#240 Gratitude for the Journey: Reflecting on the Path to Medicine and Beyond

Hey, everyone. Hope you've had another amazing week. This week, I'm going to talk about the gratitude I have for this journey. Talk about this journey, the people I've met, and how medicine has set me up for what I believe is success. And so stay tuned. I know you're going to enjoy this. 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.

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Now, let's get on with the show. Okay, today I wanted to talk about something that I hope resonates with all of us. Having some element of gratitude for the journey we've been on. I know at times things are difficult and challenging. I don't know where you're at in your life today. There are times when I feel like the sky's falling, where every move I make is the wrong one, or challenges are happening in both my financial life, my family life, my relationship with my wife. It just doesn't seem like things are going well. And when I'm in the middle of those moments, it feels like life is extremely, extremely challenging and tough. And that's absolutely normal. So I don't know if you're there today, but like everything in life, things change, and I don't stay in that situation. Things do improve, and when I look back at those times, I'm able to have gratitude for them. I know it's not always easy at the time, but again, zooming out, you're able to take a look at that now. Even this past week, I was talking to somebody about my journey from medicine to real estate investing to all the things that I'm doing today. He made this comment that I should have just gotten straight into business right out of college. If I had, maybe I'd be in a completely different place. And I think he was assuming I'd make more money or have more money or started more businesses. But I told him, I don't think that's absolutely true. I mean, medicine was an essential part of my journey. Like, it wasn't just a job. It was a time of growth that really prepared me for all the stuff that I've come across today. I'm sure many of you can recognize that it taught me resilience, discipline, ability to persevere, the challenges. And these are the qualities that really laid the foundation for almost everything I do today. So today I'm going to reflect a little bit on what the journey of medicine taught me and how it's empowered me to take on new opportunities, whether that's in entrepreneurship, real estate, or just trying to live a better life. So I always go back to the time when I was trying to get into medical school, whether I was in college, doing research after college, getting another degree to improve my chances to get into medical school, then getting into medical school, and then into residency and fellowship and beyond. And at times it's hard to remember everything I went through. Maybe I blacked it out on purpose, but when I think back to those sleepless nights or weekends in the library, all those sacrifices that we made both medical school and residency, I think back and I remember it wasn't easy at all. It was really challenging. I don't even know how I did it with those sleepless nights or sleeping in those really uncomfortable call room beds. But one thing I think we can all agree on is that it taught us how to be resilient, how to be disciplined, how to think critically. And while none of us would necessarily wish this on another person and we would definitely not go through it again, I mean, kudos to the people who come from overseas and come back and go back through residency at the same time. I think we all realize how important it was for us and not to toot our own horns today, but I think it takes a special person to go through all that and come out on the other side. It's definitely the what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger type concept where once we've kind of flexed those muscles, everything else can seem a little bit easier. Like somebody was talking about a red eye flight and they were complaining about how they have to go on a red eye flight and then jump right out of that into a meeting and do some work. And I was thinking back to those 30 hour days or whatever it was, where you'd be post call up all night, still have to round, still have to take care of a whole bunch of paperwork in the morning before leaving for the day, going back home, trying to do some things, get some errands done, crash, and then go back to another full day of work. Or for some people that would be a 24 hour call. Again, feels like battle stories at a time, but we all made it through that and hopefully a lot of us recognize. And I've started to realize how strong that made me over time. Also that whole time of residency and training and even after taught me to deal with things that were beyond my control. Medicine can be humbling that way. I mean, how many of us try to put in IVs, made some mistakes, made a ton of mistakes even when we had the best intentions.

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If anyone out there says their success rate is 100% when it comes to procedures or making diagnoses, we all know that isn't true. Even with best intentions, you do your best. Things happen that are out of your control and then the key is to figure out when those things happen. How do you fix that? How do you solve that? How do you make it through that, both mentally and then also through decision making to get through it all? I mean, that's the life skill. That's a lesson that all of us carry around with us in all aspects of your life. When it comes to starting a business or running a business or when it comes to investing, there's so many things that are out of our control that even if you try your very hardest, you try, you do your very best, things happen. I had a rental property once, right, which I've talked about on the podcast, which I found out had some major issues with it that weren't disclosed to me. When I bought the property, I had to learn to deal with that. And of course in the middle of all that, there was a big fire. It burned down half the units. It was during the time of COVID when I couldn't even get up there to go see it. And. And because of that, I was stuck in a high interest loan that I couldn't refi out of. All of these things were crashing down on me. But I feel like all the training that I had helped me keep a level head and ultimately get through this. Knowing that if I kept pushing, knowing that if I was persistent, creative enough, I'd figure a way out of it. The other thing that medicine really taught me is to really rely and depend on people who are smarter than I am. The mentors that I've had all along the way, from in college to medical school, to especially the senior residents, I had the fellows who taught me, the attendings who taught me, even the patients who taught me great lessons about compassion, resilience, how to make better decisions. I wouldn't be where I am today without all these incredible people. They taught me skills, but also when I doubted myself, they helped pick me up and encourage me. And I know at times we all feel like we have to have all the answers, but if we look back, we definitely relied on other people a significant amount to get where we're at. And if we can keep that skill when it comes to investing or when it comes to starting your own businesses, that is a powerful skill that can help you and lead you forward. So I've been able to take that skill. And when I've had a problem, it hasn't always been about finding out what the solution is or what the exact strategy is. It's about figuring out who actually has the answer to this, who's been there before and can teach me to help me minimize mistakes and help me to take better action and move forward. The other thing that I think medicine absolutely taught me and that I'm so grateful for, was to understand how fragile life is at this point, how things can change in an instant. When you're dealing with patients who are in critical situations, when you're dealing with all of that, you start to recognize that life sometimes just happens, that things happen that are out of your control, that things can shift immediately. And when you have that mindset, to be honest with you, all of these things that seem so critical out there, when it comes to making decisions about business or investing, you realize that decisions you're making, yes, they're absolutely important, but oftentimes they're not life critical. It might feel like it, but we have to remember we've made tougher decisions in tougher situations with a lot more on the line. And we were able to handle that with confidence, with compassion, with strength, with intelligence. And if that's the case, we can do that in other areas of our life, too. And I absolutely believe that. And so when I look back at this journey and I realize all the skills that I've been able to learn because of being in medicine, you know, whether I practice clinically or not, still at this point, which I don't, I realize what medicine has given me up to this point. And so I have a ton of gratitude for that. And in response, I'm trying to figure out how to use this to not only impact my family's life, but also impact the lives of my community around me and as many people as possible. I think that's part of the driving force behind this podcast and everything I do is because I still want to serve people in a big way and I don't do it in the same way I used to, one on one with an epidural needle, a TUI needle in hand. But if I can help people in some small way to make progress around their goal to create an ideal life, to create financial freedom, that work life balance, personal growth, well being and happiness, if I can make an impact in any way in those areas, then I know that my time in medicine was well spent, that it prepared me for this moment. I hope it's done the same for you or it's continuing to do the same for you in some way. I hope sincerely that you're able to see some gratitude appreciation for the journey you've been on. And if you're not plugged into a community of physicians that are going for it, that are trying to do more, explore new ideas, explore new passive income streams or active income streams or whatever it might be, try to get plugged in because I promise you this will make a huge impact in your life. We have all sorts of communities of passive income md, both free and membership communities. Please take a look at our website passiveincomemd.com to find those communities. We'd love to support you wherever you are in the journey. Hope you 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.

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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.