It sounds like you want to be a doctor because the stats are in your favor that you will not fail. That's walking a fine line there. Everyone who gets into college is able to pass too - but they are often young and choose not to do the work. Thinking that you can work hard to get into med school and then put your life on cruise control is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. You still need to be creative and hard-working to succeed. And honestly, if you are smart enough to get into med school, then you are smart enough to run a business. I've done it -- it's not that hard. It just requires some grunt-work and a little bit of thinking outside of the box that most pre-med type-A personalities are deathly afraid of. Oh, and a willingness to put everything on the table.
Most doctors are very envious of successful business owners, not only because they make far more money, but because they weren't afraid to take the path less traveled and build something from nothing. In my opinion, the opportunities for MD to run a successful business are immense because so many MDs are afraid to venture into that realm. You have to be unafraid of losing everything, which is something that chills most MDs to the bone because they have invested so much time to reach a comfortable, but stagnated career.
Hmm, well, first of all, don't assume you know why I (or anyone else on this forum) want to do this. I have no idea why you do, you have no idea why I do.
I never said that you could be on cruise control in med school. I simply said that med school is one of those few endeavors in which the hardest worker is actually often the most successful. Getting in is a good indicator that you're capable of doing the work, and theoretically motivated enough to work hard. Of course, each person handles it differently. But the stats don't lie- most people who start med school graduate. Why? Cause they can, and by then they have demonstrated that they want to. Why do I assume that I'll graduate? Cause I can, and clearly I want to. And you can't deny that medicine is an incredibly stable profession as far as always having a job. The only doctors I know without a job are Carib grads who never got a residency and are trying to obtain one.
Actually, your paragraph about what a successful businessman must do precisely proved my point. It's risky. You DO have to lay everything on the line. Have you ever considered, from your oh so mighty high horse, that perhaps us type-A types aren't "afraid" of laying it all on the line to make the big bucks, but just don't care enough to do so? You talk of success like it's directly proportionate to salary. Hell, I'll feel pretty successful as an MD with a salary that allows me to live well, and patients who like me. Starting my own version of Kaiser or some other massively successful conglomerate sounds cool, I suppose, but I'm just not that interested in it. I like the idea that if I have kids, I won't be investing all my money and future into an idea that might very well tank and screw them out of a college education. I like the fact that I won't have my first heart attack at 40 because of trying to keep 20 balls up in the air. I like that I won't be afraid of losing my job at the economy's every whim.
That IS part of why I picked medicine. It's a good bang for my buck. All I'm investing now is my time and yes, some loan money, but I have the knowledge that I'm smart enough to do it, the knowledge that I'm motivated enough to do it, and the knowledge that US med schools just don't let you fail out that easily. And the knowledge that at the end of the journey, I'll have a job that'll give me what I want out of life without giving me that heart attack at 40. I'm not investing in an unsure market, or a business venture that may or may not work based on what people want. I'm investing in myself, with the best odds I can get. It's hardly the same thing.
As I said, the day someone can suggest to me a way to be equally successful with equal or lesser work and equal or lesser risk, I'll consider it.
I understand you don't really respect the viewpoint of those who don't want to treat medicine as a business to build upon and invent. I mean, if you do, awesome. I hope whatever you come up with makes you feel successful (however you define that) and that it helps your patients out (since theoretically that's what this is about). However, I don't think that people work for "the man" or forgo taking a big leap of faith with their own ideas strictly out of fear, and it's insulting for you to suggest that it's the only possible reason.
Oh, and I'm a non-trad too, so there's no need for the "let me teach you a few things about the world, little girl" attitude.
