Having an ambitious understanding that small private medical practice businesses are the “belt and suspenders” that enable your medical career to approach your elite expectations for your medical career success is only part of your drive toward an illustrious medical career.

Your medical training, knowledge, and skills are how you grow, expand, maintain, and earn income. Physicians have struggled for decades to weave these two pillars into a highly functional, well-oiled, and highly productive business machine.

Asking yourself logical questions will help you see and understand the interaction of value and benefits of these gripping and deeply personal business requirements.

Can you practice medicine without any income?

Try practicing medicine on a street corner. Yes, if you can tolerate the poverty that comes with it. It’s why hundreds of physicians over the last six decades have lost their practices, sold the practice to the local hospital, or sold their practice to equity predators—never making enough income to maintain their practice or their lifestyle. It will continue until private medical practice disappears soon. Physicians lose full control of their practice freedom and career destiny.

How do physicians avoid burnout?

The real cause of burnout seems unknown, but many obvious contributing factors overwhelm physicians and become intolerable. No definite cure has been found. Unfortunately, most of the medical literature focuses on physicians managing more than one source of income. That doubles the workload and stress. Over 95% of physicians have not been educated in any other profession or business, so they are destined to find low-income jobs outside medicine.

Physicians in our nation have lacked business education in our medical schools for over a century. They are never told about the value and benefits of business education to their medical careers. Their arrogance regarding the topic leads to persistent and exorbitant income loss that they never recognized during their medical careers.

What would happen if physicians had a business education?

Imagine if physicians knew how to avoid most of the alleged causes of burnout. And imagine there is a way to avoid the huge financial consequences resulting from a lack of income that are deeply widespread in our profession today. These are the reasons for the increasing physician attrition and complete frustration (or worse) in their private practices.

Additionally, imagine all they needed to do was to remain in their medical practice and use the business tools that are key to the success of all small businesses—medical practices. How much easier would that be than piling on more dysfunctional methods for survival?

Business education is the only internationally known way all small business owners worldwide learn to love their businesses. It is not the creative ability of medical doctors in their practice business that lights up the sky. It’s believing that business experts worldwide know what works and what doesn’t. Following their advice, you roll in the dough and become a believer.

As a comparison, physicians who treat medical patients understand that their patients know little about medical advice and treatments but easily accept the treatment they prescribe. Why does that happen? Because they trust your knowledge and advice without any proof first.

Similarly, you can’t rationalize why most practicing physicians in our nation refuse to believe that business education can reliably produce an income surge, even when the facts prove the validity. Millions of business owners see it happen almost daily.

Is this non-belief attitude protecting those physicians from something secret they fear, can’t live with, prefer to leave a couple of million dollars on the table that they will never recognize, costs too much to obtain a business education, or are not open-minded enough to believe this physician who practiced 40 years, has the business expertise and knows what he preaches?

The business tools that have been proven a thousand times over to result in huge increases in income include every facet of business management (the productive way) and the details of marketing business far beyond every physician’s mental intelligence and superficial knowledge.

I am incredibly frustrated that thousands of physicians have been forced out of private medical practice over decades for financial reasons—insufficient income—knowing that most of those issues could have easily been resolved by a simple business education.

Nothing of value has ever been done about preventing that issue from happening. And what kind of medical school scholars would purposely never mention the need to know about one of the most valuable bits of knowledge that offers medical practice success to all physicians?

Physicians who reject such business education, don’t believe it works, and continue to believe that they know more about business than business experts will never reach their greatest potential in medical practice.

Examples to think about

Do you have enough income to afford conferences or workshops that keep you on the cutting edge of medical knowledge, skills, and technology for the duration of your medical career? Would that solve your limitations with income?

The amount of income you can earn with these tools is unlimited. They will always be a trusted financial backup that gives you confidence, an edge to keep up and do more, and always there to use when needed.

Business tools prevent income problems such as fear of failure, loss of your family—divorce, loss of reputation, inadequate retirement funds, inability to provide for the kids’ college education, burnout, failed expectations for your career, and lifestyle restrictions, among many others.

My beliefs

First, the joy of practicing medicine reaches its maximum when a physician drowns in the diligence and foresight required to prepare for their life in medical practice. It removes most of the “I didn’t know about those things.” But you must learn about those things as early as possible. What are my personal skills? What specialty should I train in?

Where will I practice, and what is my best practice setup? We know physicians who are in the wrong specialty, poor at surgery or chose the wrong profession.

Second, enjoyment in medical practice is reached when income is never an issue during your medical career. It allows you the freedom to practice what you love to do.

Tell me that I’m wrong. I’ve studied hard to learn the causes of physician attrition and know what prevents it.

Curtis G. Graham is a physician.