The EntreMD Podcast

7 Powerful Thoughts That Have Made Me Who I Am

November 09, 2020 Dr. Una Episode 70
The EntreMD Podcast
7 Powerful Thoughts That Have Made Me Who I Am
Show Notes Transcript

On this episode of the EntreMD Podcast, I will discuss seven powerful thoughts that made me who I am today!

I took a walk and started thinking all the way back to high school: what are the most powerful lessons I have learned along the way? What are the things that molded me into the person I have become? 

Well, I came up with seven powerful lessons that I want to share with my community.

This episode is so powerful, you don’t want to miss it!

Listener Spotlight of the Week!

MD by SAPEDS – Oct 4, 2020 ★★★★★

Dr. Una is amazing and inspiring! I have gained so much value from her podcast and her posts. Thank you so much for all you do Dr. Una!! Keep it up!

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Dr. Una  0:03  

Hi, Docs! Welcome to the EntreMD Podcast, where it is all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

 

Dr. Una  0:24  

Well, hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of the EntreMD podcast, this is going to be one of the most powerful episodes you have ever listened to. And the reason why I say that is because it is completely off schedule. So if you don't know this, one of my favorite things to do is to walk and I don't necessarily walk for exercise, I walk because it's so relaxing. And it's my time to think it's my time to kind of declutter my mind and capture thoughts and stuff like that. So today, I took a walk, and I started thinking, I tracked back all the way to high school, like, what are the most powerful lessons, I have learned? What are the things that have molded me into the person I become? And believe it or not, I came up with seven powerful lessons. So we're talking from high school, all the way to today. And I got back into the house after about an hour, that's typically how long I'll walk for. And I'm like, you know what, I want to share this with my community.

 

Dr. Una  1:27  

I want to share this with the EntreMD community and say, listen, these are the things that I've learned. This is the behind the scenes of my life, I want to share that with you: little vulnerable, if you will, but so transformational. And so I want you to kick back, and I just want you to relax and learn from this and take lessons from it and maybe see yourself in some of the stories and and we'll just see where it goes. Okay. So the very first lesson I learned, was in high school, all right. And in high school, I got into high school a little earlier. So I was one of the youngest in my class. And I have the option of taking an exam that will be equivalent to maybe the GED here, because High School we're talking I was still in Nigeria at the time. And an entrance exam for college. We don't do anything like that in the US what is called JAM. And it's you know, it's an entrance exam you have to take to pass and I had the opportunity of taking it a year before the rest of my classmates would. And I had this little thought that I might be able to pull it off. Did I not pull it off? No, was I scared spitless, yes.

 

Dr. Una  2:44  

But there's just this nagging thing like I'm might is the same way. Maybe as an entrepreneur, you're thinking you're like, I may be able to start that business, I may be able to scale it, I may be able to hit my first hundred thousand or first half a million of first million first multiple million, I may. And I took the exam, I registered for the exams. I studied, like crazy for the exams. And at the end of the day, I won't say rocked it, right. But I did very well.

 

Dr. Una  3:18  

I did very well. And it was enough to get me into medical school. Now again, I was in Nigeria at the time, and we use the European system. So you literally go from high school to medical school. Okay, so there's no pre med, none of that. So, at the age of 16, I found myself in medical school, I literally turned 17 in medical school. And if you think about it, you're like, Wow, that's amazing. I think about it. I'm like, Wow, that's amazing. But where did all that start from? What made it possible for me to do that? It was one thing? I said yes. I wasn't sure of the outcome. I was scared spitless. But I was willing to bet on myself. So the first lesson is say yes. When you have a dream, pull it out, you say yes. When you have something that looks challenging in front of you, but you kind of sorta think you can do it. Say yes.

 

Dr. Una  4:17  

And I said yes to that. And I said yes to so many things after that. But saying yes, even in the face of fear is one of the great lessons I've learned. And one of the ones has served me well. So that's number one. Now, so I get into med school, so I'm 16 Okay, so I was one of the youngest, and I didn't feel like I was as smart as the others. Of course, I mean, these are people who, you know, finished high school when they should have they had time to invest to study for the exams to do all this stuff. I felt like they're the people who deserve to be there. I was kind of sort of there. Right. So imposter syndrome at its finest, and I was like you're not supposed to be here. And what it made me do was it made me not give my best effort, right? Because what am I trying to do? What am I trying to do get straight A's like, what am I trying to do? I don't deserve to be here. These are the people, these are the people that are supposed to be here. And so because of that, I held back I kind of studied, I studied enough, so I wouldn't fail, right? I studied enough to make you seem like I tried, right. And to my shock. At the end of the semester, I have like Bs, and I think I had one or two A's, right, but mostly B's. And I had this aha moment. I was like, wait a minute, if I'm kind of sort of studying, and I have these grades, if I threw my whole self at it, what could happen? What could happen? It took me a whole semester to figure this out. But it taught me a lesson that I'll never forget. And that's this, in the face of fear. Don't quit. Because I started thinking about it. I was like, What if I'm like, Dad, you're 16 years old? What are you doing here? Like, who's a medical student? 60? What are you doing? What if I thought that because I didn't have the mindset of I deserve to be here. I can do this. I'm super smart. Look at me here. I'm 16. No, I felt like a fraud. But even with that feeling. I didn't stop. I didn't quit. Maybe I didn't do as much as I could have. But I did a lot. I didn't quit. Because the question is, if I quit, I wouldn't have come to the realization that maybe I could pull this off, I wouldn't have come to the realization maybe, you know, if I put in a little more, maybe I could be like the other people, maybe if I am the other people, I wouldn't have come to that realization, one of the most dangerous things you can do is quit on your dreams. Don't do it, don't quit. Maybe you're not going as fast as other people don't quit. Maybe your business doesn't look like someone else's business don't quit. Maybe you're not getting the kind of revenue other people are getting don't quit. Maybe your website is not as cute don't quit, maybe don't understand the concepts as much as they do. Don't quit, don't quit. If you stay in motion. If you stay in action, you keep hitting aha moments that let you know, you can do this. Okay, that's the second lesson. All right. And then we go through med school. Now, I have to tell you about the European model, okay.

 

Dr. Una  7:30  

In the US when you get into med school, if you do what you're supposed to chances are you graduate from that school. Okay? The European model is like, wait a minute, everybody can get in med school. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get into med school, and then it will be survival of the fittest. I kid you not. So in my class were about 420. 420 students that got in, it was about 108 or 112. That graduated, I need you to think about that. So having an A is not enough, being smart is not enough. You have to be in the top 112. Who would make it: it's literally survival of the fittest. So I need you to understand the kind of mind games that go on there. Right? Like when it's time to take exams, time to take tests. It's awful, awful. And somewhere in my final year in med school, was when I became a person of faith. Now, the lesson one of the many lessons I learned is every thought that goes through my mind is not my thought. And I don't have to think everything that comes to my mind. So I need you to think about this. Like, literally during exams, even though I have a history of passing my exams, right? I still have these thoughts. You know, you guys know I call my inner critic Vicki, right? So here comes Vicki. She's like, Oh my gosh, after all this time in medical school, you're finally going to fail this exam, you're going to fail out of medical school, but have all been for nothing. You're not going to pass this exam, you don't have it what it takes. Those are the people are smarter than you did. She was brutal, and relentless. And I started realizing because now I can say Vicki, my inner critic, I thought those are all my thoughts. I thought I was thinking the truth. I thought these were facts that could not be changed. And I started realizing every thought is like an invitation to treat like when you think about me when you think about me, and I started choosing my thoughts on purpose. I didn't have to think everything that came to my mind. Now in your business. You may be thinking oh, I don't have a website like that person. I'm not good at sales like that because I can't speak like that person, I can’t do videos like that person data and all day and lead to nothing but paralysis. I learned I can choose what I want to think I can choose to believe that it's working, I can choose to believe that my voice matters. I can choose to believe that my ideal clients are actively looking for me. They're just waiting for me to show up. I can choose to believe that I don't do overall, I can choose what I believe. And I started choosing.

 

Dr. Una  10:21  

Now as a person of faith I had, this is literally what I did. Okay, my final exam in med school is called the final MB. And brutal, brutal. I mean, like, imagine working that hard for that long, and you don't make it. It's insane. Such an insane model. But anyway, I literally have my book, my medical book, on one side of my Bible and the other side, and I'm studying and studying, and maybe I do a practice test. And in the course of doing the practice test, I get a number wrong, a few of them wrong. And here comes Vicki. Oh, my gosh, look at what you did look at the questions, you failed. And because you failed those, you're gonna fail your exam, you're gonna fail out of medical blah blah blah. Like, oh, my goodness, I literally pushed my books to the side, and slide my Bible in front of me.

 

Dr. Una  11:09  

I kid you not okay, and just hear me out. You don't have to be a person of faith, I want you to get the concept. And I had a list, right? I had the list of the Scriptures I focused on and you're the head and not the tail, you're above only and not beneath everything you lay your hands to do prosper. And I read about Daniel, which says, and God gave him an unusual ability to learn. And he was found to be 10 times smarter than all his peers. And my God has no favorites, if you could do it for Downey who do for me, and I do all of that, to get my mind to a place where like, Yeah, we got it and sly the Bible away, and push my books back and then get back into work. And I kid you not this is what I did. But what it did was it gave me a level of mental toughness that even though Vicki shows up and Vicki's, relentless, I got this. I can do this. I knew how to fight the battle in my mind, right? So you're here and you think all those negative things about your business, you can literally choose what you think you can choose.

 

Dr. Una  12:13  

You must not think every thought that comes into your mind. So that was the third lesson. Really powerful lesson. Okay. Now, after all of this stuff, you can guess it. I passed all my exams, and I became a doctor. And it was so excited. It was so amazing. It's like, Oh, my gosh, look what you did. And then I was like, I'm moving back to the US. Because, you know, I was born in California. And my dad wanted us to have the culture. Right. So he wanted us to grow up in Nigeria. So we moved back when I was about six, I didn't come back to after medical school. And I was thoroughly not impressed by his thoughts at the time, right. He went to med school, he went to UCLA for med school. And I'm like, who goes to UCLA and sends their kids to University of Nigeria. But, you know, it was a great experience. And it's my story, and it makes me who I am. And I don't have any school loans. I guess I can't complain. I think it was a brilliant decision in hindsight. But now I need you to think about it. I need to think about how difficult this time was. Okay. So I learned to say yes, so I knew is going to be challenging, but I said yes. Right. But we're talking of, I didn't have any family that I could come stay with. And we're talking 2004, 2003-2004. So there's no Facebook like now we literally live in a global village. It wasn't like that. Right? So I didn't know anybody. I knew nobody. And I met. You know, my uncle is like, Hey, I have this friend who lives in New Jersey, who I called my uncle. And you should know Nigerians when we say somebody’s your uncle. It means you're from the same country.

 

Dr. Una  13:50  

Literally. That's it. But amazing family. And so I moved to a move to New Jersey, I stayed with them for the first year, a year and a half or so.

 

Dr. Una  14:01  

And they I mean, they were they were they were so amazing, just like family, but I need you to think of the move. Okay, so I moved from a place where on a cold day is probably 69 degrees to New Jersey with 15 inches of snow, and I moved in October. And I moved from a place where there's tropical medicine to what we practice here. So I was an expert at malaria and typhoid and bacterial meningitis and all of these things: malnutrition, brackets lymphoma, those things. And I had to come learn a whole brand new different kind of thing. had been a hospital where maybe there were two ventilators and now I have to be on call and manage a 70 bed NICU. It’s like, what? It was such a big, big, big, big change. But I learned to say yes. So I said yes. I learned not to quit.

 

Dr. Una  15:00  

So I didn't quit. I learned that every thought is not my thoughts. And I don't have to think it, started choosing what I was Think about it. But it was difficult. But I got here, October 5 2004. And within four months, I had a contract I had to get into residency. It was the most amazing, miraculous thing ever. And the lesson I learned from that is fear. And difficulty. Don't mean stop. Times may look difficult, it may be challenging, maybe in your business right now, it's challenging doesn't mean stop. It doesn't mean stop. It means go through it. Now you may need help. You may need counsel, you might need to work with a coach, whichever, but you got it. Fear and difficulty, don't mean stop. Okay, don't mean stop. So that's the that's the fourth lesson I learned. So get into residency, right? And I don't know about you listening, but I didn't know how to do any of these things. Okay, so maybe I know how to put in IVs. But I didn't know how to do spinal taps. I didn't know how to intubate preemie babies. I didn't know how to manage events. I didn't know how to do any of that stuff. But the beautiful thing about residency, I think, if we apply the process of learning, the process of acquiring skills from residency and med school to business, we would be geniuses. Okay. So they will take you, they're not concerned about the fact that you don't know how to do any of these things. They just throw you to the wolves, like, watch one, right? And do one with someone watching you and then do one on your own. You're good, right? So nobody let you say, Oh, my imposter syndrome is stopping me. No, you will do it. You will do it. And you know, so I started off not knowing any of those things. And by second year, I was like, confident enough to teach other people like third year I'm like, I can do this stuff in my sleep. I remember, though, this is so funny. I need to tell you. I remember being on call. I was a 30 year resident at the time and this 70 bed NICU and there was a 590 gram baby, itty, bitty itty baby, baby.

 

Dr. Una  17:21  

And I hear extubation room one. And I knew that baby listen room one. And I Gosh, I hope it's not that baby, right? So get to room one, of course who was that bab,y baby that's debated. So I walk up to the bed to go intubate this baby. And the nurse in charge of the baby lifts her head over me and she's like, Can somebody get me a real doctor? I'm like, geez, Louise, woman, I'm right here. Right?

 

Dr. Una  17:52  

And, you know, so I look at her, I look away. And I think at this point, I'd learned love when people do stuff like that is their issues. Not really me. So, you know, I'll just be great. And then so I intubate the kid. Get it in one try. Respiratory Therapist confirms it, it's in place. And then she looks at me and she's like, thank you so much doctor, the same nurse.

 

Dr. Una  18:19  

No harm, no foul. I'm like, you know, that's your issue, not mine. I had become the person who could intubate a 590-grammer on one try. Why? Because of lesson number five. And lesson number five is sucking at something is not bad. Like the fact that you suck at something is not bad. That is the path to becoming a genius. Right? The reason why I could do that is because for two and a half years, I was willing to suck at intubating. And do it time, after time, after time after time. So listen, if you suck at something right now, like you say, Oh, I do videos and they suck. I do Facebook Lives on, they suck. I tried to sell and it sucks. You know, I try to figure out profit and loss statements and I suck at it. If you think like my message, I've been working on my message, and I suck at it.

 

Dr. Una  19:12  

If you're willing to suck at something long enough, you can become a genius at it. Okay, and I've applied this to everything. When I started speaking, I sucked at it. When I started doing videos, I sucked at it. When I started as an entrepreneur and I had to sell I royally sucked at that. But the more I'm willing to put myself out there and suck and suck and suck. That better I become, the better I become. And people see me now they're like, oh, you're a natural. I'm like at what? So when people say you're a natural, I'm like natural at what?

 

Dr. Una  19:50  

Not? Not at all. I was just willing to suck at it long enough and because of that, I seem good at it. Okay, so that was lesson number five. So if you suck at something, just Throw yourself at it, keep learning, keep putting yourself out there, keep being willing to suck. And finally, you'll become great at it. Alright, so then we go through residency, and I enjoyed it. I mean, I'll never do it again. But I enjoyed it. And finally, I graduate. Wow. 2008 still remember, great at graduate, I had interviewed at a practice in Georgia. And I was coming to start my real big girl job right and get paid six figures. It was I mean, what? And so my family was me, my husband and my daughter, who was six months old at the time, and we moved to Georgia, I remember my first day at work, I go in, nobody's present to write. And I go in, I see this kid can't remember what he had. But something simple. And I prescribed, you know, my first prescription not monitored, and the buck stops with me, saw the kid, walked out the room. And I was confused by the feeling I felt. I was expecting to be excited, like I did it. Like I'm here like I've arrived. But it was so anti climatic. It was like, disappointing. And I started, and I'm like, Why do I feel like this? And the reason why I felt like that is because I was like, so wait a minute, this is what I'm going to do from now to whenever I retire. Like, this is it? I'm done. I've arrived. And it was disappointing. It was so disappointing. Why? Because of the next lesson. And that lesson is this. My evolution should never end. My evolution should never end, your evolution should never end.

 

Dr. Una  21:54  

Like Yes, you became a doctor. Yes, you're a surgeon. But there's more. And it's not from a place of greed is just that we have so much potential in US crying for expression. We haven't arrived. We haven't arrived, I finished residency going like I'm done. I like I'm never studying hard like that for anything. I'm you know, and not from a standpoint of being lazy. But it was from a standpoint of this more, there's more, there's so much more. And so you know, so that's lesson number six. My evolution should never end. It should never end. It should never end.

 

Dr. Una  22:38  

So I took that up and I embrace personal development. That's where I started from. And it started studying the Brian Tracy's and the Jim Rohn’s said, and it was I my mind was blown, I started learning about, you know, vision and goal setting, and overcoming procrastination and, and all of these things and all these success habits and it opened up a brand new world. And a number of things happened one of them, you know, I started my own pediatric practice that's 10 years ago at this point. And I realized, man, you have to learn a whole new skill set. So I started evolving. And, you know, I got to the point where it's like, Look, the medical landscape is changing, like, if my only skill in the medical space is seeing patients, that's going to be a problem. And I started learning how to be a CEO of my practice, I started learning how to work on my practice, not just in my practice, are learning how to build teams. So learning all these things out scared spitless on all of them. I knew nothing about them. But my evolution must never end. And when I was like, wait a minute, this is amazing. There's so many other Dr. Una’s that would want to know that they can be great entrepreneurs who want to know that, yes, I'm a physician, but I can be a business savvy physician. And I can build a great practice, I can build a great service, I can launch a great product line or whatever it is that I want to do. And that's when EntreMD was born. And I realized I didn't have what it takes to pull it off. And I continued because the evolution must go on.

 

Dr. Una  24:17  

And I started investing heavily in coaching and, and programs to acquire skills and learn skills to put me in a better place to serve my audience to serve my world to serve my tribe to serve my community. The Evolution should never end it should never end. And so if you're here and you have a lot of struggles in your business and all of that, and you haven't come to that point where you're like, I invested in my education to become a doctor. I need to invest in education to become a great entrepreneur. I want you to realize it's one of the most powerful decisions you can make most powerful decision: The Evolution should never end should never end. Okay. So now, number seven is something, I'm right smack in the middle of, you know, COVID hit. And I remember, in March, maybe it was February, that the first thought that came to my mind when, you know, we're like, oh COVID, we're going to shut the city down all these, you know, all these conversations going on, and what will happen to practices and all of this stuff, and, you know, doctors being furloughed, all these things happening. The first thought that came is I have a choice, I can make a decision, my decision is, in spite of this pandemic, I am going to thrive.

 

Dr. Una  25:42  

Now, at this point, the pandemic is kind of like compared to now like in his baby stage, right. And we didn't even know which way it was going. I didn't even know how I was going to thrive. But I was like, this is a decision I’m making, I am going to thrive, and my people are going to thrive in spite of this pandemic. So I'm working on it started, strategizing, started scenario planning, start doing all these things. I did tons of webinars, I did a telemedicine course I, I opened up a program called thrive. I wasn't even planning it initially. But I was like, whoever's willing, I need to help, and did a lot of podcast episodes to help in that season. And the feedback I got, the feedback I got is so I don't know, I will always hold that in my heart to see doctors say, at a number of doctors in a program, and they're like, I've thrived in spite of this. You said it at the beginning. I've thrived in spite of it. My business has grown. In spite of it, I finally launched my business in the middle of a pandemic and it is doing well. I've watched people embrace. They're like, I can't change what is happening.

 

Dr. Una  27:01  

But I can change what's happening in my world, is in the pandemic, we launched the EntreMD Business School, and to watch the doctors, they're not let fear stop them. And they're chasing down their dreams. They're doing things they've never done before. They're getting results they've never had before, to see the outlook of positivity, I can do it, to see the community support each other. To see if you hear people say, because of your podcast, I was able to go through this pandemic. It taught me lesson number seven, my voice matters. And for you listening, your voice matters. You may sound different from everybody, your perspectives may be different, your take on things may be different. You may not be as great as the Guru's you may not have websites that look as cute as theirs. You may not have teams as big as theirs, but your voice matters. EntreMD is not perfect. It's not. But guess what it did in the middle of a pandemic, it saved lives. It helped doctors. It changed people's perspective. It helped it made a difference. Your voice matters. Your passions matter. The change you're trying to make in the world matters. So I want to tell you, if you've been here and you've been hiding, you've not been putting your things out there because you're like, it doesn't look like somebody else's. You've held back because you're like, Oh, I don't I don't think everybody anybody wants what I have to offer. You listen to me, your voice matters. There will always be people that have bigger businesses than yours. There will always be people that have bigger platforms than yours. There always be people have who have cuter social media than yours have larger followings than you, that can speak better than you. There always be people who earn more than you who have businesses that will run circles around yours. It doesn't change the fact that your voice matters. So whatever it is that you've been holding back on, it's time to go all out. It's time to go serve your community. It's time to commit and follow through with that commitment.

 

Dr. Una  29:32  

It is time, It is time. So those are my lessons. Say yes. Even when you're afraid say yes. Don't quit. Even if you feel fear. Every thought is not yours. You don't have to think fear and difficulties don't mean stop. Sucking at something is not bad. It's not bad is the path to becoming a genius. Number six, my evolution should never end. Never. Number seven, your voice matters.

 

Dr. Una  30:10  

Amen. Okay. So as always, I will leave you with something to do. And I want you to do two things. Number one, I want you to own your voice. I want you to own your voice, Own your business own what you're trying to do own your change of the world, own it and do it. I want you to be able to celebrate your 90th birthday, how your life has changed the world. Now when I say change the world in my like 7.2 billion it could. But it could change your world? What if you could disrupt an industry? What if you can build a practice that is a safe haven, where your employees don't have to wonder if they still have the job? What if you could do that? Whatever it is, own it, and do it and know that it matters. The second thing I want you to do is you guys know my B hat, right? My B hat is I want to help 80,000 doctors learn how to build profitable businesses. So what I want you to do, since I told all my business, only to share this podcast, I'm going to take this episode, and I want you to give it to a friend or a colleague at work, or maybe someone who's in charge of an institution or in charge of a bunch of residents or our hospital system and say hey, I want you to listen to this, I want you to share it. You do that for me. That's what I want. Just share it, just share it and say hey, you should listen to this. Okay, so Own your voice, and help share mine. Okay. So I hope this was helpful. I didn't script this or anything. I was just like, these are my thoughts as I took a walk and I really wanted to share them with you. So, you know, if you're not part of the EntreMD Facebook community, you can find us on Facebook and you can come in there and just share and let me know how this episode helped you or you can post it on your social media platform just tag me hashtag EntreMD: let me know how this helped you. And I will see you next week on another amazing episode of the EntreMD Podcast. 

If you love this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe, share and review it on iTunes. As you go about your week. Remember, you're not just an MD you're an EntreMD. Don't forget to tune in next week for another great episode. Until next time,