Dentists have a pretty level playing field when it comes to opportunity. Once you earn your degree and begin your own dental practice, you are dealing with the same kinds of patients, the same kinds of team members, and the same issues as other dentists around you. Which is probably why, when one practitioner rises to exceptional levels of success, many people—particularly other dentists in the area—are inclined to point to luck as being a big factor.And to some extent they are right. Most exceptionally successful people can look back on instances in their careers when they were lucky. But they also realize it wasn't the luck that made them exceptional—it was what they did with it.
Take Richard Branson for instance. When the famous entrepreneur was asked by author Darren Hardy ("The Compound Effect") if he felt that luck played a part in his success, he said, "Yes, of course, we are all lucky. If you live in a free society, you are lucky. Luck surrounds us every day; we are constantly having lucky things happen to us, whether you recognize it or not. I have not been any more lucky or unlucky than anyone else. The difference is, when luck came my way, I took advantage of it."
That is one of the best and most succinct explanations for how success happens that I have ever heard. Luck is not usually something that falls into your lap and delivers a perfect result. More often, luck presents itself as an opportunity (sometimes disguised as a disturbance, such as an emergency appointment that can be converted into a major case). Those who seize those opportunities—who recognize them when they appear, who take the risks, and welcome the disturbances that come with growth—usually come out on top. Those that come out on top are able to recognize these opportunities when they appear, take the risks, and welcome the disturbances that come with growth.
You are working in one of the most rewarding professions, in every sense of the word. Thanks to technological advances and the easy availability of ongoing education, you can continue to find new levels and new ways to deliver quality care to your patients for the rest of your career. You can connect with new people who will show you new ways of thinking. By almost any measure, you are rich in opportunities. You are already lucky.
The question then becomes, what are you doing to capitalize on that luck?
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