Today marks the 10 anniversary of Steve’s departure from the military. His civilian practice has been bittersweet. His relationships with his patients have been the most rewarding, but the practice of medicine, and the vultures that come with it, has been fraught with frustration and difficulty. Dealing with crooked businessman, unethical landlords, and incompetent colleagues to name a few issues. We have learned much in the last 10 years, but the common theme has been to never trust your business to others and never take your hands off the wheel.

Specifically, the four biggest lessons I’ve learned in business in the last 10 years are:

Lesson number 1: When helping others, make sure that they have skin in the game. Never carry the liability for your friends/colleagues, no matter how close you think they are. Helping so many of our colleagues out of the military transition into civilian life, helping a failing family practice group establish a new practice, and helping dozens of friends needing employment, only came back to hurt us later. They conveniently used us, then when things got rough they exited with no liability and no responsibility. Leaving us holding the bag.

Lesson number 2: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Being as hard-working and trustworthy as we are, we assume that everyone else is the same way. When you meet slick, smooth talking businessman from big cities, you assume that they’re smart, entrepreneurial and industrious, but a lot of them are also crooked, evil and deceitful. And when they go under, they try to bring you down with them even though you have nothing to do with their shenanigans. Always cover your ass - document, document, document. I’ve met so many people in my life that tell me they wipe their computers after a year or delete their messages, I never really understood why. If you’re innocent, you’re honest and you run a tight ship, don’t you want to save those things? Luckily for me, I always have. You never know when someone is going to try to reduce their sentence by throwing you under the bus or at least trying to. We live in a day and age when you’re guilty, especially by public opinion, unless you can prove that you are innocent. Don’t get rid of the very things that can prove your point.

Lesson number 3: Do a background check on the history of your landlords, business associates etc. More to come on that, but suffice it to say...don’t sign a lease with people that have a history of suing doctors and going after tenants’ personal assets. Lets just put it this way, there are certain buildings you need to stay away from. A million/billion dollar REIT that comes into our city to pilfer from hard working, tax abiding citizens are NOT the victims.

Lesson number 4: Do not mix friendship with business. I know that this is a very common lesson and everyone thinks they can. You can’t. Trust me, the most heinous betrayals have been by friends that we have “helped”. Don’t do it. Anyone that claims to be your friend that has something to gain from you through a business relationship is not really your friend. Friendship should be independent of any wanting. If they are not, they are not your friends. It’s okay, but just understand what the relationship is and how to prioritize it.

Oh, one last one...there are no Princes from Dubai living in San Antonio, Texas. Lol.

Happy 10 year anniversary Steven! Keep doing what you’re doing for your patients, changing lives everyday. I will worry about the nonsense. Looking forward to going to the next 10 years and then 10 years after that with laser focus vision and a lot more wisdom.

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