Michael Schuster, DDS
Millions of people watch The Biggest Loser every week as people transform their bodies and lives. It seems that often people are only ready for change and the transformation that comes with it when their lives become unmanageable.
We watch as people are coached in a group setting to implement the sound strategies of exercise, diet, and stress reduction to transform their bodies and lives. It is simply amazing. We love to see people succeed when they have a history of failing. There is a part of each of us in every one of these contestants. Whether they succeed or fail, we find ourselves cheering on each person’s struggle for health and well-being. In essence, we watch people become more alive and whole and we all long for that.
I’m a structural thinker, trained by Robert Fritz and Peter Senge of MIT. Maybe you see, as I do, the power of the underlying structure in The Biggest Loser. If you do see it, then you can learn to apply powerful life and business principles to create unending growth, enjoyment, balance, and yes, wealth.
There are many big losers in dentistry. I’ll give you three examples. A 67-year-old dentist has $2.2 million in debt and $750,000 in savings and investments after 40 years in practice. The dentist occupies (the bank owns) two homes with ocean views, and debt in excess of $1.2 million. His spouse said, “My husband is getting tired. He seems burnt out. Can you help him?”
Another loser is a pediatric dentist with a solo gross revenue practice of $2 million who is so stressed and burnt out by his practice that his wife and children left him and he moved in with his assistant. Another biggest loser: a husband and wife team, one a specialist, the other a cosmetic dentist. Their joint revenue is $3.5 million, yet they can’t pay their bills. They argue over money every day. Their life is chaotic and stressed.
If you can see the invisible (structures), you can create the impossible!
Individuals with excess weight and systemic health issues are victims of their own patterns of behavior. We are all either victims or heroes of the patterns of behavior that define our lives. Beneath the surface of what we see in every life is a pattern of behavior that, in every instance, creates the results that we see in others and ourselves. We always see the results of the behavior, but what we don’t see are the invisible structures that determine our lives.
It is the underlying structure that determines our success or failure.
Beneath all habits is an underlying structure. The most powerful structure is the structure in our minds. When we watch The Biggest Loser or witness any person losing or winning in life or business we can be sure that there is an underlying structure in place that is determining the result.
For the past nearly 40 years, I have witnessed dentists transform their lives with a simple, easy, and reliable set of structures. I would love it, for your sake, if you made a commitment to get control over money in your life.
There are structures that lay the foundation for a healthy life and practice. Without these structures in place, we most likely will end up on The Biggest Loser list.
Money
Why is money first? It is first because if you don’t gain control over money, money will control you. When you are money deficient, you will always be time deficient. People who don’t have enough money never seem to have enough time. I’ve witnessed people transform their lives simply by changing their underlying structure with money, which determines their pattern of behavior with money, and changes their outcomes with money.
Time
Most people tell me they don’t have enough time, and I say that is simply not true. We all get the same amount of time each day, month, and year. Those who say they don’t have enough time are really saying, “I don’t have enough time to do what is really, really important to me!”
The structures of your practice and life determine whether you succeed or fail in anything. If you are chasing the money because you don’t have the right structures in place, you will simply never have peace of mind or fulfillment. Certainly you won’t have time for the important relationships in your life.
Remember this — structure is invisible until it isn’t working, and the structure of anything produces its result.
A practicing dentist, Dr. Michael Schuster founded the Schuster Center in 1978. Guiding thousands of graduates to achieve wealth and freedom, the Schuster Center is the first business school created exclusively for dentists. Dr. Schuster is a cadre and former director at the Pankey Institute, and adjunct faculty at the Dawson Center, OBI, and LSU Cosmetic Continuum. He can be reached at (800) 288-9393, www.SchusterCenter.com, or [email protected].
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