Are You Prepared For Crisis?

At a very young age, she was diagnosed with high-risk leukemia. Subsequent to that, she had epileptic seizures. On top of that, by age 12, she was in end stage liver failure and had to go through a life-saving transplant, which I'm happy to say did save her life.

Today she is thriving, but during those darkest hours the family unit was just being pulled apart… Stress, emotion, figuring out where I was supposed to play my part, trying to sell my dental practice, providing for my family, piecing together how to be emotionally present.

I was pulled in so many places and unfortunately, the marriage to Jenna's mom didn't work out – one of the biggest failures in my life. Looking back, I just didn't know what I didn’t know. 

I didn't understand how I could still live my life, be present (especially during those times of stress when I needed to be there) and NOT feel guilty for not working in the business making money.

Don’t Define Success by Someone Else’s Standard

We shy away from living our life because society sets these high bars about what it means to be successful in a business or a dental practice.

What your profitability needs to be. What the revenue needs to be. The business size. How many chairs and operatories. Number of associates. Partners. Multiple practices to roll into a DSO.

I'm not putting any of that down, but the problem I see is… the focus is on the wrong thing. If many of those models fit for you and you're able to do it well, then you should do it. But too many times I see doctors get trapped in these models that other people are selling them and telling them to do, whether they've done it themselves or not. 

That causes the doctor to get trapped in an inordinate amount of complexity that takes away from the life he wants to live, missing those cherished moments with family members. Their children, their spouse, and parents. Here today and sometimes gone tomorrow, or maybe we're the ones who are gone sooner than they expected.

That’s not the life you wanted.

There’s a Better Way – Even in Times of Crisis

If you’re looking for a better way out, you have to find and surround yourself with the people who have the life you want. Those who have accomplished what you want to accomplish. Those who have been down a path of difficulty, found the traditional path that people lay out to be “successful” and realized it’s not the path to take.

It's hard to go against the grain. To be a contrarian, to be a renegade is very difficult. But from my own experience, if you don't look at different avenues to what you're doing right now it will only get worse. That stress because you're not present. The regret of not spending more time with your family. The guilt of not being able to make more, especially during uncertain economic times.

And when life throws you a grenade of health problems for you or a family member, you don’t want to feel like you can’t be there for them. There is an absolutely better way to gain the time you want and spend it how you wish.

I'm David Phelps and I run the Freedom Founder's Mastermind community. This is what we're about – giving back the time you need. We change lives on a regular basis in our community. I invite you to take a look and come see what we’re about.

If you're trying to figure out what's the best pathway, and you feel like you're all alone, you're not. But you have to reach out.