Return on investment

December 30, 2017

“Own your mistakes; lend your successes. They will come back with interest. And remember to call your mom – then put the phone down,” said Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal.

Own your mistakes.

I currently live in a world and work in a profession in which admitting my failures and mistakes is taboo. Keep up pretenses at all cost.

I recently failed to match to fellowship.

It has taken me the better part of working these long cold December nights to pick up the broken pieces of my ego, reconcile the outcome, and acknowledge my failure reflected back to me. There are a million reasons I could make up to frost the truth; none of which allow the vulnerability of my bared soul.

Lend your successes.

I ran varsity cross country in high school, graduated with a 4.2 and in the top 1% of my class. I got an BA in Humanities and mastered French. I have skied mountains and mastered the slalom water ski; I have sailed the 13 foot boat in the great northerly afternoon wind, and surfed the Nicaraguan coast. I am a doctor and a pilot. I lead committees and have won teaching awards.

I’d take credit for those things, except I had substantial help along the way with luck sprinkled on top. While those titles may come after my name, there is a list of credits that rolls at the end of those accomplishments. It is the conversation in the middle of the night that often inspires and redirects me, one that requires the investment of others in my journey.

Put the phone down.

I keep searching my social media apps for the answers to the questions in my soul or opportunities to fill the pending void. My battery wears out quickly and I miss the world around me as I desperately seek something better in the glass screen.

They will come back with interest.

Investing is risky and not without the possibility of losing big. To love at all is to risk one’s life which has the potential to be the costliest mistake of all. Perhaps Mr. Zweig is correct: reward comes with BOTH acknowledging mistakes and bestowing recognition with achievements.

With a new year is at my threshold, I seek to own my mistakes, lend my successes, and await that return on human investment.