At The White Coat Investor, we discuss danger and price regularly—often by way of the potential to earn cash or the potential for shedding it. As the primary girl doctor business astronaut who rode into area final 12 months, I take into consideration danger a little bit otherwise.
Attaining my lifelong aim of going to area was well worth the 40 years of labor it took to get there. I needed to resolve prematurely that the potential value of shedding my life in pursuit of that aim was preferable to the choice: by no means taking the possibility in any respect. That call framework—selecting deliberately slightly than avoiding danger by default—has formed each main inflection level in my profession.
Not Letting the Concern of Failure Maintain You Again
In my present position as a trainer and mentor to physicians who wish to launch and construct knowledgeable witness companies (my four-week course, Knowledgeable Witness Startup College, is open for brand spanking new attendees via January 26), I see clear parallels. Many physicians wish to develop new expertise, improve monetary flexibility, and regain a way {of professional} company. However worry of failure usually holds them again. The excellent news is that scientific coaching already qualifies physicians to function specialists. The tougher step is deciding to steer and to construct one thing new within the face of uncertainty.
One constant thread in my work—as an educator and former House Camp Crew Coach—helps folks acknowledge and use expertise they didn’t understand they already had. In the USA, our authorized system depends on juries of our friends, most of whom don’t have any medical coaching, to resolve the end result of complicated medical malpractice instances. Physicians and different clinicians are uniquely certified to function specialists on this system—not as advocates, however as educators.
We already do that work day by day in drugs: explaining diagnoses, dangers, uncertainty, and outcomes to sufferers and households. Knowledgeable witness work is solely one other venue for that very same duty—to translate complicated info clearly, precisely, and ethically.
After I was a House Camp Crew Coach in school, I taught highschool college students—just a few years youthful than me—tips on how to launch, fly, and land the area shuttle. I realized these expertise by first attending camp myself, learning extensively, after which growing the boldness to show others. That development—studying, synthesizing, and instructing beneath stress—is second nature to physicians.
Additionally it is one in every of our most transferable and underappreciated skilled expertise.
Extra info right here:
How Being an Knowledgeable Witness Can Make You a Higher Physician
How one can Truly Get Paid as an Knowledgeable Witness (or Any Different Facet Gig)
The Range of the Pathfinders
In learning the evolving traits of Blue Origin astronauts, essentially the most prevalent trait amongst them is management. Extra just lately, there was a notable shift towards communication, storytelling, philanthropy, and training. These adjustments mirror a broader evolution in area exploration: from the singular aim of attending to area towards persevering with that work for the advantage of Earth.
My crew of six referred to as ourselves the Pathfinders due to our various paths to area, proven symbolically in our mission patch. The caduceus symbolizes my profession as a doctor. My crewmates had various backgrounds, together with IT, training, diplomacy, entrepreneurship, and mountaineering (to call just some). Sure, Mark Rocket even has a profession in rocketry (and hails from New Zealand, the place the Kea chook lives)! Industrial astronaut crews proceed to change into extra various in background, career, and perspective—serving to extra of humanity see a possible path to area and the shared advantages that comply with.
If we focus completely on potential loss, we miss the potential for achieve. Going to area, constructing companies, and main organizations has taught me that the bigger the aim, the tougher it’s to realize—but in addition the extra significant the affect, each personally and for others.
Some critics derided the all-women NS-31 launch that occurred shortly earlier than my flight, lacking a key level. That mission was among the many most various to this point, not as a result of they have been all ladies however due to the breadth of expertise, views, and experiences represented. By no means earlier than had a crew come along with such vary to speak the that means of area exploration, conduct analysis, and present how folks from totally different backgrounds can unite round a shared aim.
Extra info right here:
4 Extra Instances When Medical doctors Had been the Coolest Folks Ever
Redefining My Medical Profession . . . Once more
Since my flight in Might 2025, I’m regularly requested what it was wish to be in area. No, I didn’t see aliens. The touchdown was scarier than the launch—as a result of if we didn’t land safely, the remainder of the mission wouldn’t have mattered. I’m additionally requested how, at age 51 and having achieved my best skilled desires, I return to on a regular basis duties like grocery buying, checking the mail, or doing laundry.
The reply is that I do them joyfully. I do them understanding that I gave my objectives the whole lot I had—not only for my very own achievement however to show to others that somebody like me, who would possibly seem like them, can pursue extraordinary objectives, too.
After touchdown, whereas being interviewed subsequent to the capsule (you possibly can see it within the video beneath), I used to be requested what qualities I possessed as a doctor that additionally made me a superb astronaut. My reply was love and compassion. Physicians don’t select our sufferers; we look after whoever involves us. One of the profound moments of my flight was floating above the Earth after which instinctively turning inward to verify on my crewmates—simply as I’d in a hospital or clinic, main a staff via complicated work. That sense of duty and connectedness is shared by physicians and astronauts alike.
Knowledgeable witness work was one of many instruments that allowed me to redefine my medical profession and construct further monetary flexibility, together with actual property investing and the event of academic applications for different clinicians. I want extra physicians seen knowledgeable witness work as a traditional extension of medical professionalism—no totally different from peer evaluate, regulatory service, or high quality enchancment. At its core, it’s an train in management. Build up a tolerance for danger and having fun with the reward from conducting troublesome issues—duties I labored on each day in my position as an knowledgeable witness constructing new companies—have been vital steps in my journey to area.
Selecting management means selecting motion over inaction, regardless of danger. We frequently say troublesome issues aren’t “rocket science,” however take into account the complexity and danger concerned in constructing bridges, hospitals, or infrastructure that individuals depend on each day. Creating tolerance for arduous issues is what shapes us into the folks—and professionals—we wish to change into.
When the engines of the New Shepard rocket ignite, it takes seven seconds to construct sufficient thrust to elevate off. You’re warned prematurely that you will notice flames and really feel vibration—however you aren’t on hearth. That reassurance issues. In area, I skilled three minutes of weightlessness, gazing on the Earth with the information that many years of effort had culminated in that second. The validation was priceless.
Whether or not you go to area, all of us have a aim that helps us know we live at our greatest. It begins with one step.
Have you ever taken dangers in your profession to make it a extra fulfilling one? Did it work out the best way you hoped? Why or why not? Was there one thing you possibly can have accomplished otherwise?
