How to Find Nonclinical Opportunities in Retirement – 159

Interview with Dr. Robert Adams 

In this week's PNC Podcast episode, I have a wonderful conversation with Dr. Robert Adams as he provides highlights from his long military and clinical careers and offers advice for finding nonclinical opportunities in retirement.

Bob Adams may be the most accomplished guest I’ve ever met. Coming from a military family, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy. Then, he continued his naval career and after serving as Navigator and First Lieutenant on the USS Hamner, he followed his dream to become a Navy SEAL.

He served 14 years in the Navy and was a Navy Commander when he changed services. However, he did so to become a physician on an Army scholarship at Wake Forest University Medical School.

As an Army physician, he commanded various clinics providing full-service inpatient and outpatient obstetric, pediatric, medical, surgical, and gynecologic services to a diverse population. He served four years as the Command Surgeon for the US Army DELTA Force providing combat medical services worldwide, and he was deployed to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Along the way, he obtained an MBA from James Madison University. After retiring from the Army Medical Corps as a Colonel, he founded and practiced in a full-service medical clinic, “Knightdale Family Medicine,” in Knightdale, NC. He ultimately left the practice but was able to find several nonclinical opportunities in retirement to keep him busy.

He is the author of two books that he released this year: Six Days of Impossible – Navy SEAL Hell Week: a Doctor Looks Back – and Swords and Saints: a Doctor’s Journey.

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Adventurous Journey To Retirement

Bob is a fifth-generation career military and became a Navy Seal. After getting his MBA he worked in Washington. But he hated it. So he decided to go to medical school.

“I don't want to be a businessman. There's no morals. There's no ethics. I want to go to medical school.”

Searching for scholarships through the military, he found that Army scholarships were the best. So he switched branches, attended medical school and residency, and spent 18 years in the military. During that time, he deployed to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. And for four years he was command sergeant for the Army's Delta Force. Later, he retired as a Colonel from the Army Medical Corps.

After retiring he started a private practice. He went to a bank and asked for a $4 million loan. Fortunately, they liked his business plan, so he built a 14,000 square foot multi-specialty clinic. When corporate got unpleasant to deal with, he looked for the next adventure and entered “retirement.”

Publishing Two Books

The first of Bob's nonclinical opportunities in retirement was writing two books. His first book describes his experiences during Navy Seals Hell Week. The story is about a doctor trying to figure out why he and the 10 others in his group made it through that challenging process. The second book is called Swords and Saints: A Doctor's Journey. In it, Bob describes the experiences that led him to, and carried him through, his military and medical careers.

Bob looked for publishing options and found that traditional publishers required too much control over the contents of his books.  And that didn't appeal to him. So he self-published, using a corporate group in Canada called FriesenPress. They provided editors that taught him to grab the audience and keep their interest. He found a military-friendly publisher for his second book.

Other Nonclinical Opportunities In Retirement

Pharma Sentinel, a London-based company reached out to him. They are building a medical app that monitors and reports news alerts about medications to those prescribing and taking them. 

MedicorHealth is a company that discovered a money-making opportunity for primary care doctors treating Medicare patients. The company provides turn-key tools that enable physicians to generate income through remote monitoring of their patients.

Summary

In this episode, Dr. Robert Adams describes his long career, his book publishing, and the nonclinical opportunities in retirement that he discovered. And he believes there are many more such opportunities.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Swords and Seals Website
• Dr. Adams' LinkedIn Profile
• Bob's Email Address: buds81@aol.com
• Medicor Health
• Pharma Sentinel
• FriesenPress Publishing
• Heroes Media Group

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