Course: Self-Directed, Self-Help with Journaling 101
URL: Master Entrepreneur
Title: https://vimeo.com/765718191
Blurb:
- Raised in a family of medical providers, Dr. Patrick always wanted to serve his community. He became a chiropractor to alleviate pain for people with back and musculoskeletal problems. As he progressed through his career, he sought opportunities in different business ventures to create wealth, including real estate and medical equipment distribution. In this interview, our students learn how Dr. Patrick attained success by remaining aware of opportunities, increasing his skillset, and upholding a strong work ethic.
Objective:
- Students should recognize how Dr. Patrick’s success story aligns with the coursework modules we teach in The Straight A Guide. In addition, students should understand how strong skills in math, critical thinking, and communication are the cornerstones of success. Other lessons from this interview include resilience, service to the community, and an eagerness to learn about business and other subjects.
Lesson Requirements:
- Watch the video that accompanies the lesson
- Write a definition of each word highlighted in bold and written in italics
- Use ten of the vocabulary words in a sentence
- Respond to a minimum of three open-ended questions by following instructions at the end of the lesson.
Lesson Outcome:
- Participants will increase their vocabulary by at least ten words.
- Participants will improve writing skills and their ability to contemplate how their responses to open-ended questions relate to their prospects for success upon release.
- Participants will add to their journal, demonstrating a self-directed, self-improvement pathway to prepare for success upon release.
Our team at Prison Professors thanks Dr. Patrick for sharing vital insight with our audience as he describes his professional journey. He has thrived as a healthcare provider and ventured into other business sectors, including real estate and medical equipment distribution. Dr. Patrick built his career through a forceful work ethic and a keen commitment to delivering value to others. He teaches us invaluable lessons in leadership, resilience, and sound decision-making as he describes his professional journey.
Background:
Born in Houma, Louisiana, Dr. Patrick is from a family with a strong tradition of practicing medicine. His paternal grandfather was a community doctor who pioneered the healthcare industry for the next generations of his family. Several extended relatives, including all five of his grandfather’s sons, became physicians. Dr. Patrick’s father, a surgeon, similarly passed on the tradition to his children. Three of Dr. Patrick’s older brothers pursued medical careers, and his four sisters became nurses.
Defining success – Once Dr. Patrick identified becoming a healthcare provider as a career goal, he worked tirelessly to make his dream a reality. He took incremental steps, including learning more about the field and working hard in school, to reach this goal. Later, he identified becoming a chiropractor as his aspiration, and similarly made progress to that end
While an undergraduate, Dr. Patrick became interested in chiropractic, an alternative form of medicine that focuses on treating the spine and other parts of the human musculoskeletal system. Dr. Patrick wanted to treat patients in a different way than his family members, who were all involved in conventional medical fields. After identifying his long-term goal, Dr. Patrick worked to become aware of opportunities in the industry. He often visited practitioners to observe their interactions with patients. The method of care appealed to him, and Dr. Patrick remarked that chiropractic was a “rewarding field.” Dr. Patrick’s high regard for the vocation led him to complete a four-year doctoral program after completing his undergraduate coursework.
Once he earned the required credentials, Dr. Patrick began practicing as a chiropractor. He worked for a contractor in Houma for ten months, operating out of two rooms in the contractor’s clinic. In exchange for using the facility’s rooms and X-ray machine, Dr. Patrick paid the contractor 50 percent of the revenue he earned from clients.
Remaining aware of opportunities – Dr. Patrick sought out professionals in the career he was interested in before he graduated. Likewise, our students should begin reaching out to professionals ahead of their release. Starting to network now can improve chances of finding a job and learning about opportunities in the field.
Dr. Patrick delivered high-quality care to his patients, leading him to earn a solid reputation as a highly competent professional. As his clientele spoke highly of him, more people became aware of Dr. Patrick’s impeccable services through word-of-mouth. Dr. Patrick also developed a formidable work ethic, often traveling to his office several times a week, including Saturdays, to treat his patients. Due to his hard work and dexterity as a chiropractor, Dr. Patrick’s business expanded into two locations, one in Houma and another in the small nearby town of Cut Off.
Soon afterward, Dr. Patrick opened an independent practice to accommodate clients’ demands. He used sound critical thinking skills as he became a business owner. Initially, Dr. Patrick lacked the capital to operate a separate business, so he lived with his parents to save on his expenses. He also continued building a solid customer base through his high-quality performance. By securing his finances and increasing his client pool, Dr. Patrick set himself on a pathway to success as an entrepreneur.
Takeaway:
As I served 26 years in prison, I continuously sought to learn from role models who made better decisions than I did when I was a young man. I wanted to understand what constructive habits and value systems lead people like Dr. Patrick to thrive and contribute to society.
“You have to build trust. You have to build relationships”
Dr. Patrick
We learned a crucial lesson about gaining the trust of others. Dr. Patrick quickly expanded his business because he honed his skill as a chiropractor and put the needs of his customers before his own. He persuaded more clients to patronize his business by becoming the best at his craft. I recall him saying, “you have to build trust; you have to build relationships” as a steppingstone for success. We can professionally thrive if we sharpen our interpersonal skills and uphold a professional demeanor and likable personality.
This story should inspire us all to become effective communicators. In the interview, Dr. Patrick demonstrated a strong verbal command of English. He used descriptive and easily understandable language to convince others of his competence as a professional. Likewise, our students should invest in their communication skills to increase their odds of finding employment and housing upon release.
We encourage our listeners to begin a self-directed reading routine to broaden their vocabulary and gain expertise in unfamiliar subjects. Our audience members should access reference books like dictionaries and thesauruses to become more erudite as communicators. Strong English language skills increase our students’ odds of finding employment and housing after their release. We urge our audience to avoid coarse language and slang prevalent in jails in prisons. A successful return to society requires a full commitment to constructive habits and avoidance of behavior associated with crime. The more skilled we become as communicators, the better able we are to gain the trust of others as we seek to earn our freedom.
All our students can benefit by putting these principles into practice, regardless of their chosen vocation.An aspiring painter or landscaper, for example, can prepare for success now by becoming familiar with industry trends (e.g., new technologies and techniques), jargon (i.e., understanding terms like square mileage, square footage), and employment opportunities. Dr. Patrick kept his head in the game by making himself aware of opportunities years before becoming a chiropractor. Likewise, our students must immediately begin investing in their skillsets to become proficient in their aspired career well before their release. It is never too early nor too late to begin preparing for success.
Lastly, we must foster a strong work ethic. Dr. Patrick dedicated more than nine years to his education and worked extra hours to meet his patients’ demands. Through his diligence, Dr. Patrick drove his company to thrive in two locations. He built a strong referral base by satisfying and exceeding his customers’ expectations. Our students must similarly demonstrate an eagerness to work hard and deliver results to their employers after their release. The harder we strive to deliver value to others, the more we encourage others to try to help us.
- How do you think Dr. Patrick’s desire to help others led him to succeed?
- How do you believe Dr. Patrick’s grandfather and father served as role models for him?
- How do you believe Dr. Patrick became effective at persuasion?
- How does this story inspire you to put others’ needs ahead of your own?
- How does this story inspire you to improve your communication skills?
Career:
Dr. Patrick offers us invaluable leadership lessons as he describes his experience as a business owner. Like all successful people, Dr. Patrick has become adept at building effective teams. At his practice, he hired other professionals to drive his business to prosperity, including a physical therapist, a therapist’s assistant, a receptionist, billing staff, and other personnel. Each team member depends on the other for the business’s overall success. Just as Dr. Patrick works hard to gain the trust of others, all his staff members must fully dedicate themselves to producing optimal patient outcomes.
Unfortunate circumstances, however, abruptly led Dr. Patrick’s business to face challenges. The outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020 disrupted Dr. Patrick’s operations. In 2021, his business suffered from the effects of Hurricane Ida, a powerful storm that ravaged much of the Gulf Coast.
Yet Dr. Patrick remained resilient despite these personal blows. Dr. Patrick launched other businesses to diversify his income sources. When one stream of revenue became tenuous, Dr. Patrick began earning money through other venues. His forethought shows us the advantages of having a contingency plan.
He generated substantial wealth through real estate. Starting in the 1990s, he began searching for land plots with strong curb appeal. Eventually, he built a duplex after acquiring land in a desirable location. Dr. Patrick then devised an ingenious plan to grow his finances: he rented out half of the duplex while residing in the other half of the building. This strategy enabled Dr. Patrick to use the money he collected from the tenant to pay the mortgage for the entire building. As we establish in our dialogue, owning land and renting it out to tenants is often a feasible way to create passive income.
Remaining aware of opportunities – Dr. Patrick searched for desirable locations to build property as he became involved in real estate. By looking for houses with the best potential to rent out, he made himself more knowledgeable of the market and familiar with lucrative opportunities in his locality.
Dr. Patrick remortgaged the duplex three times to generate more finances to fund later real estate ventures. Savvy investors like Dr. Patrick remortgage properties to raise capital and receive more favorable loan terms.
Dr. Patrick’s most successful real estate venture was the purchase of a beachside condominium in Florida for $665,000. Since he bought the property in the mid-1990s, he has recouped the costs by renting the property out to short-term vacationers. Along with benefiting from the money the property generates, Dr. Patrick enjoys spending time at the location with his family.
Other ventures included creating boat storage rentals. After acquiring land, he built units to store his personal boats. He realized that other people in his vicinity also wanted to house their boats, so he constructed storage units on his land and offered the spaces for a rental fee. The money accrued from the units added to Dr. Patrick’s financial abundance.
Takeaway:
This lesson should inspire students to invest in their math skills. Dr. Patrick had to understand basic arithmetic to understand elementary concepts critical for investors and business owners. For example, when negotiating a construction loan, he had to know how much percentage of the loan he could afford as a down payment. As a real estate investor, he had to use arithmetic to understand the dimensions of buildings he constructed, the repayment structure for loans, and how much rent he could charge tenants.
Dr. Patrick’s story also gives us important leadership lessons. The success of Dr. Patrick’s clinic team required each member to dedicate themselves to the mission fully. We can infer that Dr. Patrick led his employees by example. He had to work hard and produce results to encourage other team members to give their best effort. As depicted in the graphic below, his team was interdependent; each member had to fulfill their duties for the success of the business. If one person failed to perform their role, the entire team would face significant setbacks.
- Chiropractor
- Physicial Therapist
- Phiysical Therapist Assistant
- Reciptionists
- Other Assistants
- All working together and in harmony as a team to ensure Dr. Patrick’s business success
At Prison Professors, we urge students to become the “CEO of their own lives” by finding supportive people who help us reach our goals. Dr. Patrick had to think critically about the people he hired to ensure any new employee helped drive his business’ success. Likewise, people leaving prison or jail must be discerning as they build their support networks. We should associate with people committed to leading law-abiding, meaningful lives as we reintegrate into society. Dr. Patrick built a high-performance team by being selective with his hiring decisions. We must follow his example and seek out people who are invested in our success as we transition into free society.
- How do you believe Dr. Patrick used his critical thinking skills to make hiring decisions?
- Other than the examples given, how do you think Dr. Patrick leads by example in his clinical practices?
- How does this story inspire you to build constructive support networks?
- What resources do you believe Dr. Patrick used to develop his business acumen?
- How does this story illustrate the importance of resilience in the face of adversity?
Later Business Ventures:
Dr. Patrick’s knack for discovering opportunities led him to create more successful businesses. As his mother had Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Patrick noticed a need for caregivers and medical equipment for the elderly. He built his company using independent contractors (frequently known as 1099 contract employees under U.S. tax law) to go to the homes of the elderly and help clean, cook, and care for them. Given the growing need for caregivers, I speculate that people with criminal records could build a similar business.
We then discussed his investment in medical goods. He noticed inefficiencies in the timeliness of delivering medical equipment, such as walkers, wheelchairs, and crutches, to patients being discharged. He partnered with two of his cousins to build a firm that could provide the equipment at an hour’s notice to lessen the wait times. His investment was substantial: he estimated spending at least $300,000 to acquire the needed supplies.
In our closing remarks, he mentioned gaining insight from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, one of the most influential books on financial management. Our students can benefit from reading this book to enhance their financial literacy and learn about budgeting, investing, and increasing wealth.
Conclusion:
Dr. Patrick should inspire us through his success as a business mogul. Motivated by a desire to serve his community, he became a chiropractor to ease the suffering of people with back and musculoskeletal problems. Dr. Patrick always put the needs of his patients ahead of his own, driving his business to grow through word-of-mouth. When he described his experience as a healthcare provider, he taught our audience insightful lessons on selfless service and effective ways to gain the trust of others.
Beyond his consummate work as a chiropractor, Dr. Patrick has expanded his wealth through his business acumen. He made several lucrative real estate deals that enabled him to provide housing to people in his community and support society through tax dollars. Later, Dr. Patrick prospered in other ventures, such as medical equipment distribution.
Our team wants to help incarcerated people across this country to transition into free society successfully. We hope to encourage all our students to transform their lives by adopting success principles that influential leaders like Dr. Patrick teach us. We are confident that any of our students can begin to earn their freedom by following our coursework modules and putting our lessons into practice.
Critical Thinking Questions:
Choose any of three questions below. Write a response for each of the three questions you choose. In your response, please write at least three paragraphs, with a minimum of three sentences each.
This exercise in personal development will help you develop better critical-thinking skills, and better writing skills. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. We’re striving to learn how to think differently, and how to communicate more efficiently. Try to use some of the vocabulary words from this lesson in your responses.
- What are constructive ways to gain the trust of other people?
- How do you believe Dr. Patrick’s work ethic and care for patients enabled him to attain a solid reputation?
- How does this story encourage you to build a dedicated support network?
- What resources can you begin using to begin building a support network ahead of your release?
- How do you think Dr. Patrick’s interpersonal skills led him to become effective in persuasive communication?
- How does Dr. Patrick’s success as an entrepreneur reflect his strong critical thinking skills?
- Does this story inspire you to expand your knowledge of businesses and finance? Why or why not?
- What type of work ethic do you believe Dr. Patrick upholds to attain success in different ventures?
- Does this story inspire you to become an entrepreneur? Why or why not?
- Other than those listed, in what ways do you believe Dr. Patrick reflects the lessons from our ten coursework modules?
