THE COMMON TRAITS OF LONG-TERM WEALTH

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By Ike Devji, J.D. | May 24, 2011



I have been fortunate to work with some of the most successful people in America through the course of my career. All of them excel at something; medicine, business, real-estate development, science, and even the arts. What this vastly diverse crowd has in common (besides money) though are a set of traits that have made them not only good at what they do but wealthy and successful by any standard in a long-term and predictable way; here are a few of the most notable ones:

They Work Hard: Nearly all of them are the source of their own wealth. That is, they get up every day and commit themselves to the practice of some profession with skill, passion and diligence. They always strive to be smarter, more informed about their market and more skilled at what they do than the day before.

They Never Take Their Market Position for Granted: They understand that in a down economy discount solution, product, and service providers emerge in every market. They know competitors will be selling price first and many consumers won’t see the differences until they have been poorly served. They make sure their marketing efforts, network, and professional relationships are as important and well-nurtured as they were before the reached their current level of success. “Good Enough” is not part of their vocabulary.

They are Team Players: They look for every way to add value and collaborate with other top service providers in their field so that they are a natural part of every project or client they are involved with. They associate with other best-of-class teams and attend professional education and networking events on a regular basis.

They Are Proactive, Not Reactive: They take preventative care of their health, business, and known liabilities and plan to avoid problems, not manage them. They understand that a small amount of time and resources directed at these issues now will save them vast amounts of energy and money in the future and gives them the greatest number of options. They understand that preventing an illness, whether physical or financial is almost always better than treating it.

They Understand Wealth is Finite and Fragile: They live very well, but also “well within” their means. They are willing and able to adjust their lifestyles and spending to adjust for market realities and income fluctuations. They have money in the bank, not just on their wrists, and can handle fluctuations is cash flow and earnings as well as most common unplanned expenses without panic or liquidating large assets at a bad time in the market. They get that an important part of wealth is “having some.”

They Prioritize and Do “Boring” Things Before Spending on Lifestyle: They buy life, health, and disability insurance, get estate and asset-protection planning, stick to savings and investment plans and other things that often have a hard time competing with new cars and vacations. They are financially disciplined and meet the mental commitments they have made to their families and future wealth and success before meeting today’s “wants.”

They Create Success Maintenance Teams: They identify top professionals in various areas, create relationships with them and act decisively to implement their suggestions and expertise. They have control of their egos and understand that as bright and successful as that are, they are better off being surrounded by experts in areas outside their field. They know “what they don’t know” and are willing and able to delegate responsibility to others and let go enough to be free to do what they are best at, which is never everything.

They read sources of information that present a wide range of expert guidance and stimulate critical thinking. They know that their learning is a lifetime process and they never stop.

Medical Marketing: Meeting the Needs of Your Patients

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By Randall Wong, MD | June 9, 2011



One of the basic tenets of marketing is to know your customer. By doing so, you should identify the needs of the customer, and, if you are able to provide a solution to his or her problem, you are likely to make a sale and build a relationship. 

In healthcare, our patients are the customers and we, too, must understand the needs of our patients if we are to build a successful practice. We must respond to meet their needs, or they'll find another practice that will.

We can do this in many ways. For example, we can provide convenient office hours (early, late, weekend) and transportation. We can integrate a patient portal with our EHR.
Our patients and potential patients are spending more and more time conducting independent research for their own health needs. Whether to find answers to their health questions or doctors to help them, they’re seeking solutions on the Internet.

“Baby Boomers” (ages 45-54) now spend equal amounts of time on the Internet and TV. Younger age groups spend most of their time online rather than in front of a television set.

A study by The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reveals 80 percent of Internet users are looking for answers to health-related questions as of 2011.

If we follow the marketing rule of “know your customer,” we should be the first to provide these solutions. Health professionals are the logical choice to be providers of health-related content on the Internet, for we are the experts.

Those physicians that understand this and participate by starting and maintaining a website full of rich and relevant content will have the most marketing success. Why not create a website of your own that reveals your expertise?

It’s been said “If you build it, they will come.”

Here’s to your success!

EHR SUPERSTARS AND THE REST OF US

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By Daniel Essin, MA, MD, FAAP, FCCP | May 30, 2011

Barring a disability, everyone can walk. But climbing to the summit of Mt. Everest involves walking, and then some.

Not everyone can do it and of those who could, not everyone is willing to make the commitment and exert the effort. Of those who try, some die in the attempt, often as a result of faulty decision making. Those who reach the summit and return to tell about it are genuine superstars. Imagine that you are a space alien and you want to understand the limitations of human walking. If you capture a group of those who had scaled Mt. Everest, any study results or conclusions that you generate might be very interesting but they would not tell you much that was relevant to understanding the limitations that the average human encounters when walking. Your sampling error would skew your results and would you conclude that there were few limitations.

Any physician that has done research or read research papers is aware of the sampling error. It is a criticism that is often raised about scientific studies and it is often justified criticism. Even with good planning and statistical consultants, it's easy to design a study that has residual sampling and technique errors. This is compounded if there are factors that the researchers were not aware of, which would have influenced the study design had they only known.

A great example is that of a biologist studying limb regeneration in amphibians who produced some truly extraordinary results. The problem was that no one could reproduce the results no matter how closely they followed the published techniques and methods. One biologist was so perplexed that he went to personally observe the procedure. The bottom line: The original researcher was a chain smoker and had been blowing tobacco smoke on the preparations throughout the study but was totally oblivious to the fact that it might affect the outcome or even that it should be mentioned.

Let's recall that many physicians have spent the better part of the past 20 to 30 years making attempts to implement and adopt EHRs. Many have made multiple attempts and have spent vast amounts of time and money. Out of this group, a few have had sufficient success to be noteworthy. These are the superstars.

When "slow adoption" is questioned, what is being asked is why ordinary doctors haven’t done what the superstars have done. The answer is, of course, that they are not superstars. They have watched the superstars and noted the number of failed attempts and the expense of the "successes" and correctly concluded that the technology was not ready for prime time.

The current program to incentivize the adoption of EHR is based on the kind of data that the space aliens would have gathered from the Mt. Everest climbers, which suggests that it may take a bit of work but it is basically no problem. Will a bribe make someone successful when there no data that would predict success? Would $40,000 induce an average person to climb Mt. Everest? Would they succeed if they tried? It's more likely that they would die in the attempt or be sent back from the first base camp.

The expectations of the legislators and the politically connected IT types that are fanning the EHR flame are based on flawed data caused by sampling error. They have concocted a program based on the assumption that it is only $40,000 or so that stands between the average doctor and superstar success. It would be more productive to direct the money toward studying the failed attempts to identify the root causes, i.e. the intrinsic flaws in the programming languages, databases, and application-development tools that have led so many bright developers to produce software that has failed so badly in spite of their best efforts.