#210 How To Build a Business That You Can Be Proud of

Hey, everyone. Hope you've had another great week. This week has been eventful in so many ways. If you ever want to talk about it, we'll sit and talk about it. But it's caused me to do a lot of thinking this week about life, about my legacy, about our legacy, and what we really want to do with our time and our energy. This week, I'm going to talk about building a business you can be proud of. I mean, first of all, I'm so proud of the culture of our community. You, the podcast listeners, our Facebook groups. We're supportive of people who want to try new ventures, expand their identities as doctors without judgment. It's a beautiful thing to see. And so this week, we're going to talk about the key things that you should consider as you build and grow your business as a physician and doctor. 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. You know, this week I've talked to a bunch of people who feel that doctors should remain doctors, that they're less than or not even capable of running businesses in an ethical, profitable, also a good way. And I believe that to be completely untrue. I mean, they're telling us to stay in our lane. I don't believe that to be the case. I don't know about any of you who are listening to this, what you're doing in your life, whether you tried to start a new venture, and if you have, you know the risk it takes, but also what you're capable of doing now. For any of you who have been part of our leverage and growth summits in the past, the point of those summits is not just to have a group of people talking. It's to share what our community is doing and show what's possible. As physicians, we know we all take a pledge. It's called the Hippocratic Oath, right? Where we promise to act in service to others with integrity, personal commitment to their best interest, and to do no harm. And I believe and hope that we carry that into all aspects of our lives, not just when we step foot into the hospital, but also while we're at home and in our communities. And so when we start our businesses and we start our ventures, we want to make sure we do it in a way that honors our commitment to serving others. This is something I've thought about so much and constantly learning how to do in A better way. And I'd like to share some of the key principles I've learned along the way. And maybe it can help you, because let me tell you, at the end of the day, you want to build something that you're proud of. There will always be a ton of noise out there, but you, but only you know what's in your heart, your mind, your intent, and what you hope for the outcome. And so you have to be comfortable with that. That will help you sleep at night. And ultimately I believe that brings you to the place of fulfillment in the future. So here's that first principle. Build what people are asking for. Somebody once asked me, what is a business or what is the point of a business? And he said, it's simply just a solution to a problem. How many of you, whenever there's a problem or issue in your life, you, you go out and look for the solution and hope that there's been something created for that. In today's world, we always say there's an app for that. But all those are businesses. Someone saw the problem and decided to create something to fix that. And that's not a small feat. Anybody who started a business knows that that's not an easy thing to do. Now when I started this platform, Passive Income md, it was simply to share what I was learning on my journey to try to create financial freedom for myself. It was never to tell people what to do or they had to do what, or that there's one path to financial freedom or ultimate fulfillment. It was just because I wanted to expose people to different available options out there that I felt like nobody else was talking about. Up to that point, I had only heard that you should just put your Money in your 401ks or in a stock account and hope that it would grow someday to a number that allows you to feel safe enough and comfortable enough to retire. And at that time, I hadn't met a single physician who had actually utilized this strategy and was able to work part time, mid career or take some time off. Sure, maybe they might be okay 20, 30 years from now, but until then they just had to bear with their current life grind, put their head down and hope that they would make it there someday. And I just felt like that strategy didn't make a lot of sense for me. And again, maybe that's just me. But I wanted to find a situation where I could start to take some chips off the table now, start reducing my time as I wanted to spend more time with my family. My family was growing at that time. I wanted to experience new things and travel and have some more freedom when it came to my time today, not 20, 30 years down the road. So I found a few physicians in my own hospital that were actually doing that by investing in real estate, both actively and passively. So I just started following their strategies and started to share them with the world. Our community started growing and I began to ask all of you, what do you need? You gave me ideas for different topics, so I would cover that on my blog, on my podcast. You actually came up with the idea to do a course on doing better due diligence for passive real estate. So we created that. However, I'm like a people pleaser in so many ways, and so I didn't want to have anybody have reservation about being part of a course and community. And so I told everyone, take the course. If it's not what you think, it doesn't bring value to your life or you're not going to get a great return on investment, not only in the short term, but on the long term, just let me know, we'll give your money back. I wanted to sleep well at night knowing that people were happy. And so few people took us up on this offer and decided to stay in our community. And it's grown since. And it's such an amazing group of people that I love spending time with and getting to know. Then people said they wanted a conference, they wanted to invent to talk about these things because nobody else was talking about it out there. So we started PIMDCON and the Leveraging Growth Summit. And now tens of thousands of people have now gotten together as part of this community to support each other, to learn all these things. And it's just been something that I've been so grateful for. And it's really not been about us. It's just been about what people have asked for and us trying to create that solution. Number two, start something that matters. I don't know if you've ever read the book by Blake Mycosky or you've ever heard of him. He started this company called Toms Shoes. So let me know if any of you out there have any sort of Toms Shoes. It's like these shoes that almost look like moccasins in a way. And they've of course evolved since then, but back then, for any pair that was purchased, they would give a pair away to somebody in need. And that started this whole socially conscious business kind of concept that you probably see out there in a lot of places where people say for. For buying Our product, we give this away. It got people thinking to how they could use for profit companies for what was typically nonprofit good for social good out there in the world and to make a difference. After I read that book, I know it impacted me so much. Every business that I'm now part of has some element of that social good, whether it's finding certain causes that we will support, whether it's putting in time to serve others. And this is something that we do naturally as physicians. This is what we do every day. Whether you remember that this is the reason you went to medicine or not, you, you are serving people, you are doing something that matters. And so this part, if anything comes extremely natural to all of us, you might not have realized when you started your private practice that you decided to serve the community. You decide to start something that impacts the lives of so many people out there. And for those of you who are starting other businesses outside of medicine, it's great to have that in mind in the same way, just like anything, if you're doing it for a cause, for a mission, a passion, you're going to enjoy it so much more and more and it'll be so much more sustainable even when times get tough. Number three, create something called alignment of interests. Now, I use this term a lot in the real estate world. It's a situation where you figure out how to build trust. Now, you don't just build trust by saying, I trust you and shaking hands. You actually can create a system where that trust has to happen. Meaning that as a business owner, you can only win if your clients, customers, partners, community wins. None of us want to be seen as starting something or doing something just for the money. How do you feel whenever you hear about people talking about doctors doing it just for the money or that they're greedy? I mean, it creates a, like a visceral reaction for me. I don't know what it does for you, because I think we all know the sacrifice that we went through to get here and that if it was truly for the money, we probably could have done something else in our lives. Now, that doesn't mean we don't want to make money, because that's what creates a sustainable business. We get compensated for a time to continue to be able to serve and to grow. But we all know that we're not doing it solely for the money. As I mentioned in my newsletter this week, it's crazy how so many people actually make decisions because they don't want to bring on that type of criticism, even though it may not be the case again. I had a conversation this week with someone who wanted to start a cash based practice and she was worried about the criticism out there, worried about being judged for just trying to create more money. It's funny because it wasn't the criticism from her patients that she was most worried about, it was a criticism from other doctors, which I thought was strange because I think if anybody would be able to see her true intent, which was that she wanted to actually be able to spend more time with her patients, build a more sustainable practice, spend more time with her family and live a more fulfilled life and career, I think if anybody, we should be able to understand that as a community. Luckily, she decided to put aside all that fear and that worry, decided to stick with the truth and go with what she felt was right to do. And that was ultimately inspiring for me. So in your business to go back to the alignment of interest point, can, can you create a system where you can only be successful if other people do well and then you can stay above that reproach? An example of that is what we've done with our real estate company, Ascent. So with our community, we decided to put our funds together and go out and buy real estate and try to have the control ourselves. But because I didn't want anybody to question our motives and I wanted to make sure people understood that we were in total alignment with them and we built a system where, where other people would eat and get full first before we even participated. And I think as a result of that, our company has grown so much and we're still in this growing phase. And in true honesty, in the past four years, I haven't gotten paid a dime and I'm okay with it because this is my passion. I want to be proud of what I've built and have people understand that I'm there to serve this community first and hopefully lead the way. And that leads me to my next point, which is own your mistakes, be accountable and keep trying to grow and improve. As physicians, we all know that what we practice is science and is evidence based. But even then, our outcomes are not guaranteed in any way. How many of you have ever had a complication before or misdiagnosed or missed something before in the past? If we're all honest, all of us have, in spite of trying to do the very best we can. The worst thing you can do in a business is when you make a mistake, not own up to it, not be transparent with people and hide and move forward. Now, one of the people I look up to who has really embodied this is actually Warren Buffett. He's considered one of the greatest investors of all time. I don't need to tell you about him. Everyone knows about him. The great thing about him is he admits that he's made some of the biggest mistakes in history. We all see him as this untouchable billionaire investor who has had the pinnacle of success. But on the other side, he's had some of the biggest losses of all time. He's had deals where he's lost hundreds of millions of investor dollars, and even last year, he reported losses in the billions. But he's not afraid to own up to him. He analyzes his mistakes, figures out what he did wrong, and continues to move forward. Now, he's been doing this decade after decade after decade. So people now know that in spite of trouble, in spite of making mistakes, he's gonna take measures to try to avoid them as much as possible in the future and keep moving forward. And that's why people trust them. And I've really taken that to heart. In every business that I've built, there's always been volatility and uncertainty. And I've tried to do my best to be honest with people. I don't know. I guess I have this belief that if people see that you're actually trying and honestly doing your best, they will understand and they will be patient with you as you try to fix and mitigate things. Now, hopefully, you have way more wins than losses, but those losses probably sting internally more than anything. But you can use those to help you drive forward learning from those, admitting them, and it'll only make you smarter and more experienced and make better decisions in the future. And lastly, don't give up on your passions. There will be naysayers, there will be haters as you grow, but there are people on the outside who don't know your true intentions. They don't know your mission, but they bring in their experiences from the past. And I understand why that might be so. They're just doing the best, from what they know. But, yeah, it might not feel good for you, but the important thing is to stay true to your mission. And if that's to serve others and it's something you're passionate about, don't give up on it. I believe that truth wins in the end. And you and your community will be rewarded for your persistence and all the efforts that you put in to do the right thing, to serve others. I mean, there are so many of you out there who are starting a business. You're thinking about starting a business or have started businesses and it's been a tough road. But I'm here to encourage you. My father once told me that that you can live a quiet average life, but that doesn't mean you're gonna be fulfilled. At the end of the day, if you're called to lead, to build something, it's somewhat of your responsibility to take action on that. I love what my friend Dr. Pranay Parikh says. He says the world would be better place if we had more physician led businesses. I believe that we know what it means to lead with integrity, with honesty, and a true passion to serve others. And at the end of the day, I love talking about the rocking chair stage of life where I imagine us all sitting on a patio somewhere looking out into the sunset, rocking in our rocking chairs, looking at each other with a little bit of wrinkle on our face, thinking about all that you've been able to experience and everything you've built. And hopefully you can feel proud of it all. We all want our loved ones, our spouses, our kids to be able to look us and say job well done. That's what I hope for all of you. This community is amazing. Keep up the great work and let us know how we can continue to support you. Thanks everyone. Have an amazing week and let's talk again soon. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. Learn more at our website, passiveincomemd.com thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.