We asked Dr. Scott Jens, co-founder and CEO of Rev360, to share new graduate optometrist career advice.
He brought up the Disney principles (from Walt Disney’s book, The Disney Way): “Dream, Believe, Dare, and Do.” For Dr. Jens, it’s the “Dare” part of the equation that is most important for graduates when they first begin building their practices.
He shared a story about how when he was first getting his start in the late ‘80s, he went through the phone book and wrote personal letters to every doctor in town. Today, with email and the internet, new graduates have other options for contacting doctors and prospects. But even with all these changes, Dr. Jens says, “the same principles hold true.”
New graduates should ask themselves: do I dare take a chance? Dr. Jens gave us a sense of what that might entail - everything from visiting a local practice, to going to a state optometric meeting, to introducing yourself to the executive director of a state association.
“That dare is something few people are comfortable with,” he explains, and taking that dare will give you the edge. Graduates today are “much more ambitious and full of self-confidence than I ever was,” he says. “The advantage of disruptive technology makes for a more ambitious new graduate.”
His advice, in a nutshell: “Take the Dare."
