Dentaltown November 2020 - 12

howard speaks
column

Ownership Isn't for Everyone
Would you rather give or take orders? It's really that
simple, and there's no right or wrong answer.
Some people would like to be the boss, and some
people don't. I believe that duality is evident as early
as childhood-maybe even at birth. I've watched five
sisters growing up, and they were the same women at
age 60 as they were when they were 6. I raised four boys,
and they're the same boys at 30 as they were at 10. And
when some dentists get out of school, they don't want to
lead a team of five or 10 employees, give orders and tell
them what to do. The idea gives them stomach ulcers.
"But you're working for someone else,
though," a lot of dentists would say. "Why
would you want to be an associate, or work
at a DSO?" Some people are perfectly happy
trading their time for money-and that's
not a bad thing, especially in an industry
that invented the concept of the Tooth Fairy,
teaching children to sell their discarded body
parts for money.

So when new graduates come out of dental school
and get a job at a DSO, there's no need to bully them:
"How come you don't own your own place?" The way
they get shamed for joining a DSO, you'd think they
were joining an illegal arms operation. Maybe they don't
want to own their own place yet! In the early years, a
single-owner dental practice can be an early-morning,
late-evening job, seven days a week. Maybe while they're
young, they'd like to just check in and check out, Monday
through Friday, 8 to 5, and are fine with joining a team
and letting some other person be the overlord.

Instead of live and let live,
"practice and let practice"
The most miserable dentists I've ever met
had parents who were dentists and told them
since they were 3 years old that they were going
to grow up and become dentists too. They
weren't actually interested in the profession
themselves but followed their parents into
dentistry because they loved their mom and
dad, and now they're miserable.
On the flip side, a lot of dentists feel bad
because they had several children but none of them
wanted to go into dentistry. That's
not a sign of failure! Remember,
Dr. Omer Reed, one of the most
famous dentists on Earth, had five
kids and not one of them became
a dentist. I told my four boys that
I had my kids for them, not for me,
so I expected them some day to fly
out of the nest, go somewhere else
and do whatever they wanted to do.

If you come out of dental school and you just want
to join a DSO or a group practice and live happily, go
for it! Even if you're a dentist who's been around for a
while and still think that hanging out a shingle isn't in
the cards for you, I won't criticize that decision. Why
should I, or anyone else, force you to be a miserable
business owner? It's not right for everyone.
The only goal I have for my four boys is that they
stay healthy, happy and breathing. I don't want them
to go do something and be miserable, and I certainly
don't want Townies to do that, either. ■

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

12

NOVEMBER 2020 // dentaltown.com

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Dentaltown November 2020

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