Blog covering a book

I have a bad habit of doing this. When I get stressed I grit my teeth as if straining my jaws is going to solve whatever problems I am currently stressed about. It’s a little ironic that I’m at the top of the world in dental yet I’m straining my own teeth purposely. But why would we care when we are stressed out right? We all have our own quirks and it’s what makes us human.

            I think the biggest moment where my mouth hated me the most was when I was in school for dental, because that put me through the wringer. I was drowning in debt, and I was at my lowest point from how much work I was buried under all at once. I realized that I was in huge trouble if I didn’t figure out a solution to my mountain of problems in front of me. But what finally fixed my jaw was realizing I was meant to do great things, and my ambition would not let me down. When I came to this revelation I decided to seriously pursue my goal of starting my company that I have today, and while I was by no means out of the muck at this point, it was nice to have a finish line at the end of the tunnel to look forward to.

            I looked around at all the other successful companies, especially the one I worked at for about 18 years, Heartland Dental. I saw the success of that man and aspired to do my best to achieve something like what he had done. I wanted to help the future generation of doctors above all and to equip them with what they needed to achieve greatness in the dental field. So that was what I made my mission for my company when I started truly pursuing the birth of my company. One other thing that hurt my jaw once again was getting my business started. Truth be told I had all those years at Heartland in my pocket, yet I was completely clueless about how to get my business up and running.  I was a pro at business operations but helpless when it came to buying my own practices.

            This is when I got a new idea to head over to Cuba. I know your probably scratching your head on why I would pick Cuba, but my mind was ahead of the game with this one. There is a saying in Cuba the people call, “The Cuban Way”. The people are extremely resourceful, intelligent, and the amount of entrepreneurs in Cuba are incredible. And it was around this time Cuba opened up to private business, and I thought if I could learn anything about how to start a business, it would be there. 

            Once again, I grit my teeth as I set out to Cuba and made connections with others like me trying to start their own business. I wanted to get inside their heads to see what they were doing right so that I could do better. I met two amazing people who had their own businesses and were extremely ambitious with their goals. One was an internet creator, and one was a fashion designer, which in Cuba these things are scarce. I believe their ambition is what drove them to push forward against all odds and to find solutions in any way they could. As a result, the main thing I learned from my trip is that I would have to push forward, grit my teeth, and find a way to overcome this. And that’s exactly what I did…sort of.

            This journey really was longer than you can imagine, which is why I needed to write a book about it, so I’ll speed it up for you. After I got back I was still in the same position, only a little bit more insight as to what I would need to do. The first step forward was getting more people involved, which is why I brought my good acquaintances from Heartland over to work under me. They have been a big help to me this whole journey I’ve had, and I truly am grateful for them. We started looking for all the provisions we could get our hands on and got to work on networking ourselves and gaining a reputation within the community. We gained a network of connections throughout this process. We had a long hard journey to convince people to invest in the little guy, however we pushed forward no matter the opposition. We are where we are today because of not only hard work, but risk and reward. It’s because of this journey that I’m able to stand here today and tell you about how to grit your teeth and push forward. So anyways, back to my original question, do you grit your teeth too?