Just Two Minutes: Problems

Bite-sized dental wisdom in under 2 minutes.

You’re going to have problems either way.
The question is: Which kind do you want?

• Do you want associate problems?
  ➤ No control. No say. No equity.

• Or do you want owner problems?
  ➤ Hiring, firing, systems, payroll... and freedom.

I brought this up in our latest episode with Brian Hanks, and it’s been sitting with me since.
Because ownership isn’t easier. It’s just more worth it.

Here’s a story from my own associate days:

I worked at a really good office.
Well-run. Great team. Three associates total.

I was part-time. The other two were full-time.
The owner doc? Also part-time—and not giving up a single hour of chair time.

So when I started crushing it in my 20-something hours a week and asked for more?
Nope. Not an option. Didn’t matter how productive I was. I couldn’t grow unless someone else stepped aside.

That’s when it hit me:
I was being limited by someone else’s ceiling.

The wrong question:

“How do I avoid problems?”

The better question:

“What problems are worth solving over and over again?”

As an associate:

• You're safe.

• You're capped.

• You’re playing inside someone else’s system.

And the worst part?
The problems you do deal with—like capped hours, no decision-making power, and stagnant growth—never go away.

As an owner:

The problems change:

• Staff turnover

• Payroll headaches

• Insurance games

But guess what?
You get to fix them. You get to choose.
You don’t have to wait for someone else to make room. You make the room.

The truth no one wants to say out loud:

Ownership isn’t scary because it’s hard.
It’s scary because it forces you to grow.

You’re going to suck at it.
And then you’re going to get better.
And then, one day, the problem that used to keep you up at night?
It’s just Monday.

Final Thought:

If you're hesitating on ownership because you're afraid of the unknown, let me be clear:

You already know what staying put looks like.

And it’s probably not the dream.

-Dr. Alex

P.S. Think ownership sounds like a mess? Eric and I had over 60 employees across both of our offices in just 5 years. It wasn’t pretty. But we figured it out. You don’t eliminate problems—you just get better at solving them. (We’ll talk about that next time.)