Essential Principles Physician Entrepreneurs Can Learn from How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis

2023-10-07 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS5DwZ0R35c

Transcript
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[Music] [Applause] hey he guys this is Dr Mike Wang welcome to another edition of bootstrap MD this is the podcast for healthcare and physician entrepreneurs and as we mentioned we're going to be covering a series of books uh over this time period of how they affected my life and career and more importantly for you how it can how its principles and implications can affect physician entrepreneurs now this book is called how to get rich by feel Felix Dennis it came out

in 2006 and who is Felix Dennis well he since passed away by the time he was one of british's wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs the book is a biography but in actual fact is more of a guide he tells his journey from being a penniless magazine publisher to acquiring a fortune estimated at s00 million pounds um it was well received when it came out uh got a lot of attention the author is very blunt very candid uh he didn't gloss over parts of

his life that weren't as bright and shiny uh and you know when selfhelp books came out unlike most it didn't give you these vague promises or giving these overly optimistic visions of success he was pretty brutally honest he didn't shy away from kind of his trials his pitfalls um sacrifices that he's made in his life to accumulate wealth uh certainly it's got a title that did g attention pretty audacious how to get rich um but uh you know every now and

then it comes up on the bestsellers and they they found this this gem uh from entrepreneurs who are ready to to live the life that they want and and start up their own uh business um so the book covers some key lessons principles that contributed to his success and he believed that anybody with determination and honesty can become rich if they generally desire to be but unlike the title again it it's it's more of a a how to guide um you

know how he did and that's what I appreciate it so if you don't know the name Felix Dennis and and the magazines very popular magazine here in the States was called Max magazine so he was responsible for for that and several high-profile Publications so let's go go over the book how to get rich by Felix Dennis and how it can affect you the physician entrepreneur so one of the first principles he talks about is basically anybody can get rich he came

from a poor background he was selling um magazines as a street vendor and that started his Ascension to becoming uh wealthy and he believed that anybody who has self-belief and determination can become wealthy as well didn't really matter if you had high education or not um one part of the book that we've talked about in the past that uh what we refer to as the golden handcuffs where we're making a regular paycheck albeit a higher paycheck than other careers he attributes

it to almost like having a regular paycheck is like crack cocaine and that that uh you know you you once you have it you um it kind of dulls your chances of take of taking risk and for you to become wealthy for Mr Dennis is that you need to become an owner you need to become uh your Your Own Boss um other aspects of money is that it doesn't discriminate based upon your race based upon your background based circumstances uh don't

let Prejudice or bigotry hold you back um he believes that the younger you start the the better uh you're going to have a chance to to move forward and more chance of willingness to take risk and harnessing that kind of fear of failure as we talked about in Tim Ferris his book um you can use that as uh motivation so what are it implications for physician entrepreneurs well one thing is that you know it doesn't really matter what type of medical

background you have and he doesn't considered a constraint but that could be a foundation it can lead you into other businesses that perhaps you couldn't get into whether you're establishing a practice uh de developing Solutions in the health industry in the tech industry there's lots of opportunities that that can be seized from that uh so um you know with the right mindset and strategies it can really open a vast world for you another principle he discusses is cutting your losses we've

all heard this before but it's not just advice for Felix it was a strategy he talks about how in his book how he had to shut down underperforming magazine titles um and emphasizing that you know prolonging failure you know we we know that the um you know prolonging failure is just kind of a drain on resources and we might have you know Endeavors as doctors and entrepreneurs that don't pan out and instead of keep banging your head against the wall which

is the we've talked about is the definition of insanity maybe that's something where you know you put it on the back burner or you know give up on it and and certainly we've talked about Sun cost and how we get affected by it but we only have one life to live and you know if a prototype for some type of medical device just isn't resonating uh in the market uh or perhaps you've got challenges that you didn't foresee maybe it's time

to reevaluate learn pivot move forward um and that also involves just having a stronger mindset inter tering of having a a mental armor and having the ability to um when you have failure to publicly acknowledge and learn from it um you know the fear of failing is for Felix Dennis is a major op obstacle to getting to your financial goals and amassing wealth if that's what you choose to do um so Embrace risks and be willing to live with a JY

and if things just aren't working out for you um it's time to move on as a doctor I wasn't used to asking for help especially when it came to subjects outside of medicine but then I found physician coaches.com in an instant I found hundreds of experts to help me in all aspects of Life on areas I was afraid to ask dealing with burnout starting a side gig money management even help with my marriage and the best part nearly all experts are

Physicians themselves after reading their profile and a quick chat I knew I found the right Mentor for me at physician coaches.com help from professional colleagues is just a click away now this principle uh really affected me and when that was the importance of own ownership the importance of ownership or owning Revenue generating assets which we've talked about many times in this program so his beliefs his strongest belief in the book that after you read it is that the power of being

an owner uh he diligently own rights to all of his content he held majority Stakes um he didn't give out shares of his company he he did his best to Own 100% now as I'm covering this I don't agree with everything that he mentions but he did understand that uh if you truly want to become wealthy you have to own uh your Innovations you have to own your practices and it's not about just having 100% of the profits it's about having

control having controll the directions of uh your Ventures um so he says ownership is crucial uh to become rich it's essential to be be an owner um every single percentage of ownership is crucial and worth fighting for now if you're opening a public company it may not be possible to Own 100% And he says to take in those arrows you may be hated but those that's one of the things that's one of the drawbacks of becoming uh wealthy and that and

then again that is something that you you'll see in this book that for for someone to be as rich as he is he has had to make many sacrifices that didn't make uh didn't make many friends when he did it uh I believe in the book he covers one aspect it was similar to um the character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings when he said about his my precious the the ring you have to treat ownership like that that you

know obsessive and compulsive uh way to do it and that uh that to beware you're going to have competitors who are going to take take that away from you uh so how applied in my life when I starting a business um is that you know if I saw intrusions on it uh and obstacles it was like basically for me you're taking money away from my kids and that's the way that I needed to um have that obsessiveness you know with becoming

an owner and allow it allow it to grow may not be considered healthy but that's one of the things that that I learned uh so he always valued ownership always important on retaining rights and as a physician as an entrepreneur let's say you're creating advice you know you can want to ensure that you have the maximum benefits uh and ownership and being able to maintain control another principle that I think can be applied to physician entrepreneurs from the book how to

get rich is the power of Simplicity that the best ideas are usually uh the simplest you know his industry he was in was magazines for the most part you know he had other Ventures but that's what he was well known for and it involves really straightforward Concepts about filling existing gaps in the market and uh it's really important that you know um it doesn't necessarily you need to have the greatest idea in the world you don't have to have the next

Uber you can just find out that what other people are doing and just make maybe do it better you know he says original that having an original idea does not guarantee uh success it's the execution of that idea is going to determine the success and failure of your business Enterprise so you can have success by executing other great ideas uh but you don't need to have groundbreaking uh ideas um so how does that apply to to us I think we tend

to over complicate things I know for example in my practice we've got lots of different services but if you identify by you know the 20% of the services that'll make 80% of the revenue you're going to be much farther ahead you know also um in take expanding on that Simplicity it's it's also understanding that if you have just one idea you're going to be at a disadvantage to an entrepreneur that has multiple baskets of of bringing we talked about having multiple

uh businesses he points to Richard Branson owns just a part of uh many many different businesses and having multiple mentors LED Richard Branson becoming a billionaire so um understanding that you're going to have better chances of success if you have more baskets and also understanding that you know once you have an idea what can you do to grow and scale it uh and then when you know once it's working do whatever you can to make make that to Contin continue uh

to work so as an entrepreneur the simplest ideas are usually the best um and they're going they were going to be more successful another important principle I I got from the book is the inevitability of mistakes it it's going to happen and it's what you do from the mistakes and your ability to learn from mistakes is really going to propel you uh forward he talked about one word you hear time and time again is is luck and some people don't like

these and he admits that that he was lucky and that turned some people off about the book but he does say that you know you do the more opportunities that they're out there somehow you become luckier the more times you practice and work on your business the luckier you you get you know um fortune favors not only the brave but also the Bold right we we've heard this right and that there are opportunities every day what are your opportunities to actually

seize it not just research it but to execute on on plans and he was very candid about his missteps in his business both personally and professionally um again mistakes are inable they're going to happen we're only human but they're invaluable in learning from experience so for physician entrepreneurs you may have a partnership maybe something in a product doesn't work and it's just help you one step closer to success as Thomas Edison once said so those those traps take those mistakes take

those errors and learn learn from it and you're going to become a better entrepreneur another important aspect that from the book that I learned is just becoming detailed oriented he was very involved in negotiations don't get me wrong he delegated quite a bit and talked about the power of Delegation in the book he would have managers who ran his his his businesses and his companies but for the big decisions such as mergers such as launching a new magazine um such as

um an important hire for someone H up in his company he was intricately involved yeah he talks about the understanding about negotiations that winners and losers emerg from negotiations and the importance of listening is crucial during negotiations and not just blurting things out but silence can be very effective as well um so just just like in your own business as a physician in your own practice it's important that you have important roles as your delegate you can't do everything by yourself

but for those important decisions you should be intricately involved he feels that uh like for example landlords in real estate that are Absol don't Prosper it's personal involvement that is necessary for Success going along with it another important principle I learned from the book how to get rich is higher Talent smarter than you so Talent identification in is high roid we' talked about once you have talent you do everything you can to nurture them and keep them because talented individuals uh

you know are what going to make or break your your business and it's not necessarily just paying them the most money it's giving them opportunities giving them opportunties to grow in your business uh if you have talented individuals in your business give them opportunities to shine uh you know dream up new projects for example in our uh company we had we had hired an RN but she was really great at uh interior design so we helped her and and really had

her uh take control of Designing uh our new practice uh and decorating she and she loved it so provide incentives provide benefits so you can retain those talents do whatever you can to Pro protect them and really just surround yourself with expertise so obviously the um lesson for physician entrepreneurs is pretty self-explanatory uh make sure you hire people you know let's say if you're a a software you're creating a software a medical software you don't necessarily need to understand how to

code but you need to understand that the soft Ware is only as good as the designers and coders of that software so it's important you're able to attract Talent don't go cheap on these things uh because it'll really bite you in the butt uh by kind of skimping on those aspect there's other aspects of your business that you can uh you know watch your penny these but something as integral as that is really important uh for the long-term success of your

business another important principle that I learned from the book how to get and kind of sounds counterintuitive with a title like that but there's more to life than just money and he talks about having motivation you know what why are you actually building this business what are you actually doing it for you should be for a deeper purpose if for if you're in medicine and in your business it should be involved in improving patient outcomes uh pioneering uh you know new

treatments improving on uh outdated and Antiquated Solutions in the healthcare industry that should be your driving force and like I said you know I'm sure the title how to get rich was kind of clickbaity but it probably once they read it they learned hey you know this is how he's approaching it he spoke about his own passion projects that gave him contentment uh although wealth was important to him and and and what he wanted the the true his true Joys were

these passion projects uh and and in another uh vein he treated wealth accumulation uh getting rich like a game he says you should treat this as a game um but it's not shouldn't be your your sole focus in life and treating it as a game can often um Shield you from those you know those Downs that we talk about in entrepreneurship those failures that can occur and realizing okay you know this is kind of like a game of Monopoly I might

get you know go bankrupt but you know I can get or I might be in jail but maybe I'll get that get out of jail get out of jail free card but you know you know what I'm saying here it's it's the importance of you know finding it what is your deeper meaning what is your primary drive uh that at the end is going to is what's going to propel your business to success or failure he talks about in the book

the need for respit the ability to um you know there were times in the book where you you feel like he regrets some things like he regretted like to get to the position that he was in wealth he sacrificed a lot of things he sacrificed friends uh he was all encompassing you know he's all driven uh to grow his Empire and he he recognizes that it's important that we take you take breaks having uh Retreats having be able to to meditate

to have a reju rejuvenate yourself uh during those down times and it's essential or you're burn out again pretty obvious what that means for us as physician entrepreneurs having the time and this is something that I struggle with to you know turn off that computer at 600 p.m. or 700 p.m. or even 8:00 p.m. um but taking away yourself with business spending time with family um you know in creativity I mentioned uh you know I was traveling a lot when I

had my software company I was traveling overseas a lot and uh you know my wife said you know I thought you got into this business so you could spend more time with the family and yeah that that really like opened my eyes like yeah why am I why am I going to Perth or why am I going to Sydney you know every other week so having important time where you can just rejuvenate and find out like taking care of yourself taking

care of your mental health your wellbe being to avoid you so so essential and then finally he talks about safeguarding your wealth uh you know he felt that money attaining money is easy but keeping it is the hard part uh and that you know take emotion away from money and to important that how how big fear can really Drive our actions or inactions um the importance of negative influences uh you know loaning out money to family and friends was something that

he had he had mentioned um you know you can give away money he believed that there was Karma that the fast you give away money the more that it's going to come back to you um but he says when loaning it can cause relationship issues um if you're going to loan it out don't expect anything in in return uh you know I've had a situation like that uh and I just said you know I'm going to probably loan this out and

I pretty sure I'm not going to get it back um that just that was just kind of part of it it's important of course you be educated in holding your money you want to have the best attorneys tax advisers accountants uh estate managers business advisors surround yourself with those those people have great accounting systems uh keeping your eye on the ball in terms of your metrics and your kpis your key performance indicators in your business have talented people around you like

like they said is is very important and again for lesson for physician entrepreneurs is not about just accumulating it but also preserving uh your wealth uh and and he was very he made very sure that he was productive in financial planning ensured that his assets were Diversified and so those are some principles that I learned from the book how to get rich and how it can apply to physician entrepreneurs like I said there's aspects of the book that I didn't agree

with I took it for what it is it was a biography and it was a guide but those were some principles that shaped me in my career so I encourage you to check out the book B uh wherever you get books probably Amazon check it out uh I think you'll enjoyed it as much as I did and more importantly you'll take some lessons from a book and help you execute your business remember lives give you ups and downs as an entrepreneurship

but if you can learn a nugget from from a book take some principle from that and to allow you to execute in your business those are the things that are really going to help you keep your eye on the prize and keep moving [Music] forward