The Campbell Academy Blog (88)

Caught in the whirlwind

Amazing conversations this week about the world of dentistry and how people are telling me that the associate market is now saturated in the private sector because everyone's left the NHS to jump to try to get a better life and make more money there.

All of a sudden, the NHS market is going to be saturated with more associates, and this period that we had where it was an associates' market where they could charge what they wanted will disappear, and principles will become in charge again.

The cycle is hilarious because people talk about it all the time as it seems to ebb and flow.

The other conversations are around equipment and digital and all of that stuff so the whirlwind of should we invest in this and should we buy that and how do we cut costs and what's the cheapest thing we can get?

I was recounted by a friend of mine a story of young dentists who are trying to set up another mini corporate (because we don't have enough of those). They had reached an amazing conclusion where all they needed to do was buy the dental chairs for $1000 from China, and it would save a shit ton of money.

Like nobody had ever thought of that before.

I was recounting this conversation to James Smith from Planmeca, who was at the Clinic for one of our course days, and we were laughing about how many people have repeated this stance and message over the years of 'just go cheap, no one will ever know the difference'.

It's entirely the opposite, isn't it?

The truth is actually the opposite of that.

What we need to help us navigate these horrendously complicated seas where all the problems and possible pitfalls exist is advice, partnership and collaboration.

The world is far too complex for any single person to know the answers (and the truth is there is no certainty anyway, and they never know the answers).

And so what you need is to build trust and connection.

If you're able to do that with your patients and your team and your suppliers and anyone else that you deal with on a day-to-day basis, then you're more likely to be able to navigate the water safely and happily than you are as you try to strive to make the most money in the shortest period of time by charging the most you can but spending the least you can and therefore creating a huge gap in the ability to provide any sort of quality.

I learned recently from somewhere else, a definition for happiness and so happiness is where we continue to seek that which we already have.