Most things worth doing have a “Dip”. The Dip of what you’re doing is (or was) the combination of bureaucracy and busywork you must complete in order to get certified.
Becoming a dentists has dips. Organic chemistry is a dip. The DAT is a dip. Dental school is a dip.
Americans have a cultural tendency to frown upon “quitters”. Athletes never quit, neither do titans of industry. But, what if successful people actually quit early and quit often?
Quitting as a strategy:
We’re not talking about only sticking with things you had a natural knack for as a child. No, we’re talking about quitting dead end tasks in exchange for the development of a long-term strategy in pursuit of your uncapped potential.
Seth Godin’s advice was sound when he wrote, “Never quite something with long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment”.
The stressful moment is the dip.
Here’s one more dip: Financing and building your patient pool.
The most successful dentists won’t just ride out this dip, they will power through it by deploying a thoughtful marketing strategy.
What do I mean by “quit”?
Dentists don’t necessarily stop marketing, they just appear to stop thinking about it. When was the last time you revisited your Yellow Page ad and measured its results? What about the banner at the baseball field?
The problem: Most dentists quit marketing because they don’t see immediate results. While dentists want a marketing strategy that they can set and forget, a marketing campaign is a fluid project with excellent long term potential.Â
Once upon a time, advertising was sold by the “eyeball”. Today, you should be paying for action, and based on the actions you observe, you should tweak your campaigns to focus on the higher yielding long term potential.
