Residencies, Specialties and Branding: Do You Need A Niche?
I was feeling down last week and in the midst of my mood, I decided that I was absolutely not good at anything. Don’t we all feel like that sometimes? We want to throw in the towel while we site and mull over our failings.
My parents really wanted me to be a good violinist. They paid for expensive lessons from the first chair of the Chicago Symphony. I actually got to play his Stradivarius! They saved and bought me a good violin. They made me practice before I did anything extracurricular, and they had to power through the repetition of me play the Suzuki method and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
I liked it…. enough. At that time in my life, I was interested in a lot of things and didn’t understand the time or desire needed to really excel at something. The other violin students who went to my teacher were good. Really good. I would sit on the couch before their lessons and go to the recitals and just feel discouraged. But, I also knew that the only activity they were doing was violin. I was playing the piano, playing sports, acting in plays, going on school trips and many other school activities. My teacher would often say that I was doing too much and if I really wanted to be good, I would have to sacrifice a few things.
I continued lessons in college, played a little in the orchestra, and then it all kind of died away when I went to pharmacy school.
In pharmacy school, I just thought you went to school and learned everything you needed to be a pharmacist. Not so. Unbeknownst to me at the time, there are many different ways we can practice. It’s the same with physicians. My husband did a residency to specialize and then specialized again with a fellowship.
What does it take to be really good at something?
My husband was a professional soccer player before he went to med school. He played at a level that most people can’t even dream of, and he regularly says that most people don’t understand the discipline and work that it requires to be the best. Yes, we all like to think we are special (and we all are!) and a gem waiting to be discovered, but in reality - you have to buckle down and put in the work. For me, I would have had to be practicing violin around four hours a day to push me to the next level. In reality, I was practicing one or two. Often times, we ride by on natural talent, and then peter out when we hit an obstacle.
Malcolm Gladwell famously said that you need to put in 10,000 hours to achieve the level of mastery associated with a world-class expert.
Warren Buffett stated that to accomplish anything great, you need to only focus on the top objectives and avoid the others at all costs. In his example, he focuses on the top 5 and puts the other 20 goals on the back burner.
Not only do you need to be laser-focused and put in a lot of time, you also need to have a clear connection on why you are pursuing your goal. Is it to get a secure job? Support a family? Follow a passion? Have a meaningful career or multiple streams of income? Understanding your why will keep you on track when the going gets tough.
Now there are some advantages to being specialized. In branding, if you are selling a service or product, you need to solve a particular problem to be successful. This usually results in a specialized service that no one else can do or a product that you can only get from one manufacturer. Think of the drug class of statins - all basically the same mechanism of action, but all with idiosyncrasies that have you picking one over the other.
More pros of being specialized
More money - specialization usually means more training which usually equates to more compensation.
It will set you apart - if you can solve a problem no one else can, you will be sought after which = job security
It makes you more competitive - when applying for a job, specialty certifications and experience (if they align with the job) will set you apart from other candidates
You will be really good at something - the career confidence and satisfaction that come with that often propel you into new opportunities
My biggest challenge to being great at violin in high school was that I didn’t know what I wanted to do or what I wanted to excel at. The only motivation I had to practice was because I was made to by my parents, not because I had an internal motivation to be a great player. And there is nothing wrong with self-exploration, especially at that age. Ultimately, I think we are happiest in our lives is when we are in a career that aligns with our skillset and our passion.
What if you don’t know what your niche is?
This is a pretty common question. Someone has an idea, but doesn’t know how to brand it in a way where they have a competitive edge (value proposition!). This process of clarity can also take years - be patient with the process. Ask yourself “who do I enjoy working with”? “Is there a specific market in my industry that is underserved”? “Could I become the go-to person in that underserved market"? “Do I have a product or angle that is unique”? “What can I offer that my competitors cannot”? “Do I ACTUALLY ENJOY this market (or am I just dabbling in something new)”?
I am specialized in the pharmacy profession, but it took years of work, self-exploration and ultimately trying several things to understand what I was passionate about. Once I found my passion, it was easy to learn as I was excited to do so.
Being a jack of all trades, isn’t always bad. Focusing on only one thing to the exclusion of others can be dangerous when you have multiple responsibilities to balance. As long as I’m giving my family and job my all, being an exquisite cook, marathoner and Excel wizard will have to wait.