Wanda Hincher recently asked me to put together a brief luncheon talk for the Eastern Conference of Dental Labs meeting with the same title as you see above.  She was aware that I had taken a week long survival training course with my son this summer in the desert of Southeast Utah (midway between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas).  Wanda is so thoughtful and creative; she has always come up with innovative ways to present necessary information.

I chose a list of survival lessons with business application and then simply told the wilderness tale followed by a dental laboratory application.  Here are a couple of those out of context.

If you have to pay for advice….you really ought to take it.
Anonymous

At the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, my son and I paid $1,250 each for the privilege of sleeping (shivering) under the stars, eating weeds and berries and drinking water so dirty you would not have washed off your dirty shoes in it.  So, we had better listen to what they said.  Our two guides were survival experts who taught us how to make rope, fire, eat, protect ourselves and navigate without technology in the wild. We had paid for their advice, on subjects they were experts on, so take it.
If you get free advice, ideas or help on how to run your laboratory better, feel free to treat it with the respect garnered by the fee you have paid -nothing.  But if you really need help and reach out to a consultant who charges you a fee for access to the resources, analysis and strategic guidance that you need, take that advice.  Make the changes, take the steps and execute those initiatives.  You usually need the intellectual help of others to take you game to the next level.  This applies to clinical, leadership and management issues.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison

During our survival experience, we never knew how much farther it was.  That makes it easy to want to quit.  Not knowing where the end is or when it will be over is very unsettling.  That is true with many strategic initiatives as well.  When I was at DTI, we had a very expensive marketing program where we flew in 18 dentists to a weekend focus group at a dude ranch in Arizona.  We paid for everything, flights, meals, drinks and entertainment.  We spent well over $20,000.  One month later there was no new business. At two months we had picked up one solid account and a couple of leads.  Pressure was mounting to cut our losses and stop following up with the prospects.  My behind was a bit on the line.  I fought hard to continue to measure, monitor and manage the follow up relationship development.  By the end of 14 months, the new revenue acquired from the program was tracking at just over $49,000 - per month. That is almost $600,000 in new incremental business annualized.  Not a bad return for our investment.  It is difficult to estimate how much of that tally we would have missed out on if we bailed after 6o days.  Some of the seeds we sew take time to germinate and bear fruit.  Don’t wait forever, but wait long enough.

I will prepare and someday my chance will come.
Abraham Lincoln

I have also heard the Louis Pasteur quote: Chance favors the prepared mind.  Being ready is important.  Knowing the difference between poisonous berries and onions allows you to make the right survival choices in the wild.  There are onions that look exactly like the ones we ate (but smell different) that would have made us sick.  It is important that we stay knowledgeable and up to date in the dental and dental laboratory profession. CAD/CAM, new technology, materials and techniques challenge us every day and our doctors have an even tougher time keeping up.  Being flexible and able to adapt to various situations and conversations helps initiate or develop relationships with clients and prospects.  Having a broad product offering, range of services and material expertise allows us to be a more valuable resource to more doctors and their teams.

About the author:Murphy is the vice president of educational services for Mercer Advisors, director of professional relations for Quantum Dental Resources, and consults and lectures for dental laboratories, manufacturers and dentists throughout the United States and Canada through Funktional Design Group. He can be reached at mtmurphydds@gmail.com or mark.murphy@merceradvisors.com.