Breaking Barriers and Defying the Odds: The Backstory of How I Became an Orthopedic Surgeon and a Podcaster

How do you break barriers and defy the odds when it feels like the world is trying to stop you from achieving your desires? When people get a hold of the fact that you’re trying to pursue medicine, most of them usually tell you not to. From reasons about spending your whole life in school to then not being able to do anything else aside from what the practice demands you to – there’s a long list of limiting beliefs that you should not allow to get into you. Yes, it will be hard, but it’s worth every drop of the tears you’ve cried. If I can be an orthopedic surgeon with the struggles I’ve had, then you, as well, can reach great heights! Listen to this episode as I share with Dr. Pierre how I was able to reach my own definition of success in life. “If you don’t get in the first time, it’s not the end of the world. If you don’t pass the board exam or don’t get the MCAT or SAT score that you want, it’s not the end of the world. You might have to work harder in other areas. You might have to do research. You might have to do a little more shadowing, but it’s still not the end of the world. There’s many different ways to get in, but the main thing is you have to be persistent.” – Dr. Derrick Burgess

Topics Covered:

00:00 – Dr. Burgess offers a moment to talk about the recent events he's lived by over the past week

01:43 – Then and Now: Why this episode is a bit different from the previous ones

04:07 – Ads (Go to www.zerogravityskin.com and use Dr. Derrick’s code “DrDerrick30” to receive 30% off your purchase)

04:56 – Dr. Pierre welcomes Dr. Burgess to Medicine Mondays as they discuss why it seems not enough to just be a physician nowadays

07:23 – A little backgrounder: Stories on how Dr. Burgess lived his day-to-day years back that led him to become the doctor he is today

11:00 – A mirror for myself: Dr. Pierre shares why he loves hearing Dr. Burgess’ story

13:15 – Mentorship is key: “If I had anything to do over again, I would ask more people for help.”

18:37 – A day in the life of the Sports Doctor: Practicing medicine both inside and outside the hospital

21:57 – Stepping out of the box: Going online and doing more than what’s usually expected from a physician

24:40 – Sports Doctor/Podcaster: Dr. Burgess’ reasons on why he started podcasting

29:10 – Check out Dr. Burgess’ podcast – TimeOut With The SportsDr Podcast

29:59 – My dreams, my goals: Three years from now, what would Dr. Burgess’ podcast look like?

34:08 – Close the wealth gap: Dr. Burgess explains why more people should learn about investing, especially those of the younger generation

37:08 – Connect with Dr. Derrick Burgess

Key Takeaways:

“The backstory is always important because once you see a person who is at the level of success that you meet them at, you assume that they’ve been there, or that they just automatically elevated to that level and didn’t go through the struggles, or didn’t have failures in life.” – Dr. Derrick Burgess

“Mentorship is key. I’m not sitting here as an orthopedic surgeon without mentors.” – Dr. Derrick Burgess

“The answer is always no until you ask. And if you ask, it can still be no, but it could be yes. But if you don’t ask, it’s always going to be no.” – Dr. Derrick Burgess

“It’s knowing who needs that surgical procedure, knowing how to correctly diagnose somebody clinically is what separates the good from the great in orthopedics, because if you do a great surgery for their own indication, you’re still not going to get a good result.” – Dr. Derrick Burgess

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