It’s been a year.
A year since I decided to leave practicing medicine for good.
A little over a year ago I found myself investigating my future deeper than I ever would have imagined.
It even had me handwriting potential pros and cons lists, something I haven’t done since before I started medical school at age 23.
In a second I’ll tell you why I started investigating my future in the first place, and why I decided to pivot my career away from practicing medicine.
You know that feeling when you’re somewhere you always thought you wanted to be?
Everyone around you is enjoying themselves, but something just doesn’t sit right with you.
Something just feels off and you cannot shake it.
That was my experience throughout my clinical years of medical school, years 3 and 4.
So here I am now.
I made my video a year ago announcing that I was quitting medicine.
I’ve been overwhelmed with people’s experiences and thoughts, positive and negative.
So I thought a reflection on the last year after quitting was due.
Why become a doctor?
So why did I go into medicine in the first place?
I’m an only child born to two Greek immigrants without a higher level of education.
To my parents (and the older generation), the way to succeed was to get as much schooling as possible: Doctor, lawyer, or engineer are the typical paths.
I started lifting weights as an early teen, I did well in school, and I liked science.
Doctor it is.
It was a pretty stepwise progression.
Get good grades in high school.
Go to college, get good grades, do the prerequisite classes, volunteer, get clinical experience, do something that makes you unique, study for and take the MCAT, apply, and you’re in.
It may sound like I’m blaming my parents like they FORCED me to go into medicine, but that is far from the truth.
I thought I wanted it too.
Doctors are respected.
I grew up in a town where the doctors had nice houses and cars, and everyone took their word as the truth.
As an insecure kid growing up, prestige sounded nice.
And of course, the income to back it.
It is one of the jobs that guarantees a high income where you can work hard and succeed.
And a pretty secure one too.
Hospital closes permanently?
There are plenty of other ones that would love to have you.
And of course, the job itself was intellectually stimulating.
Coming from an insecure background, I got deep into self-improvement.
Being a physician is like self-improvement.
When a patient comes in with a problem, you assess everything that is going on in their life, run tests, put it all together, and hopefully, the patient can get better.
You’re improving people’s lives directly, and I lived for that.
At least I thought about these things before starting medical school.
Why quit?
I went to undergrad at Indiana University and went directly to medical school with no gaps between.
Bloomington, IN is awesome, but moving to Chicago to go to the University of Illinois-Chicago as an early 20-year-old was surreal.
I didn’t struggle too much at the beginning.
I had an efficient, effective studying system that allowed me to do well and enjoy the city.
But in the spring of my first year of medical school, the pandemic hit, and our classwork went fully online.
And I had a lot of free time.
I had about 100,000 followers on Instagram at this point just from posting workout content, and people loved asking me for advice and programs, so I started a coaching business just to offset the costs of med school and provide some value to people who needed the help.
I had trained people in college, and I felt like I understood the human body even more at this point, so why not?
These first and second years of med school were some glory years.
Staying in shape, page growing, business growing, learning subjects I love, and I still had some free time to put it all together.
Minus Step 1 (the first and historically most challenging board exam).
That exam sucked.
It was still scored at the time and not pass/fail like it is now.
Then I began my clinical rotations in my third year of medical school, and it all changed.
The first few rotations felt novel so they went okay.
They were subjects I wasn’t interested in so I tolerated the bad parts knowing OBGYN and Pediatrics weren’t going to be my specialties of choice.
But then I started to feel it.
Toward the end of a shift, I was itching to go home.
I did not feel like the day-to-day of being a doctor was what I was meant to do.
The thought of quitting at the time was ridiculous so I suppressed it.
My schedule got busy.
Between being in the hospital doing rotations, studying, running my business, making content, staying in shape, and seeing friends, it became tough.
But then I realized all those things were what made the hospital tolerable.
I began to pay attention to the residents and attending physicians around me.
Complaining.
Not happy.
Itching for their next vacation.
Many hinted toward shifting to more administrative work or switching to part-time.
I began to feel it too.
A few rotations in, I was burned out.
And I was just in medical school.
Resident’s schedules were worse, and I was only a year or two away from that.
We heard about residents’ “self-deletions” (I’ll call them that to avoid any flags here).
I hear of many people feeling like they were giving up their younger years, just for a job and financial security in the future.
But for many of my peers including myself, the passion was gone.
A career in medicine was not what we thought it was.
We go in with this burning desire to help make an impact in the world, but on the other end get chewed up and spit out by a malignant system.
Then I was diagnosed with depression.
During my internal medicine rotation, I’d cry in the bathroom every morning before rounds.
Every single day, I’d pray that the senior resident would dismiss me early so I can get home and work on my passions.
So I began an antidepressant, which helped me.
My mood improved, but I felt like it was a band-aid for a situation I didn’t want to be in.
I only realized this after I tapered off the medication shortly after transitioning to my business full time.
And then I realized a majority of my classmates were on some sort of psychiatric medicine as well.
The end of 3rd year came, I had an online rotation for a month, did some traveling, and spent time with my wife (fiancee at the time).
I felt alive.
Sure, everyone loves a vacation, but I felt like I had a purpose.
I was still doing my work, but I had time freedom.
Location freedom.
That was all I wanted.
I knew I had to quit.
But I didn’t know if what I was doing was sustainable.
I scheduled myself for a relatively relaxed fourth year when we have more elective time.
While my classmates were preparing for residency applications, I did the same (just in case), but I also grinded on my business.
I studied marketing, sales, and developed a higher-level coaching process.
I hired a team and fully scaled my business.
I did it all.
I started seeing a therapist to help me figure out if quitting was right for me.
But deep down I knew it was.
I set an income goal for myself and promised that I would not leave until I knew I could hit this target for 3 months in a row.
I applied for residency (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) and did a few interviews.
But this whole time I was working toward my goals.
I hit my goal 2 months before Match Day (the day when medical students are placed in a residency program) and withdrew my application.
I went all in on my coaching business.
Fortunately, I had mostly positive reactions from my peers.
My family was skeptical.
But my classmates were envious yet proud.
My business mentors said it was the right thing for me.
I had doctors I worked for in undergrad that I hadn’t spoken to in 5 years text me telling me I did the right thing.
Healthcare since the pandemic has changed.
Reimbursements were reducing, respect for physicians was dwindling, and I realized I could not be stuck in that system.
But why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and 4 years of my life just to throw it away?
To me, I needed to have this experience to guide me on my path in life.
The sunk cost fallacy applies, “the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.”
I had built a great brand.
I was transforming people’s lives.
I couldn’t be a cog in this system.
I felt I was too smart, resourceful, and hardworking to practice medicine.
With the time and effort of the 4-5 years of residency I’d be doing, I KNEW I’d be happier, help more people, make more money, and have more freedom doing something else.
I had classmates that loved it.
They wanted to be there.
I saw what that looked like, and I knew I didn’t belong.
What does my life look like now?
So here I am now.
What does my life look like 1 year removed?
I couldn’t be happier living the entrepreneur life.
Here is what my day looks like.
Similar to med school, I play my day the night before.
I use an app called TickTick (not affiliated) to schedule my tasks and to-do’s so I can work toward my bigger-picture goals.
I usually wake up around 6 am, not because I need to, but because I like getting most of my work done in the morning.
My work day is essentially split up into 3 parts.
First is creative writing, whether it’s writing my email newsletter, scripting a YouTube video, planning short-form posts, or writing tweets.
The next block is posting content and interacting with my audience, a “social” working block.
The third and final block is working directly on the business itself.
Some days it’ll be filled with coaching or client calls, building out new plans, making sure people are getting in great shape.
Or it could be as simple as brainstorming or working on new projects or improvements to the program.
This is almost always done from home at my desk or my couch, which is a much more comfortable environment than the hospital.
Around lunchtime, I’ll take my dogs on a 2-mile walk around the park.
Denver is always sunny so it’s a great way to split the day.
At some point, I’ll also lift weights and go on a run or do cardio, usually later in the day around 4 pm. In the evenings, I may catch up on some to-do’s, explore Denver, spend time with Abby, or just relax knowing I’m right where I need to be.
This is my schedule most of the time.
But some days I can work a little extra to give me flexibility to take the day off.
I might go on an adventure, ski, spend a day with my wife, and resolve any major business problem that pops up out of nowhere.
This flexibility is all I’ve ever wanted.
And in the last year, I have accomplished a lot.
I’ve scaled my health and fitness coaching business, Doctor’s Orders Coaching, and have helped hundreds of people get in the best shape of their lives.
I’m working on integrating medical testing and prescription drug management into it to become an all-in-one health and fitness service.
The doctor you see BEFORE you need to see a doctor.
I’ve also launched Medpreneur and have helped healthcare workers earn a full-time income by monetizing their skills online.
But for every success, there are failures too.
I’ve had my social media accounts taken down by hackers.
I’ve had payment processors stop accepting payments.
I’ve had great months, and I’ve had much slower months.
But I work to improve and know it is all part of the process and the bigger picture.
As long as I give value to others and spread what I’ve learned, I’m happy.
But nevertheless, I’m very satisfied with my business progress, especially just one year out of med school.
It was a very weird and stressful transition for me.
From being supported by parents growing up, to being in med school where student loans kept me alive, to being off on my own with full responsibility for my survival has been interesting.
But as for personal progress, I got married, which is awesome and the best thing I’ve ever done.
I’ve had the flexibility to move across the country to Denver.
We had the ability to just pick up our things and move.
That simple.
We’ve been able to travel, visit family, and make a ton of new friends.
Happiness Now vs Then
So that brings me to the question.
Am I happy?
I am.
I wake up most days excited to work on my projects.
I definitely could not say that during my time in medical school.
Overall, I just needed more freedom and autonomy with my day.
I needed more purpose.
There is no ceiling of how much money I can make or value I can give to people.
But at the same time, you do eventually return to a new baseline.
My baseline level of happiness is probably much higher now, but still, things return to normal.
But now I have a different type of stress.
What I am doing is higher risk, yet higher reward.
And I could have months where I crush it, and then the next month is much less.
And beyond that, I feel like I’m working around the clock 24/7, which to be honest, sounds much worse than it is.
I feel like I’m working on my life purpose now.
So even if it’s supposed to be a relaxing Saturday and I’m brainstorming ideas for something, I’m enjoying it.
But this lifestyle isn’t for everyone.
Was it Worth It?
So in all, was it worth it?
So far, it’s an absolute yes.
Thinking that I’d be going through an intern year of residency right now, genuinely makes me feel like I’m going to throw up.
It was not for me.
Medicine may not be for you either, and there are other options.
An MD/DO is a hard degree to earn and companies are looking for highly educated healthcare professionals to help them.
You can get into consulting, looking into the big 4 firms.
A medical science liaison is another possibility.
Within medicine itself, a preventative health residency tends to be more flexible in schedule, yet still impactful to society.
Getting into hospital administration is also another avenue to take.
My second option was completing an intern year, getting a medical license, and opening some sort of longevity, anti-aging, or cosmetic-based clinic.
But even if you are reading this and not going into medicine.
There are options.
We live in a digital age where you can learn anything you want on the internet.
There are plenty of high-value and high-income skills to learn that will give you control over your own destiny.
Don’t settle for less.
Advice and Closing Thoughts
My advice if you’re going through the same thing: keep going.
Don’t quit until you have proved to yourself that you can do something else.
Typically don’t leave for a “side hustle” until you’ve made a full-time income from the side hustle for 3 months in a row.
It’ll be hard.
But you already work hard.
Find the time.
It could pay off more than you know.
Your life has led you to this point.
It isn’t all wasted.
You have the knowledge and ability to do whatever you want.
The discomfort you’ve felt may be exactly what you need to reach new levels.
Like in medicine, we are lifelong learners.
Your life ends when you stop learning and stay comfortable.
Keep growing and you’ll keep unlocking new adventures in your life.
If you need more help with maximizing a busy schedule, or with proper training and nutrition to build muscle, lose fat, or improving your health markers, fill out the application below and I will reach out when I have spots available!
Best regards
Dr. CP