Medical School Archives | Page 4 of 8

Who will miss you when you’re gone?

There’s a difference between success, and significance.

There’s a difference between grabbing everyone’s attention as you make a grand entrance into the room…and being noticed when you quietly slip outside for some fresh air.

There’s and reason why many “successful” people commit suicide after achieving all that they thought they wanted.

It’s because they got what they wanted, only to find that it didn’t matter as much and they thought it did.

The pursuit was more fulfilling than the achievement.

There’s no doubt you will succeed. But my question is, ‘Are you going to matter’? — Seth Godin

Who will miss you when you’re gone?

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.

Don’t just quit (part 1 of 3): Build yourself a runway

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

Don’t just quit or drop out of Medical school…until you have built yourself a runway to launch yourself into the next level of your life.

This is extremely important, and something I cover in detail in some of the Escape Velocity modules.

That’s because as important as it is to go after your dreams, it’s even more important to be aware of all the deadly obstacles you’ll need to navigate.

Things like parents, cultural expectations, debts, student loans, network pressures, peer pressures, lack of connections, lack of directions, bad habits, addictions, etc

All of these forces have the potential (and incentives) to destroy your dreams before they even have a chance to get off the ground.

But they’ll never get off the ground if you don’t build a runway, a structure, that allows you to build up enough momentum and velocity to escape the gravitational pull of all those obstacles.

Knowing you need a runway might be enough to help you figure out what that means.

If you need more, check out the Escape Velocity modules.

Key message: If you really want to give your Dreams a fighting chance of surviving (and thriving)…take a bit of time to build them a runway.

10 years in 6 months?

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

A challenge from Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal (and the guy who offers $100,000 to kids who choose to drop out of college to start a business):

What would you have to do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next 6 months?

Again, worth thinking about.

Wanna come out and play?

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

When you were a kid, you (usually) needed a grownup’s permission for your friend to come out and play.

Now…you don’t.

You are connected to over 3 billion people, and you have the ability to ask any of them if they wanna come out and play.

Wanna come out and play?

Wanna make a movie about a raindrop trapped on a window ledge?

Wanna do an interview with me on my podcast?

Wanna help me build 25 schools in Eastern Liberia?

Wanna start a T-shirt business on Etsy?

The Internet is one big street where you get to knock on any door/tap on any window and ask whoever’s inside if they want to come out and play.

Many people will say no, because they don’t know you/trust you (yet) or don’t want to play whatever game you’re inviting them to.

But many more people will say “Let me grab my coat” and come join you outside to play…especially if you show up as a real person who cares about connecting with them.

It all starts with asking:

Wanna come out and play?

Flying too close to the sun

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

Here’s the story of Icharus in less than 10 seconds.

Icharus and his Dad are escaping an island using wings made from wax. Icharus is warned not to fly too close to the sun (so the wings don’t melt). Icharus disobeys. His wings melt. He falls into the ocean and drowns. The end.

Lesson: curiosity killed the cat, obey your parents, colour within the lines, don’t try to reach beyond your boundaries…

But as Seth points out in The Icharus Deception, that’s only half of the story.

Icharus was also told by his Dad not to fly too low, so that his wings wouldn’t be damaged by the salt spray from the ocean.

Lesson: making a prison break on waxen wings isn’t an exact science, playing it safe can be the most risky thing you can do, aiming too low is dangerous…

Most of us have been conditioned by Med School et al. to keep our heads down and avoid flying too close to the sun…so you’re easier to control.

Clearly, the one thing you must do, then, is fly as close to the sun as you possibly can.

What’s the worst that can happen if you do?

Or more importantly: what’s the worst that can happen if you don’t?

Don’t die before you fly

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

If you’re thinking about ending it all anyway, why not go out with a bang?

Not the “bang” of a well-written note and a dramatically executed suicide.

That’s been done.

But the BANG of doing something outrageous, scandalous and outlandish in your skin…making everyone you know gasp in amazement.

Start a band and go homeless.

Launch a business and go bankrupt.

Write that novel and flunk all your exams.

Build a controversial following on Snapchat and be disowned and kicked out by your parents.

What will that feel like, how will you survive, what will you do next?

Those are questions you get to answer by deciding to stick around and go out with a bang.

Refuse to die before you fly.

Refuse to take yourself out of the game, just because of how awkward you think you’re making other people feel.

Insist on the right to live your life to the full, even if you screw-up along the way.

Demand that the world sees who you are — warts, smells and all — and make them try to take you out because of how blindingly brilliant your light is to their eyes.

(The way they took out JFK, MLK, Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, and many others).

There are tactics and strategies you can use to do this (as you’ll see in a moment).

But if you’re thinking of ending it all anyway…forget about the strategies and tactics…and skip straight to where you live such a bold, outrageously generous and daring life, that you get folk plotting on how to take you out.

Don’t die before you fly.

Refuse to die with your wings stuck inside you.

Unfold them and see where they take you.