Is this a secret?
Dreams live in conversation and die in silence.
My wife recently became a real estate agent and I overheard her coach tell her something that resonated with me as a physician.
“Don’t be a secret agent,” he said.
“Don’t become a real estate agent that no one knows. Don’t keep it to yourself and wonder why no one sends you business.”
It reminded me of how I began my journey into real estate -- on the sly, incognito, in secret. This is how most doctors do anything besides medicine. That is the medical mindset.
We have this fear that being a whole person with other interests and pursuits makes us a lesser doctor.
Do you keep your dreams and interests a secret?
We kill ourselves with 150% commitment of our energy, time, mind, and spirit into medicine and squeeze what’s left on the side to our health, passions, family, and the rest of our lives so we don’t have to sacrifice our dedication to our patients in any way.
When I began learning about real estate, I did not tell a single soul about my interest. I read books and listened to podcasts in hiding. I learned on my own by myself in secret, just like I did in medical school.
I learned, researched and analyzed it by myself and I learned that real estate investing is a homerun for doctors. After two years of walking through properties and running the numbers, I discovered that cash flowing properties ran slim in Southern California.
I wanted to become a passive investor, not an active real estate operator. At the peak of my frustration, month after month unable to find an investment opportunity that would cash flow with minimal money down, I kept pushing forward all alone. My Medical Mindset at its best.
Meanwhile, my wife shared my blatant failure with her friend who happened to work in real estate his entire life. When he was evaluating high rise office buildings to invest out of state, he introduced me to friends of his with a real estate business.
That is where I met my first turnkey operators and learned the BRRR method of investing. I have since purchased nine doors that have had cash flow ever since.
What I have come to discover is that the medical mindset of keeping who you are and what you want secret is limiting and short-sighted. I learned that who I am and what I do does not need to be a secret.
As I broke out of the medical mindset and began sharing with friends and my patients who I am and what I do outside of the office and operating room, I realized how happier I was.
To my surprise, my patients enjoyed seeing me as a whole human being too. They began sharing their lives with me and our relationship became less robotic and assembly line and more real and authentic.
Breaking Out of the Medical Mindset shares all these missing conversations that doctors never have in our offices or hospitals. Because being a whole human being should not be a secret for anyone. Especially healthcare providers who serve to heal the world.
