The movie “Star Wars” came out in 1977. It was obviously a massive movie hit during a time of “economic malaise” and an oil embargo – to put it succinctly, a period of uncertainty. I was seven years old and thought Luke Skywalker was a badass. As I grew older and re-watched the original trilogy (“The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”) several hundred times, I realized he wasn’t.
Luke is reluctant. He only steps into the challenge ahead when he has no home to return to.
He’s unsure because the odds are so daunting.
At times, he’s scared – but supported by a small group of trusted friends and the wisdom of his mentor, Ben Kenobi.
What makes Star Wars and hundreds of other movies so compelling is rarely the outcome. We all know these stories inevitably end with the hero coming out on top. What makes these stories so great isn’t the outcome – it’s the journey. The journey the hero is on. The decisions he or she must make. The odds they must overcome. The adversity they confront. The uncertainty they endure. The outcome is never certain, yet they persevere.
Does any of that sound familiar?
We like these stories for the characters and the actors who play them.
We love these stories because we see a part of ourselves in them. And in our own unique way, we find their journey somehow relatable.
Casting Call
As an entrepreneur and a business executive, do you ever slow down long enough to think about the journey you’re actually on? The times of trial. The periods of uncertainty. The phases of self-doubt. The hard decisions to make when you don’t have all of the data. Yeah, you’re living it, but do you ever try to create a small sense of separation from being in it all day every day to take an objective look from above on what the journey actually is?
Author Stephen Pressfield has a great passage in “The Artist’s Journey”:
“Our primary hero’s journey…is the passage we live out, in real life, before we find Our Calling.
The hero’s journey is the search for that calling.
On our hero’s journey, we see, we experience, we suffer. We learn.
On our hero’s journey, we acquire a history that is ours alone. This secret history is the most valuable possession we hold, or ever will hold. We will draw upon it for the rest of our lives.”
Being an artist or an author is certainly a different vocation than being a healthcare practice owner, but the point is the same. You’re an entrepreneur. It’s a choice you made. You get to write your own script. What are you choosing to write?
Scriptwriting
I’ve had the good fortune to talk to and work with quite a number of healthcare business owners through the years. I’ve seen a lot of business plans. I’ve analyzed a lot of financial statements. I’ve gotten to know a handful who blew up the Death Star. And I know many who blew up everything else.
I would often ask a client or prospective client to “tell me about their business” and they’d give me some sort of historical narrative. Inevitably I’d ask them about what they were trying to accomplish and they’d share some sort of big picture outcome. We all have big dreams. I do, too.
I’m fairly analytical and can do some very basic math on the fly, so when someone tells what they want their outcome to be, I quickly revert into trying to figure out what it’s going to take to get “from here to there.” When I would share a very basic, high-level overview of what I thought the activity level might need to be to achieve that outcome, there would frequently be a lot of…
Silence.
“OK, to get to your desired outcome around a likely 80-20 deal structure with probably 30% in closing costs, you’d need a business generating over $3 million in EBITDA. You’re at around $1 million in EBITDA now, so that $2 million gap would probably equate to 20 practices to acquire each generating around $750,000 in revenue and roughly a 12 to 15% margin. And if you want to do it in your five-year timeframe, then that’s acquiring four practices per year – or roughly one every quarter. And if these value around 80% of revenue, then you’ll buy them for around $600,000 each and personally guarantee over $10 million in more debt.”
Everybody likes to talk about “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” and 10-year Targets and islands in the Caribbean, but sometimes our vision gets in the way of our journey.
Someone Else’s Movie
While I never want to come across as a smug jerk, I do make a habit of asking people what got them into this journey in the first place. As you can imagine, I would get a wide variety of answers. Let me be clear: I do believe in the merit of building a business that is not 100% dependent on you for its existence – even though that’s exactly what I’m doing right now (maybe more on that another time…).
I also believe in the competitive strategy of building a group practice during this age of consolidation.
Based on what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced, there are far too many people taking risks to build group practices for one of two reasons:
- They reach a stage of mid-career when their core practice is performing very well financially and operationally, and they get bored.
- Well…everyone else is doing it, so how hard can it be.
Boredom and “the Herd Mentality” are objectively terrible reasons to take risks. Period. It’s alarming how many people make short-term decisions that have long-term consequences, and then have the audacity to explain-away their underperforming outcomes as a result of “bad luck.”
It’s dangerous to confuse “bad luck” with a bad decision.
If you’re not truly aware of what it will take to create the outcome you desire – both quantifiably and qualifiably – don’t take the first step. Nobody commits to building a group practice because they want to work harder for longer hours and less income, but that’s always the case. And nobody commits to building a group practice because they want to spend more time with their family – which is never the case.
My advice is simple: don’t try out for the leading role in someone else’s script.
Being the Hero of You Own Journey
Building a group practice means that you’re on a journey from being a clinician who owns a practice into an entrepreneur who owns a business. It’s an unbelievably compelling opportunity, but one that requires full commitment – more than just lip service.
You have the freedom to literally write your own script. Having “written many scripts” in my time, here are some things to consider:
- What’s your ultimate end game?
- What are the financial numbers you want to solve for?
- How much debt are you willing to personally guarantee to get there?
- What’s the timeframe you’re giving yourself to reach your outcome?
- Are you going to bring in minority partners along the way?
- How do you see certain leadership roles evolving from within your team? And should you look outside of your team for experienced talent?
- What’s your growth strategy going to be?
- What are some of the likely scenarios that will go wrong along the way?
- What are some of the things you “know that you don’t know” presently, but will need to learn soon?
- What are the key drivers of success in your business model?
- How is your personal role going to evolve over that period of time?
- What could be the impact on your family if this all “goes according to plan?”
- How do you plan to “protect yourself from yourself?” (Burnout is real…)
If you do have the good fortune of knowing people who are currently operating a group or who have built and exited one previously, ask them the following question: “What’s one thing you wish you had known or something you wish someone had told you before you started?”
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Luke Skywalker is the hero of the story, but his “hero’s journey” only starts because he meets someone who believes in him more than he does in himself. As entrepreneurs, we confront uncertainty with high frequency. All too often we lack true confidence in ourselves, so we rely on brute courage to carry us through. Courage and confidence are not the same thing.
Courage can frequently compel us to make consequential mistakes – mistakes that are often both predictable and avoidable. I’ve often said that if I ever write a book, “the Value of Mentors” will be the first chapter. Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi is Luke’s mentor. The hero’s journey is about the hero for sure, but “the guide on the side” is the one who enables our hero to win in the end.
All of us who have experienced professional success can point to any number of mentors along the way. If you’ve ever uttered the phrase, “I wish someone would’ve told me that,” you’re missing the point. You never bothered to ask. Someone did know that and someone could’ve told you, but you didn’t ask. Or you don’t even have a Ben Kenobi in your orbit. That’s on you – not on Ben.
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Being a high-functioning entrepreneur is incredibly rewarding, but it can be equally scary because it can be so isolating. Yes, you have a team and often a loving family surrounding you, but you bear the full weight of your decisions. Leadership is a lonely road.
There comes a point when our rugged self-reliance and “can-do” attitude start to work against us. The bigger and more dynamic your business becomes requires you to evolve with it. What worked in the early stages won’t produce the same results now, and using the same old approach to leadership that used to be your strength can even hold the business back. Evolving as an entrepreneurial leader means seeking the guidance and wisdom of those who are willing to share. It means finding your own Ben Kenobi.
As Pressfield so eloquently states: “On our hero’s journey, we acquire a history that is ours alone. This secret history is the most valuable possession we hold…”
One day, you’re going to look back on your history. Your journey. Your “script.” I hope it will be filled with all of the accolades and all of the success you desire. More importantly, I hope you’ll be the hero in it. I hope it will be one you can truly call your own.
So, Luke, what’s your story? And who’s your “Guide on the Side?”
Now, go grind some beans.
