A Successful Weekend
Whew, what a weekend! As the lights fade from another successful Dental Success Summit, I’m reminiscing about the wisdom gleaned from the experts who spoke at the conference.
Here’s my notes from just a few of the experts who spoke:
Dr. Mark Costes: “Hope is the antidote.” He discussed an experiment with Curt Richter in the 1950s, where he dropped rats into a bucket of water. (Sort of a disgusting experiment.) He let them almost drown, but then pulled them out. Later, he ran the experiment again with the rats who had been pulled out and rats who had never been pulled out. The ones who he didn’t pull out died after about 15 minutes of swimming. The ones who had been through the experiment and had been pulled out swam 240 Xs longer. This experiment demonstrates that eliminating hopelessness is the key to resilience and survival.
Dr. Summer Kassmel: “Teams need trust.” The formula for trust is: Trust = Love +Truth. Too much love and you’re a “pushover”, too much trust and you’re a jerk. Find that balance and you can lead a team with trust. Culture will be built when there’s adequate trust.
Indycar Winner James Hinchcliff: The most pivotal time in his life was almost losing it in a car accident that had him skewered onto a rod in a smashed Indy car. He could have died 100 ways that day, but survived. Months of rehab brought him back, and he says that all of the best things in his life track back to that ‘trajectory changing’ moment. So, when we’re in the deep, dark places….times of trial, remember that this could be your ‘trajectory changing’ moment.
Alastair Mcdonald: “My experience is my wealth.” and “Money is tokenized time.” As he discussed the impending recession or market slow-down, he feels good about dentistry. The collective sigh in the audience was palpable. However, he said we need to lean on our experience to lead us to future wealth and success. We need to double down on our education and experience to make sure we stay on the top of our game.
To Conclude
Since the end of the event a few days ago, there’s just so many positive messages that keep pouring in about the event, the people, and the atmosphere of positivity around our profession. This event is a yearly reminder of the incredible community we have the privilege to work with every day.
To close, we invited all attendees at the Dental Success Summit to join us for another round of the 16 Day 4 Futures Challenge. There is still time to join us here if you are interested.