Dr. William Lynagh is a board-certified family physician with a somewhat eclectic career. In today's interview, he describes some of the rules he uses to make career decisions.

Photo by Mahkeo on Unsplash

Before we get to today’s interview, I want to tell you about a new project I’m working on.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve just started a new edition of my weekly newsletter. Once a week, I’m going to write about my efforts to convert my blogging and podcasting hobby into a business.

My goal is to share my successes and failures as I create my own online side-hustle. I’m calling this series of newsletters Creating My Online Business.

I just released my first issue this past Saturday. To follow me on this journey as I share what I learn, you’ll need to sign up for my newsletter. You can do that by going to vitalpe.net/newsletter.

There’s no cost to learn what I’m doing, and I promise to share all of the good and bad of trying to create this new business. Here are some of the topics I’ll be covering:

The ideal steps I should have followed to create my business.
Time to form an LLC and set up my checking account.
What are my options for generating revenue from this business?
What is a platform and why did I choose the ones I did?
When should I start building an email list?

In the upcoming issue on Saturday, I'm going to talk about: How did I select my niche and how should you? But the only way to get the weekly updates is to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that’s at vitalpe.net/newsletter.

Dr. William Lynagh's Story

The first time Dr. Lynagh was admitted to medical school, he withdrew his application and joined the Peace Corps instead.

Several years later, he reconsidered, returned to medical school, and then completed a family medicine residency. He practiced in several different settings. And he found himself being pulled into management roles as he volunteered for committees and part-time management duties.

And, like myself and others of that era, he found that there were few role-models for getting into physician management.

He worked for a few years in managed care at United Healthcare, taught leadership principles to non-physicians for a while, and eventually landed at the Advisory Board Company. It was there that he led the Physician Leadership Academy, a service that I remember well.

He also spent a short time working as an independent consultant, and he is now contemplating his next move. I thought it would be fun and instructive to listen as Bill recounts his experiences, and shares the lessons he learned while making his career decisions over the years.

Like many of us, his early forays into nonclinical activities resulted from filling a local need when others would not step up. But then, he realized that he enjoyed those activities, and his career path became more intentional. He started to actively pursue those nonclinical activities.

More Career Decisions

He decided early in his career to stop doing part-time clinical work. As we discussed, there are many physicians that continue to see patients well into their full-time management or consulting jobs.

During our conversation, Bill hit on some concepts that are worth emphasizing:

The importance of consistently taking action if you want to make real progress;
The benefits of taking time to reflect and solicit feedback so that you can become more self-aware, in both clinical practice and in management;
Reading the book Man's Search for Meaning* by Viktor Frankl, provided him with some great insights and inspiration and is recommended reading;
How crafting your own personal purpose statement helps clarify your goals and inform important career decisions; and
His belief that servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that can be very helpful to aspiring leaders.

He described how those concepts help drive his career decisions.

Creating My Online Business Newsletter

If you wish to be reminded of each new episode and to receive other resources and free content, including my new newsletter Creating My Online Business, please sign up at vitalpe.net/newsletter. My goal is to share my successes and my failures I create my own online side-hustle.

Also, if you want to receive a FREE 24-page guide to 5 non-clinical careers, do it now. I’ll soon be taking down this free guide, and converting it to a paid ebook, as part of my online business strategy. But you can still get a free copy at vitalpe.net/freeguide. If you’re listening after August 2018, I may have already substituted a different freebie.

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Disclaimer:

The opinions expressed herein are those of me and my guest, where applicable. While the information published in written form and in audio form on the podcast are true and accurate, to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed herein will lead to success in your career, life or business.

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