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In the Ahead of the Curve blog that I posted earlier this week, I talked about the first time that I'd ever gone on a plane in the fancy seats in 2018, paid for by Geistlich Biomaterials.
This week, I go on the fancy seats again, on Emirates again, but this time to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon).
I'm not exactly sure how I got here to this situation when someone asks me to fly for 18 hours to spend 72 hours in a city in Southeast Asia to talk about leadership and storytelling to a group of extraordinary young clinicians and then fly home; if I were to think about it for too long, I would get dizzy and fall off the tightrope, and so most of the time, I just decide to carry on walking and looking forward.
In terms of this gig (which is with the Australian Education team), this is pretty much where I want it to be.
I'm a clinician who has the ability to talk to developing clinicians.
I can't show you world-class implant dentistry as the guys do at the World Symposium; I can't show you 2500 videos of oral surgery procedures, as Sebastian Kuhl does from Basel, but I can show people how I think they should practice, how to do the procedures, and how to get them on the track to somewhere else.
I understand about team building and emotional intelligence, and what makes the best behaviours for leading an organisation.
I understand storytelling, and I have the ability to tell a story, and it turns out that now people are really interested, not only to hear stories, but to hear about methods for telling those stories.
To me, every lecture that I am invited to do is a story, and I thought that was normal.
I'm never able to give the same lecture twice because they're completely bespoke and unique, but again, that's not normal, and so I've realised that if anyone wants me to talk about stuff, most of the time it's about the stuff that is not clinical, not the stuff that is clinical.
The more I am asked, and the more I do it, the more it seems to be required.
I have no intention of travelling to other continents every week for the rest of my career/ life, but I will do a little bit, if I'm asked, in different places, and see extraordinary people in places that I've never seen before.
I have no idea how this happened, but until I get found out, I'll carry on for a little bit.
Blog Post Number - 4579