6 Ways Physicians Are Primed to be Successful Entrepreneurs and Investors

Would it surprise you to learn that successful doctors share many traits with successful entrepreneurs and investors?

Too often, physicians I talk with believe their ideal life (and the income it requires) is not achievable. They want to earn additional income but are afraid of failing in the investment and business worlds. Unfortunately, their limiting beliefs prevent them from taking action. If you’ve ever felt something similar, it’s time for a mindset shift. 

You may not realize it yet, but you can transfer your skills and strengths as a doctor into investing, entrepreneurship, and multiple streams of passive income. I’ve seen it again and again. And because of that experience, I believe that all physicians can become financially free to live their dream lives through passive streams of income. 

With that in mind, let’s look at six ways physicians are primed to be successful entrepreneurs and investors.

Table of Contents

You Are Intelligent

Becoming a doctor isn’t easy. You know that already, but a brief reminder will bring it into focus. Remember the MCAT? The USMLE steps one, two, and three? What about your board exams, the CME, and accreditations? The countless classes and the all-nighters? Not only those, but we continue our education in our careers. 

We are truly life-long learners. 

If you can commit the KREB cycle to memory, you can understand the variables, patterns, and projections it takes to make smart investment and business decisions. Compared to the complexity of medicine, investment and entrepreneurial choices become straightforward.

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You Are a Problem Solver

As doctors, you know there’s never one treatment or answer that universally helps everybody. We treat individuals. That means we’re presented with complicated issues each day, and it’s our job to diagnose, determine the best course of action, and improve or fix the situation for the patient. 

In other words, you’re a problem solver by nature. 

It just so happens that, whether you’re investing or running your own business, you will need to rely on those problem-solving skills. The business world loves to throw us curve balls and present us with puzzles. The good news is this: Just like with our work in medicine, we can easily collect the information to maximize the upside and mitigate the downside of our investments. That means you’ll make investment decisions proactively instead of reactively.

You Are Resourceful

Doctors must be resourceful. Think about it: For each patient, we have to come up with and implement the order and combination of treatment options. That means tapping into a vast array of resources and knowledge on a daily basis. 

We also had to be resourceful in our training, facing big decisions without much guidance. We’ve all heard the war stories of colleagues in training, unable to insert the IV because of a patient’s tough-to-find veins. There’s a quick assessment, and then an alternative access point is chosen. Moments like these are tense and quick, where we use what’s available to get the job done. 

Physicians that have translated their skills as entrepreneurs and investors know that their resourcefulness pays dividends, literally and figuratively. When something unexpected arises, your resourcefulness will kick into gear.

You Are Innovative

Doctors are at the frontlines of innovation. 

New surgeries, medication, therapies, or devices are coming into healthcare all the time. We’re even trained to see where medicine will be headed in the future. Foresight is part of the job. 

Innovation and forecasting also play an important role in the business and investment world. Because of your experience, you are primed to notice which companies are going to offer something that innovates or revolutionizes a market, be it a new technology, a new delivery system, or a new product. Savvy investors see who is innovating; successful entrepreneurs see an opportunity to innovate. You are highly capable of both.

You Are Great Under Pressure

It almost goes without saying that doctors are great under pressure. We are trained to react in critical situations where immediate intervention is required. 

And in terms of pressure and stress, there can’t be anything greater than having somebody’s health in your hands. Over time, working well under pressure becomes an automatic response. 

These skills mirror the best investors and entrepreneurs, who put themselves in environments with constant pressure. They can make excellent, thoughtful, and heat-of-the-moment decisions that foster financial growth. Your ability to work well under pressure will prove invaluable to executing a business or financial plan that you can leverage into financial freedom.

You Are Ambitious

The odds of becoming a physician were stacked against us, yet we made it through every benchmark. Along the way, we were also competing against our cohorts to be the top of our class. Without a strong ambition, we would’ve never made it as doctors.

When it comes to investing or starting your own business, having ambition is vital. When you run into failure, you will use your skills to push through to the next thing while making a concerted effort to strive for excellence. 

You have the drive to be a successful doctor. There is no reason you can’t tap into that same drive to create successful passive income streams.

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Shift Your Mindset and Transfer Your Skills

You have the potential to be a great investor and entrepreneur. If you did not believe that before reading this, it’s time to shift your mindset now and take action. 

I can’t stress this enough: The most important part of your journey to financial freedom is taking actionable steps. And knowing you have the skills necessary to be successful is the key to taking action. 

With a mindset shift and a new belief that you are already primed to succeed, your next actions should include continuing your financial education. How? Here at Passive Income MD, learn how to target the right investments or how to greenlight the start of your business by joining one of our many communities, events, conferences, or courses. Accessing and leveraging resources like these can help you set your goals, navigate the nuances of the financial world, gain the confidence to make decisions, and build your portfolio of passive income.  

Then, once the ball of passive income starts rolling, it might not stop, and you could find yourself gaining enough momentum to achieve and sustain the life of your dreams. As Wayne Gretsky famously said, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” It’s time to take your shot.

Until next time, we here at Passive Income MD look forward to supporting you on your journey to financial freedom!

Peter Kim, MD is the founder of Passive Income MD, the creator of Passive Real Estate Academy, and offers weekly education through his Monday podcast, the Passive Income MD Podcast. Join our community at the Passive Income Doc Facebook Group.

Further Reading