“If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.”
Chinese proverb.
This is a lesson that learned later in life. I entered into an agreement under one pretense (set of rules) and after entering the agreement and quitting my job, the rules changed. At that point, I had to ride out the decision that I had made to quit and try to make the best of it.
I wasn’t fully aware of the rules; they changed during the game.
After making the decision to leave my current job, in order to open a clinic with a friend near where I created my following, it was decided that the clinic would be 35 miles away! This was a major blow because now I was starting completely fresh and had no following (although a few patients chose to make that drive). I was able to get in front of over 1,000 pairs of eyes in person and 160,000 pairs of eyes through social media and newspapers.
Unfortunately, I still didn’t know all of the rules until well into the game and at that point my wife and I realized that I couldn’t win the game and we started to discuss quitting time.
Luckily for me, I busted my ass to build my following in this new area. A local business wanted both my skills and my work ethic. The fact that I was able to bring new faces to the clinic was a bonus.
The clinic needed another PT within a few months and through hustle and blessings, I was also able to build a following among PTs, so finding another PT that wanted to work with me wasn’t difficult.
I am now making more money working fewer hours and learning more about the business of health care than I had during the previous 12 years of my career.
I had to learn the lesson the hard way.
Whenever you are entering into an agreement, both sides need to understand the rules of the game, the risks and rewards and when to call it quits.
“You got to know when hold em; know when to fold em; know when to walk away; know when to run.”