#176 Is Entrepreneurship The Key To Beat Physician Burnout?

Hey, everyone. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about an important issue. It's the topic of physician burnout. And I have a question for you. Is it possible that entrepreneurship is one of the keys to beating physician burnout? We're going to talk about that today, so stay tuned. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now, let's get on with the show. Okay, let's do a little bit of a deep dive into a pressing issue that impacts not just patients, but really the individuals also dedicated to caring for them. That's you, the doctor, the physician. And it feels a little bit ironic, right? As doctors, we pledge our lives to the health and well being of our patients. But a lot of times in the process, we forget about ourselves. We forget about our own journeys, our own mental health, our well being, which actually really begins at home. It starts with us. And as providers, if we're not in the right mindset, if we're not at our best, how can we really take care of other people in a great and meaningful way? Now, again, welcome to another episode of the Passive Income MD Podcast. I'm your host, Peter Kim. I really want to thank you for listening in each and every week. I hope it's been a good summer for you. Summer often gives us a chance to take a rest, a few moments out of our time. We actually are truly intentional about the time we spent in our summers. For many of you who have kids, you know that when they're off, you want to be off as well. And I don't know if vacations for you are stressful or stress relieving, but I know that this time often gives us some sort of reprieve from the day to day. But when vacation is over and summer ends, many of you just go back to the same routines and you start to feel that sense of burnout again. Now, I know I've been there before where you have to wake up at 4am you get ready for the long day, you start your shift. As an anesthesiologist, I was one of the first people in the hospital. I get there early, I'd stay late. Sometimes I wouldn't eat or drink all day. Maybe I'd get a coffee in the morning, but if I had coffee, then I would worry about having to go to the bathroom often. So I wouldn't do a lot of that. I drink a little bit of water once in A while between patients, I grab a granola bar. And then at the end of the day, you're tired, you're exhausted, and you have to go back and do it all again. Meanwhile, you have family at home. You want to give all to your kids, but you just feel kind of exhausted. Now, for many of you, having had that happen for so long, it progresses to something even more. This whole concept of burnout where you almost dread going to work every single day. And I know there's so many of you who feel that I talk to so many people again on a weekly monthly basis who experience that. And of course, being a physician, I have so much empathy for that, so much compassion. And I always wonder, what is the solution to this? If it's not getting better and it's getting worse, then maybe we need to do something about it. And I know in the past I've talked about creating multiple streams of income and I've talked about creating that financial freedom which will help in that area. But for today's episode, I really want to specifically talk about entrepreneurship. And being on that entrepreneurial journey might impact this feeling of burnout or even prevent it in some ways. But before we get into that, I think you just really have to address this problem. Why do people feel burnout? Now, I don't want to pretend that I'm the world's expert on this topic. I have so many good friends who, who really do a great job addressing this subject. They coach on it, they talk about it. But if I had to break it down, I think it really comes down to these four primary reasons. Number one, we simply feel overworked. The healthcare industry, for all it's done with technology and advancements and achievements, it still has extremely demanding hours. There's no such thing as in 40 hour work week. And if you do work a 40 hour work week, that is considered part time. And it's not just the duration, it's the intensity of these hours and the demands that are placed on us. Like, we're so used to managing our whole sympathetic system, dealing with pressure and that sort of thing, but it wears on us over time. As an anesthesiologist, again, most of what I do, I always felt like it wasn't that bad and pretty automatic. But when it did go poorly, man, I mean, it was really scary. And many of you, you make crucial decisions, you handle emergencies, you deal with personalities of patients, you deal with families. It's never a dull moment. And I'm sure it never really feels like it's smooth or Easy. And if you're working 50 hours, that's probably an easy week for most of you. Number two, I actually think this is a newer Number two, I actually think this is a newer concept. There's a sense that our jobs are not really fully secure. Whether you think so or not, back in the day when you became a doctor physician, you, you felt like you were somewhat set for life. Now, I don't know about many of you, but many of us feel like our jobs are a little bit shakier than they used to be. The medical landscape is changing, with private equity, with companies, private practices going away, institutional mergers and shifts in policies. I mean, I just talked to a doctor recently who was given a 90 day notice that their job, that the practice was no longer going to have the contract for the hospital. So they had to fight a new gig. Here's the problem. We all know that credentialing doesn't take a short amount of time. We have our families in one area, so it's not easy to uproot and, and move away. So what's this person supposed to do? And I really felt for this person. I don't know if this happened to you or, you know, somebody like this, but these kind of stories are happening, happening more and more commonly. So there's that uncertainty in the back of our minds, whether we think so or not, that our jobs and our paychecks are not quite as secure as they used to be. Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to the pimd podcast where we try to educate and we connect you through the best resources possible to help you get where you want to be. Today's episode is sponsored by DLP Capital. 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The best part, they're not just for real estate moguls, whether you're a seasoned investor or just getting started, DLP Capital, they've got a range of options tailored to suit your financial goals. Now, dream big, live fully, and get ready to prosper with DLP capital. Just visit dlpcapital.com today if you want more info. Again, that's dlpcapital.com so let's get back to the program. Thanks so much. Number three. I think it's the financial burdens and obligations that have stacked on us over time that lead to a lot of physician burnout. Of course, we all know that student loans are significant and are pretty astronomical for a lot of people. A lot of us have put obligations on ourselves like a home in a nice neighborhood. So you have to take care of that mortgage. There are major overhead costs for those running their practices. I just talked to a doctor the other day who said that his labor costs have skyrocketed lately. I don't know if that's happened to you. Malpractice insurance, CME or continual training, the cost of that. All of these things add up and have skyrocketed over time. There might still be that perception that doctors and physicians are the highest class of the 1%, but I know that many of us don't even feel anywhere close to that. So you've got that financial strain and that worry on top of everything else. And lastly, there's this concept called moral injury. I know it's discussed here and there. It's something again that I don't feel fully qualified to talk about, but I understand this concept. It's this concept that we went into medicine to help and serve other people. However external factors have gotten involved. There are inefficiency in the system and they tell you how to perform your job. A lot of times we just feel like technicians, kind of the pain of not being able to do right by our patients. For them not feeling like they're actually getting treated in the right way, that constant fighting between trying to do what's right and also having to do what you have to do because you want good patient satisfaction scores, all these factors are out of our control. And you add up all these things and it leads to this concept or this feeling of physician burnout. I will tell you, I've interviewed and talked to so many people who were at that stage and are at a different place today in a short period of time. I'm talking three months, six months, a year. They've completely flipped things around. And to be honest, it's usually Not a change that happens within their job. In the hospital, they found some other thing to put their focus and energy on to reignite their passion, to feel like they're giving back and contributing. And that's changed their mindset when it comes to this area. And that's this whole idea of entrepreneurship. You probably seen or have friends that are. Are in startup mode. They. They're starting their own businesses, and they're on fire. They're working 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, whatever it is, completely dedicated to what they're trying to build. But they seem extremely happy. Why is this? I mean, there's so many studies that show that these entrepreneurs, even though working long hours, having these demands financially, maybe not being in the right place, they seem to experience burnout far less than salaried employees who might have paid time off, works 40 hours a week, clock in, clock out. Why is that? There's this concept of positive psychological effects of entrepreneurial work, this psychological utility where there's this greater sense of meaning, personal autonomy, job satisfaction that comes from being an entrepreneur, from running things on your own, for having your own business. Ultimately, it creates this higher mental return on investment. So what they've seen again and again is that entrepreneurs, as opposed to employees, just on average, are happier, even if they're working harder. We've all heard about this concept of hustle culture and how that might be in this whole concept of being a workaholic. And that makes people unhappy. But there was a study done on positive workaholism that showed that when these people are truly engaged in what they're doing, it actually protects them from this idea of burnout and these feelings of not wanting to build their businesses. It's this freedom, this idea of innovation and the thrill of the unknown that really fuels them. And as physicians, we probably had that early in our career, especially in our trainings. Some people do experience that burnout during their training, but many of us, especially in the early years of our training, it was exciting. Even though we worked hard, there were risks there, but we felt there was hope down the path. There was some optimism still there. So part of this whole thing is about not only working hard, but having a deep connection to what we're doing, feeling like we're contributing, feeling like there's hope ahead for greater things. At every stage of the game to get where we're at, many of us kept striving, and we would knock down walls and mouseheads, and it felt good. Unfortunately, a lot of times when we become an attending, we feel like Is this it? But when I've seen physicians become entrepreneurs, and they can start small businesses, larger business, direct to consumer products. These are all people that I've interviewed as part of our Leverage and Growth Summit that we do every year. If you talk to them, you see that energy and the spark that they have doesn't mean they're all making a tremendous amount of money. But it's this idea of freedom, this idea of diversifying their income, diversifying their interests. It's following passions, it's following hobbies that they're able to monetize. This idea of getting rewards and future rewards, it gets them waking up early again, thinking about it, spending their free time on it, listening to books, meeting new people, networking, connecting is this whole concept of exercising different parts of your brain. At the end of the day, it's challenging, it's fun to learn new things. And that progress ultimately, I think, equals happiness for a lot of people. And many of us feel like if we just achieve something, which we've done to become where we're at, that that's good enough to carry us for a long term. But if we're not continuing to progress, oftentimes we feel like our worth is less over time. I don't know if you've ever felt like that. So study after study has shown that while entrepreneurship comes with challenges, just overcoming those, having something on the side creates a sense of hope that often people with this, These ideas of burnout and these feelings pretty much lack also. I know some of this stuff is anecdotal. I talked to physicians who have found the other side. They've tried entrepreneurship and they get excited and they move past that. But I've talked to enough people to realize that it's not just a coincidence. It's not going to work for everyone. But perhaps for some people, finding those other interests, figuring out how to grow a business, tapping that part of your mind, trying something new, having progress in different areas outside of medicine while still keeping your day job will completely change your perspective on all of this, especially if that leads to some lifting of that financial burden. You're able to make income here so you can work and shift how you work in medicine and really do it on your own terms. That freedom sometimes, or at least that choice, is enough to change your mindset and perspective. And so for those of you who are experiencing burnout, I absolutely understand and recognize that it's multifactorial. It's not just one simple solution. But if you consider that world of entrepreneurship, know that there are many physicians who have been successful in this area and it's helped them through this type of situation. Ultimately, if we don't take care of ourselves, I believe we can't take care of others well. So take that time now to figure out what you need to help yourself, your family and then others and know that we're here to support you. Until next time, have a great week. Take care. Hey everyone, don't let distance stop you from joining the most anticipated event of the year for physicians and high income professionals. Get your Virtual ticket to people PIMDCON, the physician real estate and entrepreneurship conference happening on September 21 through 23. Our virtual ticket will give you exclusive access to all featured speakers and keynote sessions along with expert led panel discussions. You're going to be able to participate in the conference from the comfort of your own home with the ability to engage with a virtual community of like minded individuals and network with high achieving professionals like yourself. But that's not all. With your virtual ticket, you're going to have lifetime access to all session recordings post event allowing you to re watch some of your favorite sessions and continue to learn from our expert speakers. So don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and insights, network with other high achieving professionals and take your real estate, investing and entrepreneurship game to the next level. Get your virtual ticket to PIMDCON now and join us for an unforgettable event. Thanks so much. Bye.