The Doctor’s Millionaire Mindset
This blog, as well as our previous post, is closely related to our free online course, Creating a Mindset that BOOSTS Success, so be sure to check that out after you finish reading; I think you’ll find a lot of value in it. For now, let’s talk “Millionaire Mindset” and how a provider can have one while still putting their patients first!
In 2001, American writer Thomas J. Stanley published his book, The Millionaire Mind which surprised many readers with its insights into the minds of over 1,300 multi-millionaires in the United States. If you’ve ever read the book, or its predecessor The Millionaire Next Door, you’ve likely had your understanding of wealth flipped upside down by what the interviewees shared about their journeys and philosophies. Personally, as someone who was not born into generational wealth or even “new money”, I found myself enlightened by the simplicity and earnest nature of said ideas.
One thing that stood out to me as I was researching for this blog was that Stanley’s book seemed to clearly illuminate a pattern in very highly paid individuals, such as doctors… one that I know you’ll find interesting, to say the least.
According to Stanley’s findings, glamorous high-salary occupations are often detrimental to the accumulation of wealth.
“In fact, Doctors and lawyers are notoriously terrible for accumulating wealth. While they are often amongst the highest paid in society, they often fail at actually achieving a high net worth, relative to their income. A major factor is that doctors and lawyers often maintain a high-consumption lifestyle. High-power lawyers, for example, have to impress their clients. On the other hand, high-salary earners who work in “dull-normal” occupations, i.e. jobs in trades, don’t have these economic pressures and can easily maintain an average lifestyle.” – Jennifer Chan
Something we emphasize with our clients at The Green Leaf Group is the idea of a thoughtful, carefully executed Business Life Plan. A business life plan is an adaptation of a business plan we encourage you to explore so that you can create an environment that excites you, fulfills your passion, helps you reach your goals and gives you the checks and balances you need to keep your plan in check. We cover this is the 3rd class of our online course, “How To Create Predictable Profit In Your Cash Practice.”
Like it or not, doctors notoriously struggle with the accumulation and maintenance of wealth, and that’s something we’re actively engaged in changing for our clients!
You can practice medicine, give your patients the best possible care, AND have a Millionaire Mindset!
Here’s how:
The first, and arguably most important, step is to examine your own personal bias when it comes to money. The word “excess” is easy to demonize along with wealth in general… sometimes we trick ourselves into believing that we don’t deserve to be financially secure. Some of us even actively sabotage ourselves and keep ourselves from doing the things we know will lead us to successfully accumulating wealth – It’s okay if that’s you; it’s easy to fall into. Actually, the most popular car among the millionaires in Stanley’s sample was the Toyota Camry!
How is it that you view wealth? Do you believe you should be a millionaire? That you deserve to be financially secure? Let me say here and now that you absolutely do. We all do! The problem is that many of us develop tendencies and ideologies that keep us from pursuing wealth with everything we’ve got.
Ultimately, this seems to boil down to intention: What do you intend to do with your money, and how is it you imagine yourself living once you have it? One millionaire explained to Stanley:
“If your goal is to become financially secure, you’ll likely attain it…But if your motive is to make money to spend money on the good life… you’re never gonna make it.”
If you’re in a position with your practice where you’re poised to grow substantially, first of all congratulations! Second of all, you may be wondering whether or not financial goals are something you should discuss with your staff. In our experience, it absolutely is! Here’s one way to approach this conversation that really embodies the findings of Stanley’s The Millionaire Mind:
If you’re comfortable doing so, share your practice’s current financial status, your projections, and your goals with your team members. Let them see the reality of the business and let them see that you have goals to grow – if they’re with you for the long haul, this is a way to reassure them that you’re planning for the future. The crucial part of sharing this information is making sure they understand your why.
And that’s where the millionaire mindset comes in…
Why does your practice need to make more money? Is it just so that your take-home pay can increase? Is it so that you can retire sooner and sell your business for more money? If so, there’s nothing wrong with it… but you may want to take a deeper look at what Stanley’s millionaire muses shared as well as what we’ve found to be a successful model among our clients.
When our client, Dr. John Carrozzella, shares his practice’s financials with his team, he also explains the expenses related to quality care: having a comfortable office to treat patients in, having the ability to hire and continually employ high quality individuals, being able to invest in continued education, making sure equipment and tools are always top quality and well maintained, being able to spread the wealth among employees through profit sharing and/or retirement programs. All of these things are indicative of long term, selfless thinking on Dr. C’s part, and they help his team to understand the need for continual growth, improvement, and excellence in the practice.
And that’s where the balance exists… this is how a doctor can have a millionaire mindset:
- Avoid the need for “status symbols”
- Be frugal in your business AND personal lives
- Grow with your team in mind
- Always remember your patients when making financial decisions
Hopefully now you can see why it is that we do what we do, and why we believe in the “Business Life Plan” for our clients. Our goal is to help providers achieve the practice of their dreams, practice medicine on their terms, and achieve wealth in an ethical, sustainable, and ENJOYABLE way.
If you got something from this blog, be sure to check out our free online course, Creating a Mindset that BOOSTS Success where we go into greater detail about the importance of having a growth mindset when it comes to building a successful business or practice.
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