5 business lessons I learned from scoring 43% on a test

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you.

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Hi, docs. Welcome to the ontrembd podcast where it is all about helping amazing physicians just like you. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Entree MD podcast. And today I am going to be telling on myself. I cannot even believe I picked this topic, but it's going to be so helpful to you. So enjoy your drive, or, you know, if you're around the house, grab your coffee and get ready for a really, really, really great episode. So today we're going to be looking at seven valuable lessons, business lessons, by the way, that I Learned from scoring 43% on a test. All right, so here's a story. In my fourth year in medical school, we had a class called Chemical Pathology. And I just hated it. I hated the thought of it. I hated the way the textbook looked. And I came up with a really brilliant strategy. I was just not going to study. I wasn't going to read anything about chemical pathology because I hated chemical pathology. So that was my strategy. I did not buy the textbook. I didn't study. I attended classes, though, but didn't study. And I walked in and I took the first test and I got 43%. 4. 3. There is no universe where that's a passing score. And mind you, you may not know this, but I went to medical school In Nigeria. And in Nigeria, they use the European system, which is very different from the American school system. And the thought process is, we're going to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get into med school, and it will be survival of the fittest. So it's not just about passing or making an A. I mean, my first year, we're literally 420 students, and at the end of the day, we had probably 108 or 112 graduates. So you need to be in the top 100 12. So you do not have time to be making 43 on a test. Right, But I didn't buy the textbook. I didn't study, and that's what happened. Okay, well, you know, I learned from my lesson pretty quickly, so I went to. And it was so weird. Like, they put your test scores on a board for. And everybody goes to the board to see these test scores. So I walk in there, I see a 43%. I'm like, oh, crap. My strategy did not work. So. So I walk away from the board, straight to the bookstore, and guess what? I bought the textbook. So I buy the textbook, I go back home, I start studying what I should have done in the first place. And, you know, eventually we had other tests and, you know, we had our exams and all that stuff, and I ended up with an A. And I was One of the 108 or 112 that graduated, thank God. But. But I learned a very valuable lesson from that. Now, this was happening in 2001, so at the time of this recording, we're talking 19 years ago. But it always stuck with me. Okay? So I'm going to share those lessons with you. All right? So lesson number one. Burying your head in the sand is not a strategy. Okay? If this was a live event, I would be saying, say this after me, but burying your head in the sand is not a strategy. Okay? So maybe you know that you're supposed to start a business, and you've literally gone like, yeah, it's hard. Yeah, I don't think I have the time. I know I'm supposed to do this, but I'm just gonna pretend it's not there. It is not a strategy, okay? You built a business, and it's not yet profitable. And, you know, you should figure it out. I mean, you're gonna need to make payroll. It's a great opportunity. Like, imagine if you can get the business to work and all this st. And you're just like, I'm just going to put my head in the sand. I can't deal or there's a threat that's come to your business. And, you know, maybe you're in primary care and you own your own practice. Maybe that's your business. And you just had one minute clinic open by you and Walmart opened another clinic by you and two other doctors moved into the area. And you know that I need to pivot. I need to adapt, I need to change some things. I need to compete harder. But you just put your head in the sand. Burying your head in the sand like I did will get you a 43%. It's not gonna work. Okay? So that is not a workable strategy. Okay? So if you remember from my story, yes, that was really bad. I could have cried. I could have whined. I could have said, it's not fair. I could have said, medical school is hard. I could have blamed somebody else. But you really need to just do that. You need to walk to the bookstore, get your book and go sit down and read. Now, what would that look like for an entrepreneur? Maybe it's time to get a coach on board, right? Maybe you haven't been able to figure it out. People say there's no shortcut to success. I disagree. Right. I think that there is a shortcut to success. They're called mentors and coaches. Okay? So maybe it's time for you to get a coach on board. Maybe it's time for you to do that now. Will it cost you money? I don't call it a cost. It's an investment. But maybe you should be doing that. Okay? Maybe you should be taking some courses. Maybe you should, because what you know has brought you to where you are. And if you want to get better, you're going to have to know some different things. Okay? Maybe you need the accountability of a group, or maybe you need the camaraderie of a group, whatever it is, okay? So these are some of the things that you should be doing. And of course, you know, this is what the entre MD tribe is about. So if you're. If you started a business or you want to start a business or you want to scale a business, or you're like, my business is not profitable. We're here for you. Okay? So whether it's private coaching or group courses or whatever, you know, reach out, let's do it. Okay?

All right.

So that's one of the things you could do. Okay. And that was the first thing that I did. The second thing that I. I learned is that you can change. Okay. For me, I was just like, this is Complex. I just don't want to deal with it. I can't do that. Right? And it's not true. I mean, like, I may not like studying it as much. I may not chase that as, you know, a major in college because I don't like it, but I can do it because it's something vulnerable. I can learn it. You know what I mean? It's something I need to learn on the way to where I need to be. I want to be a doctor. That's not a. It's not an. It's not an elective. You know what I mean? Like, it's something that I have to pass. So in the same way, maybe you're not marketing your. Your business because you're saying I'm an introvert. And, you know, I'm telling you that you can change. Now, you're always going to be an introvert. But I'm saying you can be that person who can show up in places and confidently market. You can speak, you can, you know, ask for referrals. You can be a rock star networker. You can do all those things. Those are all learnable skills. You can change. So you, at your core, you're not going to change. But if there are things you can do, you can learn to do them. Okay? So, same way I went from 43 to an A in your business, you can go from, oh, I can. You know, I can't market, or when I see profit and loss statements, they make me dizzy. And all of those kind of things. Realize that those are things you're going to need to know to have a thriving business that will fund the life you want to live and let you practice medicine on your own terms. So if. If that's what it takes, learn it. Okay? You can change. You can change. You can learn new skills. You can be great at things that you suck out right now. No biggie. All right, so that was the second lesson. The third lesson. Hard work does not kill. Okay? So I want you to think about it. Maybe somebody else started off with a 73 or, you know, an 83 or whatever. I was starting off with a 43, right? And so I had a lot of. I had to make up for all the work I didn't do before the first test and include all the work for the next test. So what did I have to do? I had to buckle down and study really hard, okay? And. And work really hard. And, you know, now it's 19 years later. I mean, I don't remember the feeling of how hard I had to work. All I know is that I have an A. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? And in the same way, the work you're doing now, by the time it's time to reap the rewards of it, you're not gonna remember in that kind of way. Like, you remember you worked hard, but you're not gonna remember the pain or any of those kind of things. So hard work doesn't kill. So what that means is don't know if this happened to you or happens to you. But I remember when I first started off as a physician entrepreneur. I'm thinking, I have spent over a decade, right, preparing to become a doctor, to be. Preparing to become a pediatrician. And I'm like, I'm kind of done with studying, I'm kind of done with hard work. I'm done with pulling all nighters. I'm done with all that stuff. But when you become an entrepreneur, that is like a completely different career. And you're going to have to work hard at it. You're going to have to work hard at learning stuff. You're going to have to work hard at, you know, doing other things like, you know, marketing and looking at accounting and hiring and firing and all this other stuff. So it's going to be a lot of work, especially in the beginning. But the truth of the matter is, if you will do it, then you don't have to work as hard. Do you know? Do you see what I'm saying? Like, but in the beginning, I've seen people who are like, yeah, you know, I'm so sick and tired of working these long days, so I'm just going to start my own business. I'm like, that, that, no, that's not how that works. That's not how that works at all. And I did a podcast interview. I was a guest on the financial residency podcast with Ryan. Really great podcast, by the way. And he said that entrepreneurs are crazy. And I agree. Um, but entrepreneurs are crazy that they're the only people who would quit their 40 hour work week so they can work 70 hours a week. And that's the truth, you know, especially in the beginning. The truth of the matter is, as you do all that, it gets better. You learn better. You learn to leverage your time better. And you can then choose to work two days a week, or you can choose to take two months off or three months off or whatever you want to do. But in the beginning, you're going to have to do the work. Okay? So I learned hard work does not Kill the fourth thing I learned. I learned not to compare. Okay? For instance, if I had a friend who made 83 on this test that I made 43 on, and we had another test in four weeks, right? That person may be studying for 30 minutes or an hour a day or whatever, because for the first four week block, they studied and got an 83. So they mastered that content. And now they're just working on the extra four week, you know, to prepare for the second test. But for me, I didn't study for the first one. So now I have eight weeks worth of work to study on. I had to study harder, much harder than the people who started studying when they should have been studying. So if I was comparing myself to them and why do I have to work hard and why am I missing all the fun or whatever, then I probably would have ended up with a 43 at the end of, you know, at the end of the day, at the end. At the end of the entire course. So what are you supposed to do? Not compare. Stay in your lane. Do what you're supposed to do. That. That's what you're supposed to do. And, you know, stop feeling sorry for yourself. You're the one that didn't read. This is me talking to me. Okay? I'm not. I'm not saying you didn't read. Just stop feeling sorry for yourself. So maybe somebody else came from a family where everybody's an entrepreneur, and when they were in med school, they did an M. And when they're in med school, they started a few businesses and all this stuff. And you. This is your first time ever touching anything about business, and their business is blowing up, and yours is not. Your. Your business is not. And you're concerned. You shouldn't be. They're probably in, like, you know, their third, third phase of their business, and you're in phase one or maybe even building the foundation, so you're not even in phase one. Don't compare. Which is really hard because we have this amazing thing called social media, and everybody puts their best foot forward and nobody shows you the struggle involved in entrepreneurship. And you're like, something must be wrong with me. If you are struggling as an entrepreneur, nothing is wrong with you, okay? It's one of the hardest things you would do, but it's one of the most rewarding things that you would do. Okay? So if you're struggling, I don't want you to despair. If you need to bring a coach on, bring a coach. If you need to come join us and be part of The Freedom Formula Masterclass. Come join us. If you need to be in a circle, maybe, you know, you're not in the right Facebook groups, you know, maybe you want to join our Facebook group and where you can talk all things entrepreneurship and stuff and see fellow quote unquote crazy people like you. Maybe that's what you need to do. Maybe you need to get up and work harder. Maybe you need to stop comparing and work harder. Whatever you need to do, do it. But if you are struggling, if it seems like it's hard, entrepreneurship is hard, okay? It's hard, but it's great and it gets easier like everything else. Okay? So do not compare. Stay in your lane and do your work. Okay? All right. And the fifth thing is that a tribe is worth its weight in gold. Okay, listen. And when I say a tribe is worth its weight in gold, I mean an intentionally crafted tribe. So not where you allow relationships happen to you, where you choose who is in your tribe. So one of the things I didn't say in the story is that I found the people who had the highest grades in that class and they became my friends, right? So that way I'm studying with them. If I have questions, I'm asking them, and you become like the people you hang up, hang around. It's kind of just is the way it is, right? So I did that so that they could rub off on me. Their habits could rub off on me. I had people I could ask questions to constantly. I could go study with them. I could be in discussions with them. It was just great. Okay, so if you are an entrepreneur, then you need to have a tribe of entrepreneurs. And I talk about tribes a lot, and I won't go too deep into it, but when you think about tribes, there are three kinds of people you should have there. You should have people who are where you want to be. So that would be mentors and coaches and, you know, people like that. You should have people in the grind with you so they're in the same phase of their entrepreneurial journey. So, you know, maybe all startups or you guys, you've all built it to six figures and you're trying to scale to seven figures. You know, like, stuff like that. But you need people who are like your colleagues, and then you also need people who are like mentees. So people who look at you like, oh, my gosh, like, you're. You're like the smartest entrepreneur. And I don't know what I'm doing. People you can help people. And some people like, oh, I don't know anything, so I can't help anybody. But I need you to listen, though. I have four children and my 11 year old was 15 months old when I had my second kid, okay? And she didn't know how to be a mother. She didn't know how to feed a kid. But if his little hat fell off, she knew to pick it up, right? And hand it to me, like baby hat, right? She knew to do that. And she knew to hand me his socks. She knew to get him diapers if I, if I asked her to go get diapers. So you may not know everything, but you know something to help somebody. And the best time to start helping somebody is once you've learned one thing, and that's really the truth. So if you are listening to this podcast and there's somebody you can help, if the only thing you can do is tell them, oh, my gosh, you should be listening to this podcast. Whatever you've learned, teach somebody. Okay? So as an entrepreneur, you need all these three, right? But in the context of this conversation, mentors and coaches, you need to seek them out. A lot of successful people, they truly want to help people, right? So you see somebody who's doing a kind of business that you're doing, ask them questions, ask them if you can take them out to lunch. Sometimes they don't have time, but if they have time, they'll make out the time, you know, and ask questions and, and, and prepare for the meeting and implement what they tell you to do, right? Because their time is really valuable and there's nothing as rewarding as seeing somebody who meets with you and then comes back a week or two later and said, oh, my God, you said this and I did this and this is what happened. And that's like a mentor's high. Okay? So you want to seek out mentors and you want to seek out coaches. Okay? The money I've invested in coaching has been some of the best money that I've spent as an entrepreneur. So you want to invest in that to make you better. So if you are scoring the proverbial 43% in any area of your business, I hope this helps show you that you can change that. Okay? That doesn't need to be permanent. Same way I made an A, you can make an A as well. Okay? So. So remember the lessons. Burying your hand head in the sand is not a strategy. That's number one. Number two, you can change. Number three, hard work does not kill. Okay? Number four, don't compare. And then number five, your tribe is worth its weight in gold. So build, build your tribe. Okay? All right, so hope you got those lessons and what I want you to do with that today is I want you to commit to do something about Your quote unquote 43%. All right, so if you've been mean to start a business and you haven't started a business, take these five lessons and get to work. If you have started a business and it's not yet profitable, take these lessons and get to work. If you've built a business that's profitable but you know there's so much more potential and it's time to scale, take these lessons and get to work. All right, so what I want you to do is I want you to post which lesson you are going to be taking and running with today. Okay? So take a snapshot of the podcast, add your lesson, what you're going to do. Okay, which lesson you're going to act on, and then tag us. Hashtag entre MD E n T R e m D And I will love to continue the conversation with you on social media. So let's do it. Get to get to work. And I can't wait to hear what you're gonna do with this. I will see you next week.

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