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The Lonely Statistic.
Why is it 18%?
Mike Gusching
October 10, 2025
Read time: 2 minutes.
At a glance:
Quote:
Picture
What I’ve Learned
Business Idea
See your position as one of stewardship, a responsibility to exercise your influence for the greatest of benefits for others.
These words have the highest positive mental association in the English language. Reading them will change your mood.
What I Learned:
Our brain is constantly filtering.
Interpreting.
Prioritizing.
Ruminating.
But is it giving you objective information?
Do you see a 13 or B?
What’s the context?
Who’s the judge?
What about when we become myopic?
We’re focused on a problem. A challenge in front of us. We don’t even see the bigger picture.
Or we dismiss someone because we don’t see what they see.
This picture isn’t anything.
Just a couple of girls out for coffee.
….But look again.
Except this time close your eyes and….and then slowly open them.
What was dismissed to us might mean the world to someone else.
Or worse:
We play stupid games…
and we’re upset when we realize that all we’ve won
…is a stupid prize.
And it’s too late to play again.
Maybe we don’t have all the answers.
Maybe we’re chasing the wrong thing.
Or maybe it’s the right thing
….but the wrong way to go about it.
One of the recurring themes in interviewing so many thought leaders in this industry is that they each, separately, wish they would have sought help earlier and asked someone sooner. That might mean bringing in a consultant, reaching out to a friend, or admitting they didn’t need to do everything and gave up control.
Their interpretation of the situation, the context they put around the circumstance, or the way they viewed the problem or issue was—wrong.
This week this article goes to a particular orthodontist with whom I went out to dinner.
For someone who I thought “had it all”, he was open about how a particular consultant changed him for the better, and it all started when he admitted he needed help with the burden of running a practice.
The loneliest statistic I’ve ever come across in orthodontics is that only ~18% of providers ever reach out to a consultant or thought leader (not just a peer) about a business or professional challenge they’re facing.
One of the core intentions of this newsletter is to shine light on others willing to help and help everyone achieve their peak.
Chris Bentson’s quote in our interview brings this idea home:
“...the most significant weaknesses of smart people is their reluctance to ask for help.”