The LeBron James Effect: A Guide for Aspiring Doctors #393

Who gained more from this and what kind of things can we take away from this ? In medicine , does med school make the doctor ? Does a doctor or the med student make themselves ? Hey , we talk about locum tenants a lot on this show . Renee and I . We've been doing it for well over 10 years now .

So if you're curious about locum tenants and how it might fit into your career , check out locumstorycom . That's locumstorycom and you'll see all the different reasons why physicians choose locums and how it works for them . Find out about jobs , taxes , travel and , to me , most importantly , pay . Visit locumstorycom to learn more . What's good everyone .

Welcome back to another episode of Docs Outside the Box . I am your host , dr Ne . I'm joined by my lovely co-host .

We appreciate all the help , but I'm telling you there's a lot of work that goes into making sure we got the proper equipment and making sure that the prep is on point so that when we are recording here and talking to y'all and y'all are hearing us , everything's okay .

So me and Renee literally had like anyway , we went to war over something as small as how far away the mic should be . You didn't even let me set it up .

Get your shit off get your shit off .

Also , before we jump into that , let's answer a quick comment that we get from Textifold . So , guys , alfred , if you can put the text number of how you can reach us , how the audience can reach us , and let us know what you're thinking , do you like an episode ? Do you not like an episode ?

All you have to do is hit the number before text us and let us know what you think .

But what we did , dr Kathleen , is if you go to episode 374 , we actually did so . It's all replay episodes , right , but that one is a replay episode with Travis Hornsby , but the first five minutes

is a replay . Excuse me , is us actually introducing what it's like to be in Ghana from Renee's perspective of taking care of the kids ? Usually , me and her are lockstep . She's actually running the mission , she's the point person for the mission and then I'm operating . This is the first time that she can't do that and she's just taking care of the kids .

And we just kind of talked about what her perspective would be like and I think that's interesting . So make sure you check out 374, . Guys , it's a short but it's very sweet what we talk about . And he's got me thinking , renee , that maybe what we should be doing is we probably should do a really full fleshed out post-mission episode on that .

So everybody , y'all know if you don't know , I love the NBA for so many different reasons . But , for the sake of this conversation , the reason I love the NBA is I really like the way the athletes move in comparison to how you know they are with the owners , right ?

I really like that relationship between you know the athletes , yes , their employees , right , their employees of the National Basketball Association , specifically of their specific teams . But then you have the owners , who are the employers . But it's really , you know , it's really more than just a normal employer employee type of relationship .

Right , people are there to see the athletes . And it's more than just like the NFL , where people will show up and watch the team , no matter what , right ? Well , whoever's playing , people are just gonna show up For the NBA .

People wanna see LeBron James , people wanna see Kevin Durant , people wanna see Steph Curry like , this is a cash shade to just seeing them , and so forth , more so than just anybody showing up with a jersey on their back .

But you remember , five years ago he was with the Miami Heat from 2010 to 2014 . He was with the Miami Heat . You know he won two championships there . He did great there and then he left and he's with the Los Angeles Lakers . But now you know they played each other twice a year and so forth .

So on his way back to Miami to play , a reporter asked him like hey , can you let us know about the things that you gained , the things that you learned ? You know from being at Miami . And before I tell you what he said , there's this thing called Miami Heat Culture .

Renee , miami Heat Culture is like the way in which they they're basically , they take pride in how they run the organization . Right , like from the top down , from Pat Rowley down . They are very excited to have a structure that makes a lot of sense . Right , one person is making the decisions . It's not run by the athletes that you know .

They oftentimes say the inmates aren't running the you know , the prison basically , so to speak . But you know they have a very strong organizational sense , right , and I lost my track . My trade of thought Give me one second Later , so I'm back .

The mantra says it is the hardest working , best conditioned , most professional , unselfish , toughest , meanest , nastiest team in the NBA . That's the core of the Miami Heat , right . So when they asked LeBron James what's it like to go back to Miami when you learned all this stuff ? Tell us what you think he says . I think I would be .

I would still be at this level , no matter what if I came here or not . Let's not get it twisted . The four years I was there or here , it was amazing . I loved everything about it , love this franchise . This franchise is top tier , it's one of the best franchises in the world .

But as far as my career , my career was going to be my career as far as individually , because I know how much I put into the game , I know how much I strive to be as great as I can be , but as far as what I was able to learn here was second to none . That's far , that's for sure , right ?

So basically , hey , tell us about how you feel about your tenure at Miami . Did you learn a lot ? Did you gain a lot ? No-transcript , miami was a pit stop . I learned a lot , but my career is my career . Then he says when I was 25 years old , when I came here , I was still a kid , even though I was seven years in .

I Came here for a reason and one reason only to win championships . That's my only go . That's the only reason why team that would do a emboss , because I felt like I couldn't do it in Cleveland . I tried to recruit guys to come to Cleveland , tried to go and help upstairs and what he means when he says upstairs is the front office and it wasn't happening .

So I had an opportunity to be a free agent and did what I thought was best for my career . So , prior to getting to Miami , lebron had two regular season MVPs . It's a big deal . One finals appearance big deal . No championships right . So that was the his resume . People are like oh , he gets all these stats but can't win the big chip Miami .

Prior to getting to LBJ one championship in 2006 and basically afterwards , no just to playoff appearances . Once he left Miami in 2014 , two championships , two finals MVPs , four straight finals appearances , two regular season MVPs . After he left Miami , my Miami for five years really wasn't doing anything . So very successful career , I think .

Very successful tenure for both of the LeBron and the Miami Heat when he was there . So this caused a lot of backlight . This is like a month old . This caused a lot of people , you know , even sports media or even other people saying well , one LeBron , shouldn't you be more differential to the Miami Heat ? Like you wouldn't be who you are .

You had no championships prior to getting here . You won two championships and we kind of launched you basically into where you are right now . You would not be him without us and he's like pause , pump those breaks . I was gonna be who I was , no matter what . Y'all gave me the stability .

But listen , this is more of like a I gave you something , I got something out of this and and it's a big issue . So the questions that I have are Is this a one-sided relationship ? Who gained more from this ? You know , should he be more differential to the heat culture ? You know when , how ?

What kind of things can we take away from this in medicine , right , mm-hmm ? Does med school make the doctor ? Does a doctor or the med student make themselves ? Right ? There's a lot to unpack from this thoughts .

The reason he is who he is , the reason why he's as great as he is and as successful as he is , is the way how he thinks and at this point he's almost about to be 39 years old how he moves is the reason why he's so successful . So if he doesn't want to be more differential , then that's just the way how it is .

But you can't deny the fact that Miami was needing something , you know , at a certain point , and he provided that and then it went the opposite way . Also , he needed a stable Team . So I think , no , he should not have been as differential . I think he he handled it perfectly .

It was a great place for me to kind of grow , but also , at the same time , I brought these skills that nobody else has and I brought you all over the top . Boom , you know , and I think the big issue that I think a lot of people have , even in sports media , is is there's .

When I said rarefied air , the reason I started off of that is is it's very rare that you have an employee who can affect an Organization the majority of organizations the way how he did .

Right completely changed the trajectory of something you leave and all of a sudden they have banners that they will stay there forever and everybody will say that that banner was there mainly because of the Contributions of you . Like , that doesn't happen that often , right ?

So I think a lot of people don't really understand that whole concept of well , look , yeah , I know I'm employed by you , but this is really more of a partnership then really a . You know , I work for you , I punch in and I punch out , and then you tell me what to do and go from there .

It's different , but also the same time , most people don't play basketball right ?

That's really the question .

. So , okay , the way how I look at it is going through medicine is almost like is like Like you , you familiar with the NCAAs and so forth , right , like so you have like pre-meds .

Pre-meds are like that's when you go to like a AU tournaments , right , like you're not in college yet , you're in high school , but pre-meds they're not in medical school , but they are trying to get into medical school , so they're trying to get their grades up . They go to conferences , they go to all these different things . They're doing the work , right .

They're putting in the reps , right . They're taking MCATs and all those different things that's on them , right . So that's similar to like the AU thing . Then , when you get into medical school now we're talking about you're in the NCAAs , like there is no way around this . You got to go through either your year and then you have to get drafted , right .

So that time of being in NCAAs Getting drafted is very similar to being in medical school and then getting drafted to go into residency , right , you don't have much control of where you're gonna show up . You think you do , but you really don't , right ? But during that time you're still putting in more reps .

You're learning from your attendings , you're learning from Professors , you're learning your clinical skills as a resident . You're learning what to do from your , from your attendings , what not to do , and then afterwards you're on your own right .

Then , like , you kind of are , as a physician , just kind of doing the things that you normally do to make yourself an amazing doctor . Not many people can do what you do and the question is is what the majority of doctors going into like an employed employer type relationship where they work for a hospital ? Is it really a partnership or is it a Traditional ?

employee employer type thing . I think it's more of like a partnership , you know , but I do think that there's a perspective that should be a partnership or that it is in its current formal partnership ? Man ain't no partnership I'll be right out , guys is not a partnership , but it doesn't mean that you can't make it a partnership .

It doesn't mean you can't make it a partnership .

Those doctors who can do what you can do within your industry essentially make you interchangeable , at least in the eyes of A facility , right ?

So I will say that the only place where I think that Something similar to LeBron James is a possibility is actually in the you know , md , phd , you know DO , phd basically the researchers in the researchers realm .

And the reason , the reason that I say that is because majority of people who are kind of you know doing research right , so we're just talking about people who are researchers In medicine . Majority of the people who are doing research can pretty much go to you know all different types of institutions and potentially do some sort of research there , right ?

They have to make sure that they can get the grants once they get the grant right , because the only way that the institution get the grant is if they hire the you know the right person who can get the grant . And , let's face it , lots of people got grants Right , like so , getting a grant while it's .

You know , it's not that it's not to diminish the accomplishment of getting a grant , but Getting a grant isn't like a once-in-a-lifetime thing , right ? So lots of people have grants now . Every now and then you get people who work for an institution .

They got the grant , they did everything that they have to do and they start doing their research , they start executing on their project and they make an amazing , amazing , amazing discovery . Right , they make an amazing discovery . It's like , oh my god , right .

So when you go to PubMed right , pubmed is kind of like the NBA , right , there's all these things going on right in the NBA .

And then there's the championship where you're like no , everybody now has said okay , our eyes are all gonna be glued on this . You know , seven game series if it gets to that long , right ? Same thing in medicine . You go to PubMed . There's a lot of papers there , right ?

A lot of papers going on , sometimes people looking at the papers , some papers not getting as many views as the other papers , but then there's that one paper . There's that one paper that all of a sudden everybody starts talking about and now all eyes are on that paper . Oh my god , did you read this thing about X , y and Z ?

That elevates not only the researcher but the institution you know , at which this researcher has , you know , has been working , and so I think you can get some of that in In medicine . But that's usually , I think , on the PhD side , because when you look at the clinical side .

Right when you look at the clinical side , you know , is Dr Darko , you know the trauma surgeon going to be so much greater than everybody else , but those are not looking on YouTube .

If I don't deliver a baby , they'll get somebody else to deliver the baby , right ?

But other than those outliers , pretty much everybody is on equal footing . I would say pretty much everybody's on equal footing for the most part . So you don't get a lot of that in in the on the clinical side in medicine .

But what I will say is , if you think about right , you just mentioned some things about LeBron James and and you said he spent seven years in Cleveland , didn't win a championship . So Miami didn't bring LeBron James , knowing that he could win a championship . He didn't win one . He hadn't proven himself .

Yet You've been there seven years , you ain't won a championship . So now you're going to a finals you've been to finals but you haven't won

a championship . So the question is just like LeBron was when he was in Cleveland , right , even though he was a great player , everybody knew , yes , he was a great player , but still hadn't won a championship . He wasn't goat material yet Okay , even though people thought he had the potential . So , just like that , the question is what made Miami want LeBron ?

Because they wanted him ? So there was obviously something else besides just I play good ball that brought LeBron to the table , that got him a seat at the table and personally , I think he knew exactly how . To what did he say ? Talk to the people upstairs . He knew exactly who to bring and where to where to put them right .

He knew to structure a team Right , like he understood building a team , and that , I think , is what made the difference . He sold himself on these other skills that he had , and that's what I think , honestly , a lot of physicians , clinical Physicians , need to do .

Is you need to sell yourself on other skills because if you come in here , tell me I delivered the greatest baby ever , it's like so , because when you not here , I'm just get somebody else to deliver the greatest baby ever .

I niche myself to a practice who the the physicians in that practice really need time off and I make them think about . You know the times that they wanted time off and they couldn't get it . The time that they wanted to go to the recital Couldn't go . Want to go to the basketball game couldn't go .

Wanted to go to the , to the wedding , to the funeral , couldn't go . So I really , really push that part of why I do locums right , not just that I'm looking to , you know , I'm looking to work one week in a month . Yeah , that's for me , right , that's for me . But what's in it for them ?

And I think you have to really think about what is that niche thing , what is that very special thing that you can bring to a facility , that you can bring to a practice that will make people Think about you beyond the fact that you are just another body who could do exactly what they could do All right y'all , this is dr me .

Maybe you want more control over when you work or even how much you work , or , look , you're just trying to make more money to pay off those damn student loans . Now the other thing is pay attention , the average locums doc gets paid at least 33% more than your average employee doc . Got your attention now , so look I get .

Sometimes the hardest part is where do I start ? You start your research at locumstorycom . Once again . That's locumstorycom . It's an unbiased Educational resource about locum tenants . There You're gonna find stories about the different reasons why doctors choose locums and how it works for them .

Locumstorycom has tools that let you explore locums , pay Demand for your specialty and even compare different locum tenants agencies . So , look , stop sitting on the fence or just thinking about it , start doing . Do your own research at locumstorycom . Once again , that's locumstorycom . It's easy . So it's funny .

You mentioned that , and I think one thing that I didn't mention is is there is In the industry , there's an underlying notion that there is beef between Pat Riley and LeBron .

And the main reason that there's beef and the main reason why LeBron may not be as deferential to Pat Riley is is a lot of the freedoms that LeBron James had in Cleveland he wasn't able to have in Miami ability to go and speak to the front office and get things changed . Just like that he wasn't able to do right .

Like you're going from an Organization the Cleveland Cavaliers that has been trashed for decades right , they haven't been anything . So now you have this person who's supposed to be the second coming . They capitulated a lot of their decision-making to him and actually he was right , right but he could . They capitulate our decisions to him . Now he goes to Miami .

They already won a championship before the Miami he culture . He doesn't have that ability to say that and that actually caused friction .

Where I think , where I think docs can actually learn , where I think people can actually learn From this , is I agree with you to some extent actually think the moves that he made Irrespective of the things that he does outside , the thing moves that he made financially , like taking less of a contract , taking less years so that he can make sure he builds a team

with D Wade and Chris Bosch , like that's a move that I think people need to learn from . Maybe you should take less so that the long-term Effects of you making more money or at least controlling your career more people can't control you like you can exit out of a contract earlier . I think that's one thing to take from that also .

Four straight finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers . Afterwards they won a championship with them and then you went to the Lakers , is it ? the same thing . So I do think that you know , once you graduate from residency , I do think there's a lot of things that are just on you . Your career is on you .

How you determine , how you show up , how you operate , how you take care of patients , you know the successes and the failures all of that stuff is on you . I like there are times when I talk to people and I say like I feel like like you need to have your career , like it's almost like you're driving on a highway and you need to be in your own lane .

There shouldn't be anybody in front of you . There could be somebody in back of you who wants to be just like you , but there shouldn't be anybody in front of you . And I do think that you need mentorship , right , someone who's been through the process to kind of show you the long side you they alongside , in their lane , you can't be following them right .

And I'm gonna be honest , you .

I think sometimes that leads to a lot of people getting burnt out right , because they try to fashion their career To fit like you , try to fit your non-traditional life or maybe just things that make you you , you're trying to fit that Into somebody else's life or someone else's career or just in general , the traditional career , and it doesn't work .

So the expectations that you had getting into medical school or one thing , and then when you get there on the other side , you're like this is not what I expect , that I don't have time for this , this , this , this , this , this , this , this , this , this . Well , the red flags were there , you know . It's just that you missed it along the way .

I'm not saying it's anybody's fault , I'm just saying that the red flags were there . So I do think that if you create your own lane , if you decide that I'm going to show up like this , I'm gonna work like that , I'm gonna carry this much debt , I'm going to , you know , move my career like this in your own lane .

That gives you the space to have success , but it also gives you the space to have failures , and it's on your own right , and I do think that that's it . That's really important .

So I think this is a really good lesson for them , right ? Because oftentimes , when you're in those years and you're thinking about , okay , it's time for me to go into a program , right it's . You know , which medical school should I go to ? Which residency program Do I ? You know ? Do I consider my top choice ? Right ?

The reality is there are tons of med schools . There are tons of residency programs around the country . You will be trained , you will be well trained , but you have to make sure that you're gonna be well trained . The school cannot put the information into your head . The residency program cannot put the the information into your head .

Will there be different opportunities at different schools ? Absolutely , but just because those opportunities exist , that doesn't necessarily mean that without the capacity to take advantage or to see the advantage in those opportunities , if you don't have that , then those opportunities ain't taking you nowhere , right ?

We just think , oh well , that person's Harvard , they train more like that's not the case actually at all . Yeah right .

Right , the thing was there for both of you to take , but one person saw the million , the other one did not . That actually is the thing that I think makes the difference , which is kind of what you were saying , right ?

It's like , well , yeah , you went to Miami because you saw an opportunity there , but potentially , if there were another place that you could have gone , you know if he was , you know If LeBron would have gone to another place , so very high likelihood that potentially you would have won a championship there , right .

So you know , it's in whether or not you actually see the opportunity and what you can do with it . And what he saw was Chris Bosch and Dwayne Wade , and he thought I'm , I see the million dollars here and I'm gonna make a million dollars out of this .

I think that that because you know one thing that that stability means a lot , and I won't let him off the hook , because I still also remember when I don't know if you remember when he first got there , anytime he did an interview you At Miami . He always did an interview of Dwayne Wade and even Chris .

This is a reason why you guys should be watching the show instead of listening to it . This room is like these AI . Gestures are just Let me get back to my point . But you know they , they gave him that opportunity to kind of like , be protected but not be protected , and so forth .

Like At that point he's he's got the ire of so many people , he was the villain . But also at the same time they said , look , you could be safe here and that's important , right .

So I think the other thing too is almost like you know you be very successful as a physician and then your medical school wants to claim things on you like , oh , we taught you that everything and you know you owe everything to us . And it's like mm .

I think that goes to your point of just saying like , look , you got an opportunity at a school , use every opportunity . But like you , just being there and showing up doesn't mean that you're gonna get the knowledge you got to do the work right to get that information . That now , one thing I want to ask you .

Here's a scenario what if , like , you're at a top-notch institution and you are coming up with ideas for research , you're doing the research and the research is , like you know , getting national acclaim , and then you decide that maybe you want to leave and go to another institution . Right , like , where's the cache at ? Is the cache with you ?

The person who came up with the idea , the person who's writing the papers , the journals and all that stuff , or is it just the name that's attached to you you being at Harvard X , you being at USC , you I'm just naming names that are big you being at University of Miami , you being at more house , all of those different things , that's that .

Is that more important than you , de novo , coming up with ideas to do the papers ? That's something .

I went to this particular residency program because the person who wrote this book , which is the , the Bible , for my specialty is at right , is at , is at this particular residency program . We do this all the time in medicine , right , and oftentimes in medicine , I will tell you this while , while institutions have kind of specific .

So imagine , now you go to , you know you're in a residency program or you're applying for residency and you know this book , you know this book and they're like , yeah , you know , dr Gabby , who wrote the Bible of obstetrics , is here and he is our , the chair of our department .

All of a sudden you're like , yeah , like I want to be at that program because that's a Gabby the Bible writer is here . We do that all the time . I'm sure you have a Bible writer in Trauma , yeah , right .

I did my residency at Grady but I was with Morehouse right . We're sharing the hospital with Emery right , and the person who was in charge of Emery at the time literally has One of the biggest , if not the most important , textbook in trauma . Okay , I'm not training under that person , I'm training under Morehouse attendings .

But I feel extremely well trained Coming out from that program , even though I didn't have any . I wasn't trained by anybody from Emery . I feel , very well trained by the folks at Morehouse and I'm very proud of that . But yeah , you know , like that's I agree of what you're saying , like I'm sure you heard that sentiment , yeah , right .

I see , I see what you're saying there .

You USC's , right , you're all all of those you know big institutions , right , those are kind of the genericized you know Reputations , right , where it's like , yeah , it's a , it's a good school , it's like why , I don't know because it's a good school . The people , it's true , though , right , like why is Harvard so great ?

Cuz it's Harvard , it's like , right , because everybody said so . Right , but the people the Bible writers , right , the Bible writers are people who are known for very specific Things okay . Right .

So , for example , the chair of my department when I was a first year , dr Vince Elios , you know , is very well known for his research in Maternal fetal medicine , you know . So you say , oh , you know , dr Vince Elios , oh , you know like it's a big deal , you know like .

So there are certain names that if you hear those names in your specialty you just know . So that's why I was saying you know that , you know , while the institution , while the institution gives you the opportunities , the name that you make potentially is just for yourself .

You need to go to some place that's going to properly give you the environment for you to succeed . For LeBron , it was Miami . He needed to be there because that was a stable place . They weren't gonna let him get away with certain things that he maybe got away with in Cleveland and then also , at the same time , he's in an environment to succeed .

Like this is where he's gonna succeed . Like for me , doing my residency at Morehouse , like that specific place was what I needed to succeed .

You know , I think that if I went to another program you know , I don't know , you know , but I do think that that was the place that I needed to be I had to go and take care of the app site , I had to go do the research , I had to go do the go to the cases and stay up all night and all these different things , but the environment that they gave

me allowed me to succeed and not look back and stuff , and I appreciate it . So , yeah , basically , let's wrap this up . Let's wrap this up , man .

So I do think that what you can get from this is that you know , you gotta understand , I think , particularly for what we do is that I do think that , yes , a lot of doctors are going into employee-employer type of relationships , but I do think that you have to look at your career .

You have to look at yourself individually , as almost as a partner in this relationship once you graduate from residency . Right , like nobody else is going to take care of your or nobody else is going to pay attention to your career .

As much as you are right , you are , you do right , and I do think there is something to say about having your own lane and saying listen , man , like I need to . I know what my attendings have done , I know what my mentor , who you know , has gotten me through X , y and Z . I know what he or she has done , but I need to create my own lane .

It's gonna look different and it's gonna be different and the length is gonna be either longer or shorter , whatever it may be , but it's my lane and kind of living that . Anything you wanna add on to this before we end this convo .

But I think that the important part here is to go back to what I said about recognizing what that environment is , Because I think that's where people make the mistake , can you ?

The curriculum was extremely important For me . I knew I had come from science-based in college and I was like that sucks , I don't like it . And it was , I didn't , I didn't like it . And I just felt like you know , this is not an environment where I'm going to thrive , because I don't like this way of studying .

I don't like this way of approaching material .

And I think I was pretty confident in knowing exactly what system-based meant before I chose the school that I wanted to go to , and that was very , very intentional . I was very intentional about that . So , yeah , I think you can .

The gift is in recognizing the environment that's going to help you thrive , because just because an environment is going to help me thrive doesn't mean that that's the same environment that's going to help you thrive .

So you could have somebody who goes to the Harvard and they did all these things and it's so great , but you go to Harvard and you're just mediocreing your way through Exactly it didn't work for you , so you didn't have the discernment to know where you were going to thrive . That's a huge part of this .

So , yes , institutions do give you an opportunity , but again , just because the opportunity presents itself doesn't mean you actually know what to do with it . So you have to go where you know . The opportunities are things that you can take advantage of and go a long way with , because it's not going to happen everywhere .

The other thing I was going to say is I forgot guys sign up for our newsletter . Sign up for our newsletter . We're going to put the link in the show notes Sign up for the newsletter . That way you know , if you sign up for the newsletter , you can also use the newsletter to contact us .

There's going to be a quick little button that says you know , contact us . It's going to be way easier for you to do that . And yeah , sign up for the newsletter . So you , myself and Dr Neen , we can continue these conversations .