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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.

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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you today.

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I'm super excited to bring you today's episode, and I'm talking today about how you too can

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love your academic career, how you too can love your academic career.

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And when I've said this in certain spaces, people look at me funny, and they're like,

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wait a minute, academic careers are not about love.

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And I just want to say that I think they could be.

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I think they could be, and I want you to not tune out.

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I want you to pause and listen and just hear what I have to tell you.

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But I always like to start with the beginnings of my academic career.

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And to be honest, let's go all the way back to my training.

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I felt so lucky to get into medical school.

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I don't know about you.

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I was an international student who wanted to be a physician in the United States.

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And people told me, frankly, it's going to be hard because people who are American citizens

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are not able to get in.

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You're coming from another country.

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It's going to be so hard for you.

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And so that's the mindset that I had going into the process was that, wow, this is going

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to be so hard for me.

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And so getting in was like, oh, wow, I'm so lucky.

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I'm so fortunate.

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OK, never mind that I did put in the work.

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I got the grades.

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I aced the tests.

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I did all the things I was supposed to do.

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But I recognize that working hard is not necessarily the ticket to success.

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So that was good fortune along my path as well.

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But I certainly came to medical school and my whole academic career from the beginning

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with this sense of, I'm so lucky to be here.

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I'm so lucky to be here.

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I'm so lucky to be here.

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And in reality, I should have always had that sense of good fortune.

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And I think everything I have was given to me.

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And so I believe in that sense of gratitude, of being grateful for what you've been given.

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But one of the dark side of that is this sense of, well, now that I'm just so lucky to be

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here, I don't want people to wake up and find out that they don't think I'm supposed to

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be here.

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So I'll just take whatever I'm given without argument, without complaint.

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And added to that is the whole culture of medicine where it's like, oh, I'll just go

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wherever they take me.

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We feel like we're begging to get into medical school.

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We feel like we're begging to get into residency programs.

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We feel like we're begging to get into fellowship.

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And so to be honest, when we come to our faculty careers, we're not thinking, oh, great, now

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I'm going to be the one in the driver's seat.

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No, we've been begging for years.

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And so we come to our faculty career sometimes with that same begging mindset.

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Like I am so lucky that you're taking me on as faculty.

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And because of that, it's all backward.

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And many times we take on things that we actually don't want to take on.

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We accept salaries we don't really want.

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We accept positions that we're not so excited about because we feel grateful.

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We feel we're just lucky to be here.

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And if we don't say yes, then what are we going to do?

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We're going to be stuck.

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So that was my experience.

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And maybe you resonate, but maybe you don't resonate.

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Maybe you're like, oh, no, no, no, I've been in the driver's seat the whole time.

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Well, good for you.

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I would say that you should still listen to this episode because you might think of somebody

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who would benefit from it.

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But if you do resonate, then I think I'm speaking directly to you today.

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I'm saying that we came through our training with this sense of, while you're so lucky

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to be here, you just do what I tell you and you're going to be okay.

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And when we come to our faculty careers, which honestly, academic careers are meant to be

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created, there is not a template.

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There is not a one size fits all.

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Whoever worked for your mentor 20, 30, 40 years ago is not necessarily going to work

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for you.

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But who's going to put in the energy and the power to create what's needed, especially

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if you don't even feel as if you have a say in it or you don't feel like you have ownership

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in your academic career?

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And so for many of us, and certainly for me, when I first started, I hated my job.

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In fact, honestly, if I'm going to just be honest with you, I hated my life.

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It was so hard.

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I wasn't afraid of working hard.

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Don't get me wrong.

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Working hard is not what I hated.

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I've been working hard actually way before I got into med school.

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Working hard is just what we do as physicians.

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So working hard, I think, is not what we are afraid of.

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But working hard at the soul sucking thing that drains our life?

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Oh my gosh, that's not sustainable.

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That is where I was.

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When I started, I just, I hated it.

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I was working so hard.

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I could never finish closing charts.

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I always needed, I was always behind in reaching out to patients and updating them on their

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lab work.

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Someone was always upset.

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I was not making my academic milestones.

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How could I?

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I was so busy and I had no framework with which to reconstruct a career that I actually

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want or that I actually wanted.

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And so like many people, I got to a place where I was like, okay, you know what?

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I tried.

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I gave it my best shot.

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Medicine is probably not for me.

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And that is the point at which I just want to pause and say, oh no, oh no.

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What a tragedy for so many of us in medicine who get to a point where we're like, you know

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what?

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I've tried.

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I've given this the best years of my life.

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It sucks.

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I won out.

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And we quit.

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And for some of us actually, we're not quitting physically.

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We're quietly quitting.

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We're still here, but we're totally tuned out.

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We totally don't care anymore.

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And we've just accepted the soul sucking experience.

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So I think I'm here to say that it doesn't have to be our reality.

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It didn't have to be my reality.

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I didn't recognize that.

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For me, I was a young mom of two children.

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At the time my second was born, my oldest was two.

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So it was a rough time.

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And then I was seeing patients five days a week.

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I could never keep up with my medical charts.

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And so there I was working weekends, spending time in my office, trying to close things

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away from the family that I really wanted to be with.

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And it just really felt like I was like, and I couldn't find the mentoring I needed or

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I thought I needed.

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I didn't like the projects I was working on.

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It just felt like I was doing everything I had to.

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And it just wasn't, it wasn't what I wanted.

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So I'm here to tell you that you don't have to have a soul sucking career.

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I'm here to tell you that if you hate your experience, it doesn't have to continue to

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be true that you hate it.

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There is a way out.

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There is a way out.

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And so I'm inviting you to think about a different way to recreate your academic career so that

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you can love what you have or so that you can create something you love and saying that

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we are taught to be people who just accept the obligation.

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Oh, I need to be up for a 30 hour call shift.

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Okay, I'll do it.

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And you know, kudos to physicians all over the world, shouting us out and just saying

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we are people who will put our lives on the line to get the job done.

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And I think that's an admirable quality.

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But what if, what if we thought about our careers, not just as careers that we just

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have to go through the motions and get to the end of the day, newsflash, there is no

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end of the day for us ever.

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But what if we could actually love what we do so that even though there's no technical

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end to the day, we're exhilarated at the end, we're tired, exhilarated, not tired, crushed,

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exhausted.

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How can we do that?

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And I want to just speak to creating the academic career that you love.

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Okay, the first thing I want to share with you is it's important for you to decide that

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you're not going to be miserable anymore.

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I mean, it's just, it's a funny thing.

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You get to a place where you're super miserable and you're like, you know what, I just quit.

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And I'm saying don't quit.

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I'm saying this is the point before you quit where you're like, you know what, I don't

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want to be miserable anymore, but how can I make things change?

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It means you're not accepting the status quo.

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You're saying this is not the way it has to be.

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And I just want to invite you, especially if you're a woman, especially if you're underrepresented

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in the academy, because I feel like so many more of us get to this point where we feel

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like it's not working.

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It's not working.

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Why am I still here?

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And then we're like, okay, I'm going to quit.

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And so I want to say, decide that you're no longer going to be miserable in academia,

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but don't quit, not just yet.

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Don't quit at least until you hear the end of this podcast episode.

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Don't quit because there is a way out that doesn't involve quitting.

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And the reality is here's the thing about your investment in medicine.

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You will always make a return on your investment, but only if you wait long enough in the market.

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You will make the return.

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If you're a farmer and you plant seeds, it's going to grow a harvest.

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If you're an investor and you've invested in the market and you've invested consistently,

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you're going to have something at the end of it.

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But if you pull out too quickly, you're not going to make the maximum return on the investment

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that you can.

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I know I'm talking kind of like in the financial terms, but think about it even from the standpoint

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of just planting seeds for harvest.

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If you decide I'm quitting on my farm before the season of harvest, all of that investment

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goes to waste.

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Somebody else gets that return on investment.

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And that's why I'm inviting you to think about if you're miserable, the answer is not to

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quit.

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It is always too soon to quit.

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I don't even know whose quotation that is.

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I will find it and put it in the show notes, but it's always too soon to quit.

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My husband's always telling me that.

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And I'm saying that if you're about to quit and you're quitting not because you're like,

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wow, this has been a great career.

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I'm so excited to now hang up my shingles and go do something else.

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If that's not you, if you're like, I'm going to quit because I can't do this anymore.

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And I'm telling you that you shouldn't quit.

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I'm telling you that it's time to rethink and reimagine your career because you've put

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a lot into this career.

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You've invested so much.

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And if anybody deserves to reap the rewards of every investment you have made, it is you.

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So don't quit until you've made the return on your investment.

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Don't.

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Don't pull out of the market until you've achieved maximum returns, until you are ready

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to say, okay, I'm ready to pull out now.

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I've had a great career.

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I've had a great ride.

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So the first thing I'm asking you to do is don't be miserable anymore, but also don't

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quit.

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It's not time for quitting.

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It's time for re-imagining your career.

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Okay, that's the first thing.

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The second thing I want to say is it's time to begin a journey of discovering what makes

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you happy.

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What resonates, what makes you tick, what resonates with you, what makes you hold again.

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And it's a journey.

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It's a journey because if you're at the point in your career where you feel like, wow, this

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is not working, I want to quit, it's because for years, and it's usually a situation that

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you've grown into over years, you've gotten used to putting yourself on the back burner,

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putting the way you feel in the back burner just to do the things that you're supposed

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to do.

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You're used to doing what is necessary.

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I'm just here to pay the bills.

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And because of that, you've lost touch with the spark, the fire that first drove you to

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your medical career.

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And to be honest, that spark, that fire is still there.

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Yes, its embers may be dying and the coals may be actually a little bit cold to the touch,

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but the fire is still burning inside you.

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And what you really need to do is to stoke the embers and add a little bit more fuel

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and put a few more logs on the fire so that you find that the fire is rekindled again.

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But that doesn't happen naturally.

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It's going to take time.

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It's going to take work.

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And you might need a coach.

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And I would love to coach and support you in this journey.

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But what I'm saying and what's so important is that you begin the journey of rediscovering

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why you came into academia, what the dream was when you said, I'm not going to go into

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private practice.

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I'm not going to go into industry.

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I want to do this thing called academia.

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What did you think was going to come out of it for you?

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What was the promise?

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What was the drive?

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You've got to go back to that place.

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And I know for some of you, you're so burned out.

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You're so angry.

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You're like, no, I'm done.

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I don't know.

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I'm not revisiting that place.

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It's too painful.

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And I just want to encourage you to do the work.

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It is hard work.

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And yes, there is pain.

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And yes, there might be tears.

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And yes, there might be regret.

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That is absolutely worth the work to go back and remember what made you so excited about

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academia.

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Remember what fueled your fire.

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Remember what made you say, this is the place for me because that is the beginning of the

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journey of creating the academic career you've always wanted to.

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You've put your life on the back burner.

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You've done all the stuff you're supposed to do.

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You've done obligation.

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And now it's time to do what you love.

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And to be honest, it doesn't matter where you are in your career.

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You're like, well, I'm not yet senior faculty.

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So maybe I'm senior faculty.

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No, it's today.

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Maybe you're junior faculty.

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I hate that term.

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Let's say early career faculty.

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I think it's a little bit better because it's a sense that you're not enough, but you are

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enough.

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You may be early on in your career, but you are enough.

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And at any point in your career, even as a trainee, you get to decide what your career

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means to you.

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You get to decide to have a meaningful career, even if you haven't, as people would like

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to say, earned it.

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Yeah, I don't even know what that means.

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What does it mean to earn it?

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Yeah, you may have to put in work, but it's not OK anymore to live in the academy in a

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way that's not consistent with yourself, with your inner values, with the things that align

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or the things that bring you joy.

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If you're having a joyless experience, it's not OK.

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And you don't have to wait until you're a senior faculty member to start to figure out

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what is going to make you happy.

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Because to be honest, sometimes that's kind of late.

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Sometimes that's kind of late.

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So I'm just saying wherever you are, do the work.

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Start the journey of figuring out what resonates with you, what brought you to academic medicine

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in the first place.

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The third thing I'm inviting you to do is to find the people who are having a great

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time.

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OK, I have to tell you that everybody in academic medicine is not miserable.

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In the faculty standpoint engagement survey from the AAMC and the one I think about is

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the one from 2010, when they did the survey and they asked people, how satisfied are you

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with the medical school?

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Only 60 percent of faculty said they were satisfied or very satisfied.

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That left 40 percent of faculty who were very dissatisfied.

305
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OK, 40 percent is a big number, but 60 percent is also a big number.

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And the number of people who are very satisfied, I want to know who these people are.

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What are they doing?

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And so I want to invite you, if you are at the point where you're like, I want to quit,

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00:16:11,940 --> 00:16:13,840
this is not working for me.

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Before you do that, I want you to go out and find the people who are having a blast.

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And yes, they do exist.

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You may not know them because you might be in the circles where people are having an

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equally miserable time celebrating each other in their misery, patting each other in the

314
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back and wanting to continue to revel in misery.

315
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This is not to cast aspersions on your company, on the company that you keep.

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I'm just saying that misery tends to love company.

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00:16:40,460 --> 00:16:44,760
And if you can't find someone yet who loves their academic career, it's because they're

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not in the company that you're keeping in the state that you're in in your career.

319
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So I want to invite you to go find people who seem to be having a good time.

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And here's the thing.

321
00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:57,040
Here's the thing about life and certainly the thing about academia.

322
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It's hard to hide when you're miserable.

323
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It's hard.

324
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,040
I mean, to be honest, you can you can kind of distract people by being super successful.

325
00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:08,640
And you're like, oh, yeah, I have so many papers published a year.

326
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I have so many grants.

327
00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:13,520
And people are like people are distracted by all the things you've you've you've gotten.

328
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,160
Oh, but they can see that you're not happy.

329
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They can see.

330
00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:18,920
And to be honest, it shows up in your attitude.

331
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It shows up in the way you treat people.

332
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It shows up in the way you treat yourself.

333
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So if you're not having a great time, people can tell.

334
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:28,520
But they probably are too respectful to tell you because, hey, you have all the stuff.

335
00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:30,040
It's like, well, you know, you got all of it.

336
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So I guess we're not going to begrudge you that.

337
00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,920
The reality is you can tell when people are actually having a great time.

338
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:38,800
You can tell people who are not.

339
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,600
So I'm inviting you to go looking for the people who seem to be having a great time.

340
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They're there.

341
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:46,160
We're here in academic medicine.

342
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:50,440
If you just look up long enough from being focused on the challenges you're going through

343
00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:55,800
to say who seems to be having a good time and go after those people and find out what

344
00:17:55,800 --> 00:18:01,440
they're doing differently from what you're doing.

345
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:05,280
Find out what they're doing that's different from what you're doing.

346
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:09,120
And I don't want you to stop and say, well, of course, they've been here 30 years.

347
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:13,000
Of course, they're loving their career.

348
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,720
It is not a function of time in the academy.

349
00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,480
It's a function of their approach to life.

350
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,560
They're thinking about their career in a way that's different from how you're thinking

351
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:23,960
about your career.

352
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:29,160
They have habits that support them in a way that you may not have habits.

353
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,080
There is a system that helps people succeed.

354
00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:36,240
I'm going to stop here for a little bit and just help you recognize that if you see someone

355
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:41,880
who's succeeding the academy, doing all the stuff and happy in their job, it does not

356
00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:43,040
happen by accident.

357
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,040
This is not like I was born on the happy side of life.

358
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It's an intentional curated experience.

359
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:51,360
People who succeed, they're happy, they're whole.

360
00:18:51,360 --> 00:18:56,640
They have good marriages, good relationships, good experiences with their families, with

361
00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:57,760
their children.

362
00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:00,440
They have good relationships with people they work with.

363
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:01,440
It is not an accident.

364
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,000
It is an intentional curated strategy.

365
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:06,000
I will tell you the truth.

366
00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:11,320
I have not yet met anybody who's over successful and happy, who just kind of found themselves

367
00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:12,320
there.

368
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:13,320
Here's the challenge.

369
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:14,320
You've got to do this work.

370
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:19,000
You've really got to help people because some people forget what investments they made to

371
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:20,160
get them to where they are.

372
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They forget.

373
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:23,180
They forget the challenges.

374
00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:24,720
They forget the problems they have.

375
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:30,680
They don't share with you how many problems they had because they bury those deep inside.

376
00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:36,640
But what they don't share is the investments that they made to become who they are and

377
00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,040
to be happy.

378
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:39,300
Happiness is not an accident.

379
00:19:39,300 --> 00:19:43,800
It's not something that you just find and you're like, oh, wow, I'm happy in my career.

380
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,120
It's something that's created.

381
00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:51,200
In going out and looking for people who are happy in their careers, what you're doing

382
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:57,000
is you're asking people to give you their secret sauce.

383
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:58,540
And that's what I'm inviting you to do.

384
00:19:58,540 --> 00:20:02,900
Look up, find the people who are having a great time and go ask them how they're making

385
00:20:02,900 --> 00:20:03,900
it work.

386
00:20:03,900 --> 00:20:05,480
Okay.

387
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:10,580
The fourth thing I want to share with you is that you've got to create or find a community

388
00:20:10,580 --> 00:20:15,640
that supports joyous living within the academy.

389
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:22,160
You've got to create or find a community that supports joyous living within the academy.

390
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:23,640
Okay.

391
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:25,360
Not everybody is happy in the academy.

392
00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:26,480
We've established that.

393
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,520
You might be one of those people who are not very happy because you're on the verge of

394
00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:30,520
quitting.

395
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:34,860
But I'm saying that there are people who are and you want to be part of their communities.

396
00:20:34,860 --> 00:20:37,380
You want to figure out where they hang out.

397
00:20:37,380 --> 00:20:39,760
You want to figure out what communities they frequent.

398
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,580
You want to figure out where they go and you want to go hang out with them or you want

399
00:20:43,580 --> 00:20:45,380
to create your own community.

400
00:20:45,380 --> 00:20:49,380
And this is so important because I think one of the challenges for us in academia is that

401
00:20:49,380 --> 00:20:51,400
there is a lot of isolation.

402
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:52,400
We're struggling.

403
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:53,400
We're having challenges.

404
00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:54,560
We're not telling people about it.

405
00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:56,720
We're showing a bright face when we go out.

406
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:59,720
But the reality is we're miserable and we're lonely.

407
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:00,720
We're isolated.

408
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:06,720
The moment we find communities of like-minded people who reject the status quo, who want

409
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:10,440
to do life differently, it changes our experience.

410
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,820
And because it transforms our experience, it is worth the investment.

411
00:21:13,820 --> 00:21:17,240
It's absolutely worth the investment to go looking.

412
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:18,240
And here's the thing.

413
00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:19,880
It may not be within your division.

414
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,280
It may not be within your department.

415
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:24,620
It may not even be at your institution.

416
00:21:24,620 --> 00:21:26,520
The world is such a small place now.

417
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:29,460
You can connect with communities globally.

418
00:21:29,460 --> 00:21:32,720
You can connect with communities nationally.

419
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,880
Our community meets every Monday at 6 p.m.

420
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:37,480
You know, it's a community.

421
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:38,480
It's virtual.

422
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,080
We're not meeting in person, but we're able to create a community.

423
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:46,400
We're able to meet and write together, you know, during the week.

424
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:47,640
Communities exist.

425
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:52,400
You may not know about them, but it's an opportunity to find out what those communities are.

426
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,760
I'll say apart from our coaching community, Clinician Researcher Academy, one community

427
00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:01,080
that has been such a nourishment to me and to be honest, I'm still part of is the Faculty

428
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:05,640
Success Program with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity that was

429
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,060
founded by Carrie Ann Rockimore.

430
00:22:08,060 --> 00:22:09,880
That has been an amazing community for me.

431
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,860
And to be honest, it's not a community really for clinicians.

432
00:22:12,860 --> 00:22:16,800
It's not oriented towards clinicians, but it's been such a game changing community for

433
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:21,280
me where I both coach and I'm coached in that community.

434
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,280
And so there are communities that exist of people who've decided they want a different

435
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,120
experience in academia.

436
00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:32,060
And I want you to get up and go find a community to be a part of.

437
00:22:32,060 --> 00:22:37,080
And if you're not part, if you can't find it, create your own.

438
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:38,080
Create it.

439
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,680
I'm creating a community of like minded people.

440
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:46,080
And then you'll have the community that you always wanted, but never had because you didn't

441
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:47,960
know you could create it.

442
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:54,720
So find and or create the community that you've always wanted, that you need to support you

443
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:57,880
in creating a career that you love.

444
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,560
The fifth thing I want to tell you is that you've got to be courageous because you're

445
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:07,720
taking bold steps on the road not traveled, right, or the road less traveled.

446
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:13,520
If you're going to take back your experience, if you're going to become to begin to build

447
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:18,480
an academic career that you actually want, you're going to find yourself in the minority.

448
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:23,280
And being a minority in whatever way you're a minority, many times it sucks because it

449
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:24,640
feels lonely.

450
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,440
It feels like you're going against the grain.

451
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,800
It feels like you are, you know, like, oh, doing your own thing.

452
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:33,560
It's a hard journey and it takes courage.

453
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,200
It takes courage not to go back to what everybody else is doing.

454
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,100
It takes courage not to say, let me just grin and bear it one more time.

455
00:23:41,100 --> 00:23:47,000
It takes courage to say, I'm going to forge ahead on a path that may not even be supported

456
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,480
on a path that people may call me out and say, what are you doing?

457
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:51,440
We don't do that here.

458
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:52,440
It takes courage.

459
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,600
And I want to tell you that if you're a physician, if you're an academic clinician, if you're

460
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:01,800
a scientist, whatever you are listening to me, or whoever you are listening to me, you

461
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:03,920
have what it takes to succeed.

462
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:04,920
You absolutely do.

463
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:06,800
Don't let anybody lie to you.

464
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,240
Don't let them tell you you're a clinician.

465
00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:10,200
You can never be a scientist.

466
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:12,200
Don't let them tell you you're a scientist.

467
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:16,480
You can never understand, you know, things from the clinical perspective.

468
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:20,320
You can do whatever you want because you're so capable.

469
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:24,640
And especially from my community, those of you who are physicians, who are clinicians,

470
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:29,600
holy cow, you've come through like one of the most strenuous like training programs

471
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,520
ever in becoming a physician.

472
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,840
And if you could do that, oh my gosh, of course you can do anything.

473
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,120
The question is not can you do it?

474
00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:40,640
The question is do you want to?

475
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:46,200
Are you hungry enough to go after what you want?

476
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,500
Because what you want is worth fighting for.

477
00:24:49,500 --> 00:24:53,760
What you want is worth going after.

478
00:24:53,760 --> 00:25:00,920
And I invite you to step into the space to create the career that you love because only

479
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:03,680
you can be the architect of this career.

480
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:09,680
Only you can create the masterpiece that only if you decide that you're going to step into

481
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:13,920
the space of becoming the artist.

482
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:18,200
If anybody else is painting on your canvas, they're doing it half-hazardly because they

483
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,800
have no idea of the artist's intent.

484
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:25,720
But if you are the artist, the architect of your career, if you would step into that role

485
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:31,800
courageously and you can build intentionally, you can build directionally, you can begin

486
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:36,040
to create a career that you actually want.

487
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:39,560
And I'll tell you this, no joke, it will take you time.

488
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:43,620
It takes time from the investment to receiving the return on your investment.

489
00:25:43,620 --> 00:25:49,240
And up until now, honestly, you've been investing in misery because if you're miserable now,

490
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,680
it's because it's the investment you've been making.

491
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:53,600
You've been doing the things you don't want to do.

492
00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,020
You've been showing up in the places you don't want to show up in.

493
00:25:56,020 --> 00:26:00,840
You've been doing the stuff out of obligation and look at where it's gotten you.

494
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:07,540
And so what if you paused and you started to sow different seeds in your career experience?

495
00:26:07,540 --> 00:26:13,000
What if you decided that, oh, okay, I'm going to start planting different seeds, seeds that

496
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:14,000
I want to see germinate.

497
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:15,000
You can plant seeds of joy.

498
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:19,960
I'm going to plant seeds of courage and commitment.

499
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,640
I'm going to do something different.

500
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:24,840
What if you make that decision?

501
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:30,700
What kind of career could you have at the end of all of that?

502
00:26:30,700 --> 00:26:35,840
I am excited for you because you've listened to this episode, because this is the day your

503
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,240
life changes forever.

504
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:43,200
This is the day you stop accepting the status quo of misery and you take ownership of the

505
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:44,600
career that you want.

506
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,640
Yes, it's going to take time.

507
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:49,920
It's going to be challenging, but you can make it.

508
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:54,080
And I'm inviting you to step into the space to make it work for you.

509
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:55,080
All right.

510
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:57,280
It has been a pleasure talking with you today.

511
00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:59,680
I'm going to recap, actually.

512
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,080
Sometimes my viewers, my listeners are like, wait a minute, you didn't recap.

513
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:04,080
I missed all you said.

514
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,080
Okay, I'm recapping.

515
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:08,720
Number one, decide that you're not going to be miserable anymore.

516
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:11,520
Number two, look deep inside to find what resonates with you.

517
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,920
Number three, find other people who seem to be having a good time and figure out what

518
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:16,280
they're doing that you're not.

519
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:20,360
Number four, find and or create your own community.

520
00:27:20,360 --> 00:27:24,720
Number five, be courageous in taking those steps to get there.

521
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,440
It has been an absolute pleasure talking with you today.

522
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:32,560
I hope that you're going to make a difference in your careers by taking steps today to start

523
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:35,600
making the investment that you absolutely want to make in your own career.

524
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:37,520
It's been a pleasure talking with you today.

525
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:39,240
Thank you so much for your time.

526
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:49,320
I look forward to talking with you again.

527
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:54,720
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

528
00:27:54,720 --> 00:28:00,440
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

529
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:01,500
have a mentor.

530
00:28:01,500 --> 00:28:07,480
If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

531
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,360
Someone else needs to hear it.

532
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:13,400
So take a minute right now and share it.

533
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:18,880
As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

534
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:24,920
of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.