Walking with both legs

I recently watched the North American premier of Zhang Yimous new film Under the Hawthorn Tree. During the post screening Q&A, Zhang commented in response to a question about the tension between art films and commercial films that as a Chinese filmmaker today one must “Yung liang tiao tui zou lu”. In other words, he went on one must help China protect it’s market for filmgoers the young 20-30s who want to see Hollywood style movies while at the same time making films for filmmaking or “arts” sake.

I found these comments to resonate deeply with me. In the face of conventional wisdom and social pressures to package each of us neatly into one single career or passion, I’ve always thought of my own career as one in which I am constantly balancing several interests for which no single professional activity alone can optimize. I keep coming back to the three I’s impact, independence and income. I must optimize all three in my mind to be successful. Impact in my view has to do both with personal sense of accomplishment as well as social approval. One should not only feel a sense of satisfaction at the purposefulness and meaningfulness of ones work as well as achieve some socially determined recognition of success. Independence, having a loved and loving family behind ones career is vital. The support that my family and Jane provide me is critical to my ability to function at a high level. Finally income, how good is money at measuring the impact of ones work? I’m not sure but I do believe it is an important measure whether you are a nonprofit attracting donors and donations or a large consumer goods company tracking sales or an investment bank managing a portfolio of assets, the more dollars your work affects the more value you create and the more risk you bear ie the more impact you have. Income is at least a part and in my opinion a big part of the picture.

So where does that leave me? What are the two legs of my walking success story? One is as a Doctor, I am more sure of this every day. The next well we shall see, I have a feeling it will have to do with the business side of healthcare. Stay tuned . . .