fly back Sunday night, he would get home late, and he would drive straight to their gym, which by the way, was in a parking lot, and he would sleep in this Conex box that he had a little table in.

So that he could wake up and he could teach the five 36 o'clock class, or the earliest one was Monday morning. Then you would see patients during the middle of the day. He would teach a little bit later, he would head home, and then he would just crash. Now, I didn't know that was the case whenever I first came on, and I only.

Assumed that this was all just because I don't, I don't know. I didn't know why. All I knew was it was awesome. If people are showing up and I kind of took it for granted and you know, now that I understand the grind and what it takes to build a deal, build something and develop something and how much time you have to put in.

I get frustrated when I see other people that don't have an appreciation for that, which wants success fast. They want everything. Quickly, Hey, you're three fucking years out of school. Guess what? You're still learning how to be a clinician. Sure. You can delve into things. You can start your own business whenever you want and all that, but understand you're not the man yet.

You're never going to be the man. You have to continually try and progress, and grow and stick to the process of the little things that are going to continually build your skillset, build the relationships you need to be successful. You know, make the things that you currently don't have—also experience.

Other people. Now, one of the reasons why Kelly is so good at relating to people is because Kelly's done a lot of shit in his life. And he's, you know, how many years older than many of you, you know, he's the early forties he told me he'd met more people. He has more life experience. He's got kids, and he's done things outside of that.

He's been exposed to the world. You know, he's, he's been challenged on concepts that you probably haven't yet. And to think that you can get all of that right away. It's crazy to think that's the case. So. If you're getting frustrated and you feel like you want things to happen fast, that's normal.

I'm like that. And it's beautiful. As long as you start to realize that something that you have to work on and that drive is something I'm not trying to tell you to take that drive away, that drive is what's going to get you to where you want to go. But don't expect that in 12 months that's going to happen. And, and if it, even if it did, you wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much if it wasn't difficult.

You know, it's, it's like the idea of climbing a mountain and seeing the view from the top. So we've all got on hikes. I would assume you get to the top of the hill, you're exhausted, and you're like, wow, this is beautiful. I can see how we're far and like appreciate the nature around you, and the thing that you did that was uncomfortable.

Okay. But what if somebody just puts you in a helicopter and they put you on top of the mountain? Sure. It's the same view, same trees around you, whatever. Well, you didn't earn it. You can't appreciate it the same way. No, you don't. You don't have that experience from the climb, you know? And it puts you in a position where it's easy to lose what you've got as well, because you have no idea of how, how special that is.

And that's what I want to get across today is just this idea of focusing on momentum. On continually trying to get better clinically and from a business standpoint, if that's a direction that you want to go, continually trying to get slightly better, expose yourself to things that may be challenged the way that you work with people, exposures yourself to something outside of the physical therapy community.

You know, I remember one of the first times that I got my mind blown was I started looking at kind of Fastenal trains and Thomas Meyer's work, and I was like, damn. This is crazy. We didn't learn any Edison school, and Kelly's work was like that for me as well, you know, in getting, getting exposed to chiropractors that I had a chance to work within the way that they were looking at things in terms of movement philosophies and, and not every, I didn't take everything that everybody said and just blindly followed it.

I started piecing together my framework of what I felt was working and then being challenged on, Hey, how well do you communicate with people. How well can you get them to believe that you're the right fit for what you do? Even something as simple as that might sound drastically increases the likelihood that you're going to be able to get somebody the solution that they're looking for, and that cannot be developed over a short period.

It just can't be okay, and that's okay. As I said, you have to focus on momentum continually moving forward. Doing the things that are going to improve your skillset every single day and gaining the experience that you need, whether that be a pain to go to clinical courses, paying for business, mentorship, getting around people that are.

Slightly better than you at things and in challenged by them. Like there's some discomfort associated with that. Like when you're the man at your little clinic, and you think you're, you know everything, there's no growth happening there. You start getting exposed to people that are doing a whole other level, and then all of a sudden, you have these vast breakthroughs.

The same thing happens with the business. You know, you think you're, you think you're killing it. We are a little six-figure cash-based practice. Why don't you come to hang out with the mastermind, start talking to people that are doing seven figures in business in their practice every single year? And growing like a weed.

Now all of a sudden, you start to put yourself in a position where you're being challenged, your world has gotten rocked, and but you also see what's possible. And you know what people are doing. And you see that there's a path for you to continue to progress and grow. And that's exciting. And the last thing, and I hate this because I do hear this quite a bit, is I hate it when I listen to people complain, complain about their situation, complain about not.

They are not getting the raise. They thought that they needed not, not being able to work. And you know, let's say open an office in this gym that they thought they'd be able to do because, Oh, cause the gym owners, he's an asshole. He's probably not an asshole. Right? He's got a lot of shit going on just like you, and I do.

And when we go around complaining and complaining and blaming other people for stuff doesn't help you progress one bit and Hey. Guess what? It could be a shitload worse. You could be going on your 18th year out of high school, getting paid $70,000 a year to work a hundred hours in a hospital, and hardly see your family.

Imagine that, and if you're complaining about the shit that's bugging you now, I believe that you probably wouldn't even make it through a program like that. Like this guy told me, the drop rate is super high for people to get through this, and I believe it, the volume of work, the time that it takes to be able to commit to that.

How about teaching, you know, 10 hours a day for three days straight. If you just worked 60 hours at your gym, flying home, sleeping on your plinth in a Conex box in a parking lot in San Francisco, waking up at 6:00 AM, and getting your energy level up to get everybody through the CrossFit workout that you programmed for them.

How about that? And then do that for four years straight every single weekend. The level at which people put themselves through things to achieve what looks like an overnight success. And that's what I want you to realize. You don't become a cardiothoracic surgeon overnight. Yes. Don't build a platform as Kelly has with MobilityWOD and the ready state overnight, but you don't hear what they have to go through.

So your blinders get put on and what you think. Success looks like and how fast it occurs. It doesn't happen quickly. Never. It's always an overnight success. Seven or ten years later, whatever it is, and the more you can, except the fact that that's the case, the more you can commit to handling your shit every single day and growing.

As, as a person, as a clinician, as an entrepreneur, whatever it is that you feel like you need to improve, focus on improving that a little bit every single day. Well, you're going to again, may gain progress and traction and move forward with the goal that you have in mind of becoming the best in the world at something.

That's what I want you to take away from this is patients is essential. Momentum is what you have to chase. Happiness is fleeting. There are lots of factors associated with that. Still, if you are continually making at least even micro improvements, small changes that drive momentum where you feel like you're moving forward, moving forward, moving forward, and sure, sometimes maybe it feels like you're not moving at all. Still, you are, as long as you're putting that time in, you are.

And the patient's element of this is where many people fall off is it is not a sprint. And in business, we think it is, and we're like, Oh, I have to be successful super fast. Like work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, burn yourself out, and then quit and go back and work for a hospital. I see it over and over again.

I have people email me about it always. It's embarrassing for them. How would you feel if you left a job? Told everybody, I'm going to have this thriving practice, and within a year or two years, you didn't figure it out. You're working 60 70 hours a week, making mostly the same money that you did working for somebody else, 40 hours a week plus benefits, plus you don't have all the risk on top of you.

And then was your tail between your legs go back to the hospital or the in-network practice that used to work for me? Ask for your job again. Mattia terrifies me every single day. Every day keeps me moving, keeps me motivated. It was the most fearful thing that I had whenever I left the military. What if I made the wrong choice?

What if I wish I had gone back to the army? What are my friends going to think? What's my family going to think? And that fear can be a strong motivator as well. If you are focusing on the right things and you're playing the long game and understanding that patience, he is a superpower. Patience is a superpower.

It allows us to continually make small changes in ourselves and our business and move in the direction that is where we want to go. And that momentum. Remember, like do momentum is everything momentum moving forward, moving forward, moving forward. That's what you have to chase to focus on that. Not on these big wins that you occasionally get bond every single day doing the work you needed, the work that is not sexy, and Nobody's going to talk about.

But the work that is necessary, you know, like, like Kelly, like being able to write a book, like becoming a supple leopard that changed so much for so many people is a culmination of a decade or more of work and experience and exposure, testing, retesting, banging your head against the wall. Why isn't this working?

How do I figure out a better system? Reinvent it, break it again. It doesn't work. Do it again. Then you put your topics out there. And then the world gets to judge you. How fucking crazy is that? All that work, all that work, and then some asshole on Amazon or Instagram can say, Oh, this guy's an idiot.

Hidden what he's talking about. Thank you. That's really what you want. I mean, I think about that for a second. That's what many people wish to, but they don't realize all the other things that go, go into it. So if that's really what you want, momentum is where it's at. You got to focus on that. So, guys, I hope that's hope.

This makes sense for some of you, you know, if you're listening to this and you're like, damn,  Danny's in my brain right now. Like it's precisely what I'm thinking. Good. Good. I hope this is helpful to you. You know, as I wish, this is something that somebody would have told me. Five years ago, because I added a ton of stress to my life, focusing on speed.

And not on focusing on momentum and the right things and wanting things to happen faster, faster. Like, why isn't that? Why aren't things happening more quickly? Why do I need to accelerate this? Sometimes you just can't accelerate stuff because it's a process, and you're growing, and you're learning along the way.

So hopefully, for those of you that you know, this strikes a chord in, and it's the right message for you at the right time. If I can save you a lot of stress in your life, you know, and how that can affect your health and your relationships, and your family gives you some guidance in terms of what you should focus on.

You know, remember that it's all about the climb. It's not about the view from the top, cause it wouldn't mean anything if you didn't have to put the work in to get there in the first place. As always, guys, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time.

Do you want more cash, PT, biz help? If so, get a copy of my book. Fuck insurance. It's your playbook—so successful performance, PT practice, and never having to deal with insurance again. You can get a free copy at  finsurancebook.com. Inside this book, you'll learn the direct techniques that we've used to become one of the fastest 100% cash PT practices in the country.