Punching Above Your Weight Class

Lessons From Birdwatching

This morning I was up just after dawn and tackling a local hill on my bicycle half an hour later. The sun had not yet crested the hill when I noticed a loud bird call followed by a thud coming from overhead. It was a scrappy mockingbird taking on a tough looking crow (a couple of conspicuously missing feathers giving off a ruffian vibe) that must have been four times its size - repeatedly colliding mid-flight until the crow fled the area.

The day before I'd seen something even more impressive just off our front deck - a pair of mockingbirds similarly pestering a red tailed hawk (perched high atop a pine tree) with repeated nose dives until it grew annoyed and finally left the territory. Mockingbirds are slim, long-tailed and conspicuous - more Michael Cera than Mike Tyson.

Yet mockingbirds can be extremely aggressive, as if no one told them that birds their size are not capable of taking on larger birds.

Lessons From Physician Entrepreneurs

These birding observations tied in nicely with many of the interviews I've been listening to recently conducted by Peter Kim (a.k.a. Passive Income MD) as part of his Leverage and Growth Summit for Physicians.

Bonnie Koo's interview (a.k.a. Wealthy Mom MD) had an undercurrent of empowerment - she'd used life coaches and business coaches to get her operation off the ground and running quickly by accessing role models and mentors who had pulled off what she hoped to do (offer an online course with a live support component). Bonnie is a friend I met at Fin Con 18.

Eric Tait's interview completely blew me away and stood out as the highlight of those I've listened to so far - here was someone with obvious acumen who decided to hone in on those skills that would lead him to the most balanced lifestyle he could envision while incorporating a sense of service to others. He was unapologetic about learning from others in the way that made the most sense to him - namely attending conferences on real estate taught by people he hoped to learn from and emulate.

Eric got an MBA, but revealed it was not necessary to develop the skills needed for real estate business. Instead he suggested one could learn how to read an invoice, balance sheet and cash flow statement through self-education via Khan Academy. Inspired, I commenced the online study course on Corporate Metrics and Valuation the next day.

Lessons From Business Gurus?

One of the squishier aspects of many interviews is the mindset aspect - something that I'll admit I feel ambivalence toward. Many bloggers and entrepreneurs I've met possess an almost mystical admiration for certain business gurus they see as fundamental to their business success.

On the one hand, it's obvious that learning to order off the menu was a critical milestone in digging my way out of burnout. Understanding that the only limits I operated under in medicine were largely self-imposed opened up a new world, allowing me to envision creative solutions to what had been an unhappy work-life balance.

On the other hand, I always feel a bit skeptical when people begin to quote business gurus. Even if the quote makes intuitive sense to me, it seems to evoke the platitudes decorating motivational posters at the fictional Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company from the hit show The Office. Why am I skeptical of this category of teachers and conferences? I thought it over and came up with a few reasons.

Story break: I recall living in Boston on the mid-2000's and coming across an acquaintance from Stanford undergrad, a friend of a friend who'd always attended our dorm parties. We were walking opposite directions on Newbury Street, it was snowing and unpleasant outside, and we quickly exchanged information and moved on. When we grabbed dinner the following week, he recounted his unexpected success becoming a fortune 500 CFO in his late 20s. As dinner ended, he remarked, "This is great! You want to hang out - but there is nothing you want from me!"

Like my friend, I'm constantly wary of someone I believe is trying to sell me something or use me in some way for personal enrichment. Gurus hosting conferences in stadiums with lots of feel good messages - maybe that's just not the way I learn best, or maybe I can't get past the skepticism that they are trying to establish what will be an extractive relationship.

Another story break: I was spending a summer at home in high school when I received an invitation to a special seminar on summer employment. It turned out to be for Cutco, a multi-level marketing knife company. I would later learn from friends who worked for them that the company relied on sellers to make sales using their personal network of family and friends. Like a neighborhood kid selling lemonade, family and friends often felt obligated to buy from you, and then were in turn expected to refer you to their own networks of family and friends until social reciprocity made the company (and you, their seller) money in the process. What I recall most vividly about the audition was that anyone who demonstrated boredom or skepticism was immediately asked to leave the room. You had to be an enthusiastic cheerleader who conformed to the positive outlook or you were promptly excused.

I get the sense that either no one who mopes has ever attended a business guru conference, or else it selects for people who have drunk the Kool-Aid. Are these gatherings mindset training to allow you to get past your limiting beliefs and develop a positive attitude toward your abilities that will translate into entrepreneurial success? Is it a form of surrendering individual critical thinking in favor of conformity to mindthink where you are made to embrace a cheerful, overly enthusiastic leader without question? I can't tell, but the prospect of the latter makes me uncomfortable.

In the meantime, I'm happy to learn vicariously through bright and successful fellow bloggers I respect, like the dual physician couple behind Semi-Retired MD, who have committed fully to a costly Tony Robbins conference package. I am eager to learn how they will benefit from the experience and the network of attendees. I'm willing to consider that it might be a valuable way to learn and grow that just isn't my bag, baby.

But alas, my thread is unraveling. What do mockingbirds, physician entrepreneurs who earn significant income streams outside of medicine, and business gurus have in common? They all underscore the value of learning to punch above your weight class - to pursue projects, ambitions and goals that might seem beyond you at first, only to find that you are fully capable of succeeding on a greater scale than you thought possible.

Certainly, for the burned out doc who is attempting to figure out a creative solution to balance work and home life, it pays to be the mockingbird.