[Editor's Note: This is a guest post from Brian Kuderna, CFP®, LUTCF, author of The Millenial Millionaire. While not particularly doctor specific, it addresses career issues faced by docs, high income professionals, and anyone else who wants a career and not just a job. It definitely speaks to the millennial mindset. We have no financial relationship.]
“By faithfully working eight hours a day you may one day get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.”- Robert Frost
Not long ago, I was catching up with one of my best friends over a delicious enchilada at the one and only Jose Tejas. In spite of being financial advisors at rival companies, we are like shrinks to one another. This one time all-night party animal is now a proud, and exhausted, parent. I asked him how his outlook on work has changed since becoming a daddy. He made a comment I didn’t see coming from a cocky and ultra-competitive personality, “You know something I’ve realized, in our business you can work to make a lot of money; or you can work to make a lot of time.”
To define dollars as the shackles which hold you down, is to simultaneously appoint money as the key to set you free. The first step to sheath this double-edged sword and achieve financial liberation is working where you want to work, not where you have to. Gallup conducted a worldwide poll in 189 countries that showed only 13.3% of workers liked their job. Prosperous people agree that money is only a byproduct of winning. Winning at what they love is the true goal.
Are You Excited?
Bryan Kuderna, CFP, LUTCF
If you find yourself asking what job you love, look no further than your passions. If you find yourself asking what your passions are, look no further than what excites you. Excitement is the biological synonym of passion and happiness, it’s a cure all. When you find boredom, run! Positive anticipation is the spoon that stirs your fruit loops.
If you still can’t pinpoint what excites you, look no further than your curiosities. The fear of death is caused solely by unsatisfied curiosities. Self-help books implore that your Sundays should feel like Fridays, from the exhilaration of the week to come! That might be a little excessive, but it drives home the point that the workweek is where most hours are spent, and it should be looked forward to. Excitement is when you’re already planning your goals for the day on your drive in, rather than drifting off to the music and saying to yourself, “Make it another nine hours and Monday will be done.” If you are not enjoying the journey of a career, then what is the point of the money anyways?
Do You Have The Three “I”s?
When I interview a financial advisor candidate, I often bring up what I call the “3 I’s”. The three I’s stand for Income, Independence, and Impact.
To the point of IMPACT, Masonic luminary Albert Pike once said, “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others in the world remains and is immortal.” This missing component is regularly found in behind the scenes positions, such as the analyst. The employee who works his own schedule and makes high six figures, but halfway through life implodes crying, “All I ever see is this computer screen and I don’t know what’s the point of it all!?”
INDEPENDENCE goes back to working where and when you want. Is it a job in which you can still coach your son’s soccer game? Or is it a job in which you’ll be traveling the world and forgetting what grade your kids are in? “Thanks for your tireless service the past twenty years Mr. Employee, but we’re relocating headquarters and you’ll be moving out to Idaho in February.” This is routine for the Big Four Accounting firms; ambitious college grads proudly take their staff job only to lose their twenties to eighty-hour work weeks. Millennials are fortunate enough to live in the Golden Age of Telecommuting, we hate offices and that’s become okay.
Finally, there is INCOME. Unfortunately, countless individuals love where they work and feel it’s a worthy profession, but they are forced out of a career because the income won’t match their lifestyle. Smart financial planning can keep more of these happy workers right where they are. This seed of discontent is often found in teachers and cops for example.
Are You Good at Work?
If you’re lucky enough to find a career which satisfies the 3 I’s, get really good at it and don’t lose it! I’ve asked and researched these guys that walk on water about what separated them from the pack and launched their careers. The common impetus is exactly that, they separated themselves from the pack. It’s imperative to stop the zombie walk found in the rat race and take a step back. As professionals say, “Stop working in your practice and take a second to work on your practice.” It is astonishing how in that a period of calm you can achieve an AHA moment, a small tweak to your work that fixes all the bugs. Work hard, but also work smart.
The magic that keeps any productive worker going is momentum. It can devastate us or carry us far beyond our wildest dreams. Momentum is the Emotion Multiplier. However, like any emotion, it can be a positive or a negative.
When success becomes obsession, the effects can be as harmful as they may be helpful. This realization provoked me to ask several of my colleagues at a conference what they would do if they closed their “case of the year”. The answers… go on a cruise, fly out to Vegas, or treat my girlfriend to a long weekend. But the top producer in our company defiantly said- work some more. That time when we are on Cloud Nine is when we’re at our best, you’re on the heater, make the tough phone call and schedule your biggest client. Taking off then would be like LeBron James sinking back-to-back 3’s with the game on the line and then asking the coach to take him out.
So when should you take that vacation to Fiji? At the point in time where you feel like nothing’s going right. This might sound like throwing in the towel, as opposed to the winner’s hymn of “When things get tough, the tough get going.” The concept of R&R is one of the hardest for successful people to grasp. That feeling that we’ll miss a week as our competitors blow right by us. A stop at nothing attitude is crucial to long-term success, but recharge the batteries when they’re empty, not full.
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When it’s time to stimulate some missing momentum, begin analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. Good companies find the flaw in the mirror and try to cover it up. Contrarily, rejecting perfection may be half the battle towards happiness. Great companies also try to make their weaknesses good, but they try much harder to make their strengths great! It is our talents that really separate us. Have you ever seen a Cy Young winning pitcher also bat for .300? Act like the pros do and exploit your gifts. It makes one feel better about oneself and increases the Money/Emotion Multiplier–momentum!
Balance and harmony are coveted terms which have been thrown around for over a thousand years. It’s your individual decision to define their meaning. The perfect mix of excitement, impact, independence, income, momentum, and personal reflection are guaranteed to bring them into your life.
What do you think? Do you have a career that you're excited about? Do you have the three “I”s? What would make you feel more successful in your career or help you find the balance and harmony you seek? Comment below!
It is amazing how few people are fully engaged at work. I love what I do. If I didn’t I would change it, learn to love it, or leave. I don’t understand why people continue at a job where they are not engaged and sometimes actively disengaged. Especially physicians. I have a doctor friend who feels trapped at this job. I keep telling him he is more powerful than he thinks.
I think a large part of it includes 1) The ability to learn a lot of income and 2) feeling that they have to do it (i.e. for society).
First, the ability to earn a lot of income is very real, particularly if you have student loans to pay down. Still, even if you don’t have student loans, most people would not be able to take a pay cut from $300-400K a year to $150-200k a year (or less) for some other job. Sure they may not love what they are doing, but it provides stability for their family and a certain lifestyle. For these individuals, I would say that financial independence would give them the ability to then pursue other passions and leave their current practice if they wanted.
Second, many docs feel that they have trained so hard and long to become a doctor, so they should do it for many years. Whether or not you agree with this is not the point. It is just the reality. It is a sunk cost fallacy and one that can be much harder to break. Many of us have committed so much of our identity from high school on to become doctors, so it becomes hard to just switch it off.
Those are my 2 cents? What do you guys think?
High income is kind of a blessing and a curse, right? There are some fields that might get you close to your physician income like consulting but even in those you will most likely make less unless you get to managing director status. Then could have MD MD on your business card.
I think it’s a continuum. I mean, I don’t love everything I do at the ER, but the good certainly outweighs the bad and the pay is quite good. I suspect that’s how it is for many. But I agree, if I was miserable at work I’d be doing all I could to change careers and/or figure out a way to FIRE ASAP.
I love the 3 I’s analogy. I certainly have never had a job that’s covered all three. I can envision what that would look like though. When I get there, I will follow your advice to work even harder to set myself apart from the competition. Great post.
Oh and Jose Tejas may be my favorite restaurant. Well worth the inevitable long wait for a table.
I love this! I know a lot of people tout the benefits of doing what you love, but if the income isn’t there, it’s not a prudent move for your financial future. And that means spending more of your limited resource of time at work. We need to find a balance between passion, time, and money to be satisfied.
This piece is a lot of cheerleading rah rah, but it is helping me in my current personal mission: search out what I want to do for the rest of my life now I have options. I’ll apply the I I I concept (well I guess I already am) as I try to find a volunteer or paid position. It will possibly/probably not even be in medicine, and will let me feel satisfied and productive but with the independence; or at least sense of being respected; some of my prior medical jobs have lacked. And if the income (and/or impact) does not draw me to spend 30-70 hours a week at it, the independence will free me to devote a much smaller, ultimately controlled by me, portion of my life to it. (BTW WCI I might be interested in working for you… email me if you still need someone and let me know the requirements to let me down gently.)
Interestingly, you’re about the fifth person this week asking to come work for me. Unfortunately, most of these people have skills that overlap with mine rather than the ones our team is really lacking (many of which are technical type stuff). Not to mention most of the people are docs or similar and WCI, LLC literally cannot afford to pay the help we need a physician-like salary, even part-time.
Very good job letting me down gently, but my skills actually UNDERLAP with yours. Best wishes in your search.
BTW re impact: I had considered my political efforts a thankless, Quixote type endeavor. In terms of changing the world that may be correct (Blue in a Red state). However this week I received a “Friend of Labor” award with this citation: “In recognition of your hard work and dedication in trying to make life better for all people… thanks [you] for being a positive influence in our community.” I am more thrilled and awed by this than by the joy of getting my first union card (at 50) and my family (mom esp.) and friends are all very proud of me. I am not working or risking enough to get such an award from the NAACP- in Alabama so many more are doing so much more already- but the ‘all’ in the citation notes that I advocate for many more groups than labor. This plaque (behind me on the wall) changes my opinion about the value of joining clubs and paying dues to cover the expenses of such awards, and is more precious to me than all my military “god speed to your next post” wall decorations. (None of them are on the wall except my pretty and colorful command unit flags.)
I am not sure why but this piece was weird to read. Felt like a pep talk with colorful language, but I think it misses reality. I think the take home message was to follow your passions.
I think one thing that is not told to young people is that sometimes work will be incredibly boring. It will not always be stimulating as it was in the beginning or like an action movie. I have had many moments in my life where I felt full of energy and passion and I performed at a higher level for awhile, but it was not sustainable nor reality that one would live their entire life that way. I think a person like that is rare. I actually think unrealistic expectations like this lead to discontentment and not appreciating what you have. Most humans will not have a chance at becoming a doctor with dreams of sexy heroism (like on TV) but they will have often boring jobs that do serve the community and pay the bills for their family. There will be many moments of excitement and passion, but mixed in will be months and months of boring routine and even being tired sometimes. And work itself gives a person dignity, even without passion and a noble, high purpose.
There will be good days and bad days. Nobody has a good day everyday. It is okay to have a bad day.
SO you mean a career, especially a medical career, is sort of like marriage? Not euphoric 24/7? Our highs not so high nor (hopefully) our lows not so low. Yup, if there were no income loss from quitting medicine and starting something else we’d have more doctors quitting early than we do doctors divorcing.
Great comment. Realistic expectations go a long way.
“If you find yourself asking what job you love, look no further than your passions. If you find yourself asking what your passions are, look no further than what excites you. Excitement is the biological synonym of passion and happiness, it’s a cure all. When you find boredom, run! Positive anticipation is the spoon that stirs your fruit loops.”
My 2 year old lives on pure passion. Everything is either extremely fun and exciting, or it is a temper tantrum and the world is ending. It is exhausting to watch, and would likely be exhausting to live.
Instead, there is also a deep seated satisfaction with life that comes from a job well done, jobs that are not always easy, but require me to extend myself beyond where I was before. It is nice watching as my child becomes more mature and lives less continuously on pure passion, but has a more mature outlook on life.
I agree with Jenn that this seems like sort of a new age, fluff piece. Do something you love! Yea! Solve world pea
The reality is that for most people the things they really enjoy doing or are passionate about either don’t pay very well (or at all), or there are already a bunch of people doing it so no way to get a foot in the door. My dad always told me about his job (corporate securities attorney) that it “was work, and that’s why they have to pay me to do it.” How many people here would really do medicine as a hobby where they weren’t paid? I sure as heck know I wouldn’t.
To me, my career in medicine is the union in a Venn diagram, with the three sets (circles) made up of Lifestyle, Aptitude, and Interest.
I played tennis in college and loved teaching tennis lessons to kids and adults through high school and college (not much paid $20+ dollars an hour back in the late 90’s early 00’s). So I have the aptitude and interest but now with a family what kind of lifestyle would that be? Miserable.
I also played high school golf and absolutely love golf. The lifestyle of a professional golfer would be awesome, and I am hugely interested in that (in fact, one of my goals/dreams when I was growing up was to practice medicine until I was 45 then retire, play golf heavily for 5 years and joint the Senior PGA Tour), but the fact is that with my 4-5 handicap I’m never making it on the PGA or Senior PGA Tour so I had to pick something different to do.
Medicine, with a few other possibilities, fits into the union of those three circles. It’s something I obviously have the aptitude for, it has an acceptable lifestyle, and I am definitely interested in it. Does that mean I love everything about my job, or that I would rather be working than on the Big Island of Hawaii with my family like I was last week? Absolutely not. I do agree with the idea that a career is something that allows you to buy time/experiences that you enjoy. Medicine doesn’t define who I am as a person. It’s my career and what I do, but it’s not who I am.
Thanks for this comment. Agree that the piece felt a little vague and preachy, but glad that some readers found it helpful. Personally, I connect more with the Venn diagram of Lifestyle, Aptitude, and Interest than I did with the original post. My interest seems to wax and wane a little bit over time, but my current career is definitely drawing on an intersection of aptitude and lifestyle for now.
Oh, also, Idaho is a great place to live. I’m sure the author of this article has never even been to Idaho, but you can surely ask the thousands of Californians moving here every year what they think about it compared to where they came from.
We as humans create our own prisons. We choose to live in certain neighborhoods and the cost of our homes, we choose to drive certain cars, wear certain clothes, and travel to certain areas. We choose to spend money to questionably make our kids happy or better. We choose these things and finance them with our labor. We don’t even realize the prisons we build buy these choices and just accept them as being part of life. Once we are able to free ourselves of our self imposed shackles we can look at the world and decide what role we want to play in it. Medicine is a very fascinating and interesting profession, and if you are willing to make less it can be an amazing and fun career.
Sorry for the typos. “buy” should be “by” above
BTW, I am no saint. I have my own self imposed prison which I work for. If I knew then what I know now, things would have been different. Once you build that prison, it is very difficult to tear down some of those bricks.