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Money, respect and impact

Those are the 3 “biggies” used to drive us into a career in Medicine.

Doctors make a lot of money. Doctors receive a lot of respect. Doctors make a huge impact on the world.

But under the microscope lenses of “personal experience” and “reality”, these 3 USPs aren’t as brilliant as they seem at first glance.

Doctors don’t get as much money as you think they do…when you divide what they earn by the crazy number of hours that they work.

Doctors are respected by some of the patients they treat. But they do not get respect from the Health care Factory that treats them as the dispensible, replaceable cogs that it trained them to be.

And whilst Doctors work really hard to make a difference in the lives of their patients, the impact their work has on the global canvas of health care is about zero percent.

That is, unless they develop an innovation like the Polio vaccine or a breakthrough in Human genomic that can scale independent of their continual efforts…something that most Doctors will neverdo because they aren’t given enough time, energy or encouragement to make meaningful breakthroughs in their fields of interest.

Also under the microscope, we see that the Money, Respect and Impact offered by a career in Medicine, come attached with a huge price tag:

Your personal happiness and well-being.

You have as much right to these as the patients you’re being trained to serve…don’t you think?

This is a taster from Escape Velocity: a personalised email course that guides medics step-by-step in how to successfully make the transition from being stuck in medical school…to living a life of happiness, freedom and fulfilment. Admission is by invitation-only. Click here to apply for your FREE invite.

Rites of passage (this is where you grow up)

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

In some cultures, you have to kill a lion in order to graduate into adulthood.

In others you go on a Walkabout, or run with the bulls, or trek across the Amazon with nothing but the clothes on your back.

Today, the rite of passage is making the conscious decision to pursue your potential, despite how much this upsets your parents, elders and guardians.

It means doing the work of figuring out what’s important to you, making a plan to get it, and then going after it with everything you have.

It means standing up to your parents’ challenges, figuring out how to deal with debt/loan/cash flow issues, and refusing to settle for less than what you were created to do.

It means being willing to suffer for a moment or a decade or more…in order to reap the rewards of being true to your True Identity.

And when you do this, your parents et Al. will resist you, shout at you, guilt trip you …and then celebrate you for standing up to them.

Because all they want to know is that you’re really seriously about what you say you want this time.

So this is where you grow up, and decide to go after what’s important to you.

Welcome to your Rite of passage.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

…was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

And when it comes to Medical School, one of the biggest tricks is convincing you that how you feel and what you’re going through is ‘just a normal part of Med school’.

No pain, no gain; right?

We also used to put up with blood letting and treating headaches by drilling into patients skulls…until someone had the courage to do something about it.

No, you’re not the only one going through what you’re going through.

Yes, you have the right to do something about it…even if nobody else is.

This is going to hurt a lot

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

This isn’t going to be a “sharp scratch”.

The moment you tell your parents or guardians or society that you don’t want to follow the plan you’d previously agreed to…the one they’ve helped you pursue your whole life…there’s going to be conflict.

Painful conflict.

And a brutal emotional and psychological battle between their expectations and your exasperations.

This is going to hurt a lot, particularly since it involves people you love.

But as painful as this confrontation might be, it’s a fun day-on-the-beach when compared to what you’re left with if you don’t have this confrontation:

Regret.

If only, what if, woulda, coulda, shoulda.

The sort of regret that will haunt you every step of the way into your 80s and taunt you on your death bed.

And when asked about the things they regret most, virtually every “senior citizen” mentions regret over things they didn’t do rather than things they did do.

Jeff Bezos used this insight as part of his “regret minimization framework”…and was inspired/compelled to quit his job as a successful stock analyst to start a company called Amazon.com

Because the excruciating pain of disappointment and failure hurts way less than the agony of regret.

Either way, there’s pain. But you get to choose:

To disappoint them for a moment (and maybe delight them for a lifetime)…or just keep going through the motions to keep them happy, and live with terrible regret for the rest of your life.

The choice is yours.

The golden rule

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. — Anon

You have no money, and therefore you have no say in what you do with your life.

Worse, you are in debt and you are financially dependent on others who want you to become a Doctor and fulfill their dreams…never mind the dreams you have for yourself.

What do you do?

One thing:

You need to make your own money…and a lot of it.

I’ve proven this the hard way over 13 years with a wife, 5 kids, unemployment benefits, odd jobs and jumping through hoops for family just to make ends meet.

Bottom line: you need to make your own money…and a lot of it.

The same brainpower you’ve been using to cram biochemical pathways and learn the branches of the brachial plexus and the components of the coagulation cascade…

That same brain power needs to be deployed on getting some financial literacy really quickly.

Because whoever controls your money, controls you.

And when it comes to your parents/guardians/society etc, if you’re dependent on them for your finances, then you’re going to have to jump through their hoops and put up with their demands…until you change the dynamic by making some money.

This section will give you the condensed version of what is covered in the Escape Velocity module on money.

Punchline #1: you can make a lot of money right now using the time, energy and knowledge that you already have.

Punchline #2: making your own money is an important step in getting your parents et Al to support you emotionally in pursuing your dreams.

Punchline #3: you can make a lot of money right now…and you need to.

What turns you on?

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

What was the last thing you did, saw, ate or experienced that left you feeling turned on?

Heart racing, eyes dilating, imagination exploding with possibilities, adrenaline coursing through your blood stream and dopamine/serotonin flooding your nervous system.

What was it?

Deeper than sex, food, alcohol and drugs…what activities give you a similar high that you can’t get enough of?

Make a list right now…and then spend 5 minutes doing one of those things on your list.

The gruelling schedule of Med school is designed to kill your passions, or at least kill your ability to connect with them.

(An emotionally impotent person is much more compliant and easier to control than someone in touch with their life’s true passions.)

Now whilst you may feel you’ve lost your love for kite boarding, stamp collecting, air guitar or improve, taking a moment to admit that those things still turn you on (even a bit) is a step in rekindling your desire for those things.

So…what turns you on?