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• What I’ve Learned

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What I Learned:

There’s a story in the book Will about Will Smith’s father.

He demanded that Will and his brother build a brick wall.

It had to be 16 feet high and built without equipment except for a beat-up shovel, mortar, and two trowels.

Will was a child. Building this wall seemed daunting at best and impossible at worst.

And his father knew this.

So he handed Will one brick.

His father’s advice is now one of Will’s mantras and reasons for his career success in the late 90’s:

His father said, “Don’t focus on the wall. Just lay this one brick as perfectly as you can. I don’t even want you to think about the wall. There is no wall.”

If there is one profession where a small change (brick) can build walls, it’s this industry.

The AAO Wharton School of Business had a scenario where they took the tiniest actions an orthodontist does each day and changed the variables. What they found was that in the most minor of changes (say reducing 1 visit a day, or getting 1 more start a week) all practices saw an immense impact at the end of the year.

Compound interest isn’t just a financial term.

It’s how great practices operate. Small changes in small doses. Daily.

There is no wall in orthodontic practices.

Just the next brick.

Consistency > Intensity.