In 1993 I travelled with 3 of my friends to Dallas, Texas as 21-year-old students to provide our elective study research project before we entered our final year in dentistry.
One of my friends took his bagpipes, it had taken him 14 years to learn to play the bagpipes that way and we found ourselves on the 3rd of July at the Independence Day parade with Fergie playing his pipes on the corner of a roadside.
He also smuggled them into a stadium for one of the world cup warm-up games where the USA played Jamaica and played his pipes there and nearly stopped the game!
Wherever Fergie played his pipes, people would be fascinated because many had a Scottish heritage or at least a proclaimed Scottish heritage.
People would come up and say, “how much will it cost to teach my son to play the pipes” and Fergie would say “I’m only here for 3 months and it’s taken me 14 years” and the Americans would say “moneys no object”.
In later life I find I encounter this situation often.
Recently one of the questions we’ve been asked about is the research set-up that we’ve developed at the practice to allow us to collect data which is already ethically approved in order to publish.
We put together a little research wall in the practice which now has 11 pictures on it of things we’ve published in different places.
None of the things we’ve published so far would be considered to be in ‘Stellar journals’ but after 7 years and a 6-figure sum of investment we’re starting to make progress and people are looking and we’re starting to gain traction.
First, they ignored us, then they laughed at us, and now, it would seem, people are beginning to fight us so we must be close to winning.
And so, now the question is ‘how do I get into research like you?’ and the answer is, it took me 14 years to learn to play the bagpipes.
Once you tell the truth of what’s required and what’s involved, people seem less interested.
It seems to me that people think it’s a 10-minute process and all they have to do is want it and then they get it.
The true fruits of our research project will not happen for at least 10 years from the initiation and that will likely be mostly the same for anybody else.
If you’re interested in this and you want to know how it’s done and you’re happy to put aside 10 years to get there, I’d be happy to chat.
Blog Post Number - 3064
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