How can the number one be the worst number in your life, you might be asking? You want to be number one in sales. You want to have the number one rated practice in the area. “I want to be the 1st in everything” is how a lot of entrepreneurs out there think. Many nurse practitioners have a natural drive to excel as well, especially those who want to venture on their own.
It is okay to strive to be number one in terms of achievement, but what I am about to discuss with you is a very important concept called redundancy. Redundancy simply means that you have multiple options, back ups and channels in your life. You must be redundant for long term stability.
You want the least amount of one “things” in your life as possible. So, what do I mean by “thing?”
One employee.
One source of income.
One retirement account.
One insurance policy.
One client.
One skill set.
One business.
The list can go on and on. When you have one “thing” in your professional, financial, and business life, it is a recipe for disaster. How so?
If that one employee quits, you are totally screwed. Who is going to cover?
If you have one source of income and it dries up one day in the future, how are you going to survive financially?
If you put all your retirement savings into just the stock market and it crashes, what will you do? I hope you diversified your portfolio.
If you have one insurance policy for malpractice or general liability and you get sued and the insurance company decides to bail on you because what happened was not covered, what will you do? I hope you protected your ASSets.
If your business relies on just one major client and if that client goes out of business or switches to another company, your business is now in financial trouble.
If you only know primary care and some huge wide sweeping changes happen to federal reimbursement cutting your salary significantly, you will have a hard time switching fields because you only know primary care.
As you can see, most of these scenarios are totally out of your hands as well. Life is unpredictable and often unfair. Therefore, it is IMPERATIVE that you do every task within your power to mitigate the uncertainty in life.
Only having one of most things in business is the best way to set your business up for hardship. You must be redundant.
If you own a small practice that only needs one employee, you need to ensure that you have a contingency plan for when that employee WILL call in. My men’s health clinic is ran by one medical assistant and me. I have a plan if they were to call in. I still take a risk by not having another individual on standby though. Good news is though, that this business is growing steadily every month and I can now justify hiring another part time individual without it affecting my profits. I took a risk, but it was necessary during the startup phase. It is okay to take SHORT TERM RISKS.
If you only have one source of income, it is time to get off your ass and get another 2-3 streams going. If you lose your full time job or if your one business closes, you are in for some serious financial difficulties. On the other hand, if you have 3-4 income streams, perhaps one from a part time job and 2-3 others from part time businesses, then you are shielded from economic uncertainty. You will be comfortable while everyone else is sweating bullets during hard times.
If you have multiple retirement accounts and diversify your portfolio, then WHEN the stock market crashes, your other holdings such as gold and real estate will hold you over. Again, you will be comfortable while everyone else is freaking out when the next recession happens. Oh, its coming… We are way overdue (This article was published in 2019, March 2020 the recession happened).
If you have a malpractice policy , in addition to a generalized liability policy while utilizing multiple asset protection strategies, and a malpractice suit was brought against you, you would not be losing your composure like your other counterparts would be. You know you are protected.
Learn as many niche skills as you can as a nurse practitioner. Diversify your knowledge. In addition to my part-time urgent care position, I also can function independently in the ER, treat hormone deficiencies, utilize medical cannabis, treat opioid addiction, perform numerous procedures and a large array of other marketable skills outside of medicine. I do not fear change. Nor should you. I hope you get the picture now. The number one is your professional, financial and businesses worst enemy. Be redundant! Diversify! Protect yourself from the uncertainty of the world.
