I’m frequently inquired about pursuing a career path as a physician entrepreneur. Following Peter Medawar’s insights in his “Advice to a Young Scientist,” I’d like to provide some guidance:

You won’t gain knowledge about innovation or entrepreneurship in medical school or during residency. Medical education focuses on teaching clinical practice and research techniques. If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, you must seek it through alternative avenues. Medicine fosters a culture of conformity rather than one of creativity.

Physician entrepreneurs must prioritize their role as physicians. Successfully complete a residency and gain clinical experience. This will equip you with the necessary understanding to spot opportunities and the environments that foster them. Focus on reading business-related topics, locating local resources, expanding your network, seeking mentors, accumulating experience when possible, such as during a gap year or leave of absence, and engaging with social networks of peers for support. The term “physician entrepreneur” holds significance for a reason.

Do not try to pursue a medical career and entrepreneurial ventures one after the other; instead, engage in both simultaneously. The demands of being a doctor are intense, leaving little room for additional pursuits. Nevertheless, start cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset by utilizing free resources and exploring literature outside your primary area of interest whenever possible.

Bioentrepreneurship encompasses the quest for opportunities using limited resources to generate user-defined value through innovation with a VAST business model. Take small steps before rushing ahead. Get involved in projects that meet a defined customer need, whether they are educational, social, or otherwise, and contribute to crafting a solution that provides value.

In the initial phases, focus on identifying problems rather than solely solving them. Many businesses fail due to a lack of sufficient customers willing to pay for a solution that doesn’t address their issue, or they maintain an unsustainable business model that fails to generate enough profit.

What has brought you to your current position won’t necessarily take you to your desired future. However, you have numerous transferable skills to leverage. To evolve as a physician entrepreneur, you’ll require education, resources, networks, mentors, experience, support groups, and policy advocates. Every successful entrepreneur excels at networking and relies on the wisdom of advisers and mentors. Recognizing and compensating for your blind spots by collaborating with knowledgeable individuals is crucial. It’s not just about having the right people on your team; they need the right roles at various stages of the journey.

Trust your intuition about getting more deeply involved. There are few, if any, medical specialties that allow for part-time work without compromising your diagnostic and therapeutic skills. Conversely, many avenues exist for physician entrepreneurs to gain the experience and insights necessary to determine if they wish to deepen their involvement. Serving on advisory boards is a productive step. Here’s a guide to non-clinical careers.

The qualities that helped you gain admission to medical school and excel as a physician differ from what you’ll need in the business realm. The clinical mindset diverges from the entrepreneurial one. Advisory board members, for instance, are expected to provide management guidance, customer connections, financial resources, product feedback, and marketing support from key opinion leaders. When navigating the business side of medicine, approach it with the assumption that there’s much you may not know. Seek out learning opportunities for knowledge gaps, followed by avenues for finding answers.

Avoid wasting time on futile efforts. Only about 1 percent of physicians possess an entrepreneurial mindset. If you lack the fundamental entrepreneurial traits, it may be time to move on. Don’t strive to be a wannapreneur.

Surgeons without complications likely aren’t performing enough operations. Entrepreneurs who haven’t encountered failure haven’t engaged with enough ventures. Both business and clinical acumen stem from experience, which comes from trial, error, and learning from mistakes.

Challenges in healthcare cannot be resolved from within. Attend events and connect with individuals outside the field of biomedicine.

Feel free to adapt successful ideas from other industries to fit the medical context. Challenges in healthcare cannot be resolved from within.

That said, my primary counsel is to disregard my advice and forge your own path. Understand yourself, heed your inner voice, and shape your mindset. Character shapes destiny.

One in five physicians expresses the likelihood of leaving their current practice within two years. Concurrently, about one in three doctors and health professionals anticipate cutting back their work hours in the upcoming year, based on recent survey findings. Yet, there’s often a gap between their intentions and actual actions. Here’s why.

Think carefully before discarding your white coat.

Biomedical and health innovation will be the sole avenue to address our global healthcare dilemma. An increasing number of skilled, passionate, and committed physician entrepreneurs will be essential in developing solutions. Seeing 20 patients daily for 40 years is one approach.