What’s motivates someone to become a medical doctor?
Most medical doctors will site two motivational factors that pushed them to get where they are. One is strong intellectual curiosity regarding the workings of the human body. The second is the desire to help people. Beyond motivation, the long-term commitment to become a medical doctor is extreme. Aspiring medical doctors need to commit to a long and exhaustive educational path, followed by internship, residency and fellowship training programs. Once on-the-job, there is constant training to keep up with changes and advancements within the medical profession, medical industry and pharmaceutical industry. Always, there are chaotic schedules and heavy work loads. As the years pass, there is a need, not only to be a good doctor, but to be an excellent doctor; an expert in the field. In the medical industry, mediocrity can cost a life and mastery can save a life. What better way is there to help someone, than to save their life.

Does money motivate people to become medical doctors? Certainly, medical doctors make a lot of money. If you ask them for advice on making money, they will tell you that there are easier avenues than medicine, if one’s primary goal is to make a lot of money. To becoming a doctor, the monetary investment and time investment into education is astronomical. Within the career, the yearly compensation needs to be divided by long hours. Compared to other professions, the actual dollar per hour compensation may pale by comparison.

Luckily, for those who commit their lives to the medical profession, the industry sits on top of a strong foundation. The medical industry is a long standing institution that not only maintains high standards for care, it provides exceptional educational paths and career paths to reinforce those standards. We mostly see the medical institution as doctor’s offices and hospitals, however, it has a huge existence within colleges and universities, as well as third party associations, organizations and accreditation bodies. Because lives are at steak, there are government bodies that regulate almost everything related to the medical field, to maintain consistency, stability and safety throughout. From a ambulance saving a life to a hospital providing care, the highest of standards are in place.

As important as medical doctors are, all expert-level professions and skilled trades are extremely important to the human kind. An emergency room would be useless if a skilled electrician didn’t wire it correctly. Just as a medical doctor works though the educational requirements provided by the medical institution, an electrician will complete the formal education provided by their trade, which is an entirely different institution. The skills that the electrician will learn will follow methods that are standardized. Those methods are supported by the government, through legally required electrical codes. Typically, an electrician will go through some type of apprenticeship program that will use mentors to help transform knowledge into skilled work. In most areas, electricians will need some type of license or certification to perform their work.

The institutions that embody professions and skilled trades provide forward motion for mankind. Yes, the motion is very slow, however, the direction is always forward moving. Sometimes, our technology driven world spins so fast, there is need for expert-level skills that fall outside of the talents of typical professionals or typical skilled trade workers. As stable as these institutions are, they are not at all nimble. Their movement progresses over the course of years and decades, rather than weeks and months. For rapid change, there is a need for experts who can think outside of traditional and established ways of thinking. For unconventional times, there is a need for experts who are unconventional. Within these workshops, we call these experts Unconventional Experts. This is not to say that institution guided experts cannot be Unconventional Experts. The best institution guided experts are also Unconventional Experts. Unconventional Expert skills, however, are a different type of skills; well worth exploring.

Within these workshops, we will focus on both institution guided experts and Unconventional Experts. For this journey, everyone is invited. Denied opportunities and missed opportunities will no longer matter, as unconventional opportunities will always arise. Social classifications and family affiliations will not be relevant, as unconventional attributes will prevail. Limitations in educational resources will not limit accomplishments, as possibilities will guide the way. It is an invitation to achieve within the realm of one’s own vision. Sometimes, the path will not directly follow the accomplishments of others, but uses the accomplishments of others to understand the reach of possibilities. It is an invitation to utilize raw human potential, as a vehicle to move oneself forward and to move mankind forward. For this journey, everyone is invited.