I am Dr. Hassan, a Board-Certified Physiatrist and Independent Practice Owner. I help physiatrists start and grow their own profitable practices so they can achieve financial independence and live without limits.
When building a profitable practice, you must ask yourself if you’re making plans or if you’re planning. Do you look at plans like great leaders do? You probably have many different plans in your life. Whether you’ve written them down or not, you have plans that you use to achieve different things. I know I’ve made hundreds if not thousands of plans for how I want to grow and expand my practice. You probably take the same route to work every day. That’s an example of a quite simple plan. You don’t just get in your car and start turning left or right at intersections hoping to arrive at the hospital or clinic. Long ago, you discovered the best way to get to work in the shortest amount of time. You unconsciously developed a game plan for traveling to and from work. I know I’ve planned out the shortest route between the acute rehabilitation hospital and the two biggest referral hospitals where I do my inpatient consultations.
Maybe you write to-do lists. These are simple little plans, but they can help you accomplish a lot. You plan when to
drop the pets off at the kennel, when to swing by the dry cleaner, and when to cook dinner. Suffice to say that you’re a planner in many different ways. I plan when I want to release educational content to help other physiatrists avoid the painful mistakes when building their practice. While we’re on that topic, do you look at plans like great leaders? Dwight D. Eisenhower once asked if he agreed with a theory that few plans ever survive first contact with the enemy. This is what he had to say: “Plans are worthless. Planning is everything.” Can these two sentences exist together? Aren’t plans and planning the same thing? They are and they aren’t.
Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States. He held office from 1953 to 1961. He served as the superior commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. During World War II, he reached the rank of Five-Star General of the US Army. Only five men have ever achieved that rank. Eisenhower was a leader of people and a successful politician. After his first term as President of the United States, he was reelected. He didn’t get reelected because he believed in plans, but because he knew planning was crucial.
The difference between planning and plans
Planning is essential unless you just want to bet on good fortune. Maybe the world will give you what you want, maybe it won’t. Hoping on luck to create a great life for you is hoping you hit the proverbial lottery. Smart planning eventually means you’ll have a great plan of some kind, and it’s important, however, many of the plans you’ll make won’t take you to the results you’re looking for. According to Eisenhower, this is when you begin planning. Again, planning is important. But don’t fall in love with a specific plan if it isn’t working. You need to be able to pivot and change your approach from time to time. You should be planning for a wonderful life. If not, you may or may not get there. Sometimes you’ll develop a plan and discover it’s not going to work out. Don’t worry, just start planning again and produce a novel approach.
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I’m Dr. Hassan, a Board-Certified Physiatrist and Independent Practice Owner. I help physiatrists start and grow their own profitable practices so they can achieve financial independence and live without limits. Please go to businessofrehab.com/contractnegotiations to pick up the free guide to help you negotiate the contract of your dreams.
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