| Physicians are quite accustomed to dealing with | | | | they had made a significant mistake with one of |
| uncertainty in their professional lives. As a | | | | their patients? Given the medical-legal environment |
| psychiatrist, I can attest to the high degree of | | | | that we live in, such admissions are rare. |
| uncertainty in our profession. Not a day goes by | | | | Physicians have to be invincible and perfect when |
| that I don't have questions about diagnoses or | | | | practicing medicine. Expecting that mistakes will be |
| which medications my patients should be taking. | | | | made in business, and that this is a good thing, |
| For the most part, we don't even have blood | | | | requires a new mindset. To be successful in |
| tests to guide us. | | | | business requires that we be willing to make |
| In spite of this reality, I find that physicians | | | | mistakes along the way. Otherwise, we will be too |
| engaging in entrepreneurial activities often have a | | | | timid, and progress willbe slow or nonexistent. |
| hard time dealing with uncertainty in business, and | | | | Adopting this new attitude does not, of course, |
| the associated risk of making bad decisions. | | | | imply reckless abandon. It is risky to not take |
| Doctors all-to-often labor under the misconception | | | | risks in business, but the risks we take have to |
| that there has to be, or will be, absolute | | | | be well thought out, and the actual risk minimized |
| knowledge before making business decisions. | | | | as much as possible. |
| Nothing could be further from the truth. | | | | One final thought on this subject. My professor on |
| Waiting for ALL the starts to line up before | | | | entrepreneurship at Northwestern's Kellogg School |
| making decisions is itself risky. Most of the time, | | | | of Management, where I got my MBA, Howard |
| we can never obtain complete knowledge before | | | | Tullman (who is worth hundreds of millions of |
| pulling the trigger. That is the nature of business. | | | | dollars), stated, "The growth rate of a start-up is |
| To be successful in business requires many things, | | | | directly proportional to the entrepreneur's |
| and the willingness to make decisions in the face | | | | tolerance for, or indifference to, embarrassment. |
| of inadequate information is one of them. | | | | Growth is inherently embarrassing [because of the |
| Otherwise, we can fall into the trap of "analysis | | | | failures we must experience along the way]." |
| paralysis." | | | | In summary, in medicine taking risks and |
| Given this relatively unhappy situation, mistakes | | | | expecting failures is almost unthinkable and to |
| will be made as we move along the learning curve. | | | | avoided at all costs, while in business, a willingness |
| This is problematic for all business persons, but | | | | to take calculated risks, and the expectation of |
| especially so for physicians, who can never make | | | | failures along the way, is expected and ultimately |
| mistakes (in medicine). Right? When was the last | | | | rewarded. |
| time you heard one of your colleagues admit that | | | | |