I am back after a long time – Under the most celebration-worthy circumstances. As I write this blog post today I have just turned 40 years!
In Hindsight I have been an extremely lucky man. I have enjoyed reasonably good health, and success in my life so far. I have had my fair share of ups and downs in life but have been lucky enough not only to survive, but thrive, to some degree atleast!
It was not plain sailing all along though. I had to go through incredibly tough times and survive horrendous hardships to get to this point. It is a long, hard, and arduous obstacle course to become a general surgeon even in one’s own country, in familiar settings. I uprooted myself from the familiar circumstances and moved to one of the most unfriendly countries in the whole world to complete my residency training. I did not speak the local language. I knew nothing about the local culture. Obviously, I was the subject of incredible amount of jealousy and hatred as supposedly I took a “training number” reserved for the Locals , so to speak of .
However I survived – Not only did I survive , I did well. I completed residency training and graduated. It was not easy at all , there were certainly times I wondered I should continue or not – But one principle kept me going. When people around me were shouting me to quit, this principle kept ringing in my ears – I will share that with you today!
Some time back I came across the american you tuber Casey Neistat and watched one of his videos themed “Losers and closers”, in which he talks about ” A B C – Always Be Closing”. I think it was based on a movie clip with the same name though I have ot come across the movie. This clip fascinated me- Casey Neistat was a rebel, an absolute rebel and he nailed it in this video – His dedication and attitude to work and nay sayers was incredible. He even had “Always Be Closing” tattooed into his arm!! I will post a link to that video down below for you to enjoy it also.
So For the next 5 long years where Life was difficult and challenging I always lived by this philosophy ” A B C – Always Be Closing”. If you start something, you need to finish it – it is a non-negotiable rule. Whenever I was thinking of quitting I reminded myself about ” A B C”. I wanted to be a “Closer” not a ” Loser”. Needless to say, I thrived amongst adversity. While some of my colleagues succumbed I carried on! I was a “closer”
Fast forward many years I still live by this principle. If I start something, may it be writing a blog post, writing a paper, writing a book I always try to ” close”. I see a lot of trainees fail to follow this rule – They start things that they do not follow through. They do not finish what they start- hence they automatically qualify to become “losers”
I will put the link to the original Casey Neistat video below. It was a life-changing video for me – Maybe it will be for you too!
Remember “Always Be Closing”
Until we meet again – Safe surgery!
LBS
Link to video -Casey Neistat – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ESakf05PQ
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