#86: 5 Traits Doctors Share with Successful Entrepreneurs and Investors

Foreign. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey, everyone. How's it going out there? Hope you're doing well. Just before we get to this week's episode, wanted to throw in a quick plug for end of the year community survey. As you know, we've been talking about this because we want to know who you are. Right. We want to know more about the people who are listening to this so that we can know how to better serve you and add value to your life, help you on your journey and to creating really the life that you want. So this is the best way we found to do that. So so many people have already filled out the survey and would really help to have even more, especially you who are listening today. 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Some say that, well, you know, we just never got that financial training in medical school. We were so focused on helping our patients, learning about disease pathology, about treatments, that we just haven't had time to focus on some of this other stuff. Right. That actually makes the world run. Others say it's not in our DNA. Right. Our brains are wired differently. However, over time, you know, being part of this community, people in finance and people in business and entrepreneurship. I totally disagree. Right. I mean, I've seen so many physicians become successful in both business and finance. I've tried to talk about them so much on our site, in podcasts. I've even highlighted them in a lot of our conferences like the Leverage and Growth Summit as well as pimdcon. I've actually come to believe the complete opposite. Like our training and the mindset that we have, it really gives us and has trained us with many of the skills necessary to become really successful in this area. Again, that idea that we're just not great with our finances probably just comes from the fact that, hey, many of us just don't have the time to devote to other ventures. You know, we also might have just, you know, less experience in finances because again, we're focusing on medicine. And so that leads us to really hesitate at the thought of stepping out in a certain investment or business opportunity. However, the truth is, and I believe it's absolute fact, we do have the necessary traits to be successful, right? And despite all the obstacles that we put out there, other people put in front of us, whether there's real or perceived, all it takes is the knowledge of how to really channel those traits and skills that we have effectively. So I want to talk about today, five traits that doctors share with successful entrepreneurs and investors. Number one, problem solving skills. I mean, we are problem solvers, right? At a basic level, we're presented with like the most complex issues, right? Faced with life and death. And it's our job to not only diagnose what's going on quickly, but also figure out the best course of action, right? To manage, to improve, to fix the situation. Now, the ability to solve these large and complicated puzzles, right, with just a little bit of information and just a few tools in front of us, it really translates, I believe, seamlessly into doing the kind of research and analysis that makes for really excellent business and investment calculations and judgment. Now, entrepreneurs, what are they? They are in essence problem solvers as well. I mean, the best businesses, like if you look out there, they create the best solutions. They find a problem and create that solution to fix that. Now, sometimes people don't even know they had that problem, but people go to fix that around. But these entrepreneurs figure out a way to fix that. Now, as physicians, I absolutely believe we build this skill for years and years and years. And sometimes it's just like second nature to us that we don't even realize we're doing it in our daily lives. But just recognize you are. And it's a skill, it is coveted. And honestly, it is marketable out there in the business world, number two, we're calm and focused under pressure. Now, as you know, being, you know, finances, the business world is completely volatile. Whenever you look at the stock market, you look at other things like that, even like, you know, working with startups. Honestly, there's nothing that's predictable in that world. Like things are dictated and swayed by other people. The world, the economy, things that are going on. And honestly the people who do best are the ones that really be, you know, are the ones that are able to be calm and focused, figure out a direction, course correct as necessary to try to ultimately achieve their goals. Now I believe that us as doctors, high income professionals, we literally face life and death daily, right? In a lot of ways. I'm an anesthesiologist. It can get scary at times, right, A little hairy, you know, may seem calm sometimes on the surface, but when things go bad, things can go pretty bad. But we've learned over time and we've trained ourselves to focus on the problem. We figured out how to course correct, make the adjustments necessary to ask for help when necessary, and we're able to just do that as part of our daily lives. I don't know. Have you ever been part of a code blue recently? I mean, if anybody has, that is probably the most, possibly the most chaotic and crazy, craziest situation possible. But you've learned, we've trained how to do this and you've learned to manage that situation effectively right in the face of all sorts of chaos. I believe that that skill translates well into the world of finance and business. Number three, critical and abstract thinking skills. Now, the ability to synthesize complex information, like to be able to see and understand patterns, just variable projections to put information into a broader context. These are all things that are essential for making really smart investment and business decisions. Now doctors, as a matter of course, we are already equipped for big picture thinking. Like this is what we do. In addition to basic performance information, we're able to see smaller pieces of the puzzle, put it together, create diagnoses again, see syndromes, see patients, and understand the big diagnosis in the overall plan of a patient's health, their life, their lifestyle, all of these things. And this is what we do. And I believe whether you're looking at real estate, stocks, like knowing where to put your money, to be able to see that investment in the bigger context of like our goals, our life, where the market's heading, all of these things are skills that we're training ourselves for and honing really on a daily basis. You know, this ability to take that information critically, think about it, look at the big picture and abstract stuff, and be able to really kind of synthesize a plan and, and make smart decisions is what we do daily. Number four, discipline. Despite the stories you've heard about overnight success stories, instant millionaires, the reality is for most of the time, building sustainable wealth and really building up like a solid investment portfolio, it takes time as well as discipline and really the ability to stay the course through setbacks and even when things go wrong, to course correct and again, stay on that path toward your goal. It also requires the discipline to make really just sound investment decisions and really exercise patience rather than chasing what might be like the hot stock dip. And I've been guilty of that so many times, Chasing every trend, again, I've been guilty of that so many times. But overall, staying the course and many of these, obviously these hot stock tips and kind of chasing what might be trendy at the time, they can lead to significant losses in the long term. And I've had to learn that the hard way myself. Now, as physicians, doctors, we've learned to stay the course and exercise patients, right? We all know how long it took to get us where we're at today, right? In spite of all the temptations to jump off, chase the success of people in other industries, like, we've stayed the course, made it through, gave up a good amount of our time to get where we're at. I mean, we had a goal and literally took probably a decade of your life of just hard work, discipline to get there. Now, how many of you remember being in college where a bunch of your friends were just out having a great time and you were spending time in the library and doing these kind of things, like you had the discipline to follow through on your plan and make things happen. I think that's absolutely what's necessary to be successful. Entrepreneur, investor, absolutely. Having that in your pocket is important. Number five, knowledge acquisition, research and a healthy understanding of risk. Really, like medicine, the financial investment landscape is always changing. I think that the main theory behind a lot of investing that you read online, maybe like set it and forget it, but in reality, I think that maintaining a good portfolio takes research and awareness about what else is going on out there, being able to hear and learn from other people and, and know how to really kind of integrate that into your portfolio, right? Because that can absolutely affect the performance both in the short and long term. Now, I actually believe this is absolutely essential to building that, especially like a real estate portfolio. You have to know what the current Market is like where the market is headed and understanding how to put that all into place. Now, one major component of profitable investing is a really a comprehensive understanding of risk. Right. And how to understand historical market data performance. And really trying in some ways to somewhat predict the future. I know that's impossible, but trying your best, right? Understanding how to take risk, looking at the return, the benefit ratio, right. This whole risk benefit ratio, that actually is absolutely important to understanding how to achieve your goals. And I know that we all know that extremely well. Like at the heart of every decision that we make as a doctor, we gather all the existing evidence through research and then we make a really good determination on what to do based on the risk benefit ratio. We do this daily and absolutely, if we can apply it to business and finance, then we're going to be well off. Now for just one really bonus commonality between doctors and good entrepreneurs, investors. We're lifelong learners. As most experts in virtually any field will tell you, the more one knows, the more one has to learn. Now, the same qualities and skills that keep us as doctors on top of just the evolving medical landscape in front of clinical, you know, new clinical technology, new procedures that could also help us build successful investment portfolios as well. Now, I will tell you the most difficult decision, though, is getting started. Like many times, you have all those skills within you, and I've seen it. I've seen it again and again. I've interviewed hundreds of physicians, doctors, anybody in this health professional world, and I've seen how they can translate their skills into success in investing and in business. I've seen them doing again and again. But it always starts with taking that first step, right? Taking a little bit of risk, having some confidence in your abilities and making it happen. You know, I'm always reminded of that scene in the movie Swingers when, you know, Vince Vaughn is telling his buddy Mikey, like, you know, you don't even know what you have. You have these, like, claws in front of you. You have the ability, you have the skills, and you just don't know how to use them, right? So that's when I see physicians and I see doctors and I know that you have all the potential there. And I know that if you just channeled your energy into it that you can be successful as well. Hopefully we've been able to help you along this journey. Whatever we can do to support you, continue to let us know, let us know in that survey, let us know wherever online, respond through email, through us, let us know how we can help you on your journey. And absolutely that's what we're here for. So don't self limit yourself. Realize you have everything necessary, be successful, and then just go for it. Anyways, thanks everyone. Have a great 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. Are you part of our community yet? Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. You can join us on our Facebook group Passive Income Docs, and you can always learn more at our website, passiveincomemd.com thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.