Alex Nottingham JD MBA discusses the advice to prioritize talent over passion, commit to your strengths, and practice until you succeed.
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About Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:02
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management, and training. We are often told the adage, follow your passion. Do what you love when it comes to pursuing a profession. Is passion the key to success or is there something more predictive? Professor Scott Galloway provides a superior framework that we can explore together when it comes to following your passion.
00:31
or not. So the first step in this model that Galloway provides is don’t follow your passion. Follow your talent. Because when it comes to passion, passion without talent is not a recipe for success. It’s empty. Yes, passion provides motivation, but it is missing the mechanism. You have to have the talent, not just the passion.
00:59
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor. Why? It looked like fun. I liked Batman and Superman, but I did not care for reading scripts. I wasn’t patient. Perhaps I didn’t have the talent for acting. Certainly have some passion, but later I realized that these passions I could apply to podcasting, speaking, and educating. When it comes to talent, it’s better to build around talent to have a successful life and enterprise
01:29
just passion. However, talent alone is also not enough. We know talent is valuable, but it’s not rare. We see many athletes and performers that are very talented, but they never reached a level of success that we think they can, that they have the potential to make and achieve. It’s smarter to start with your talent and then build passion. So for example, I got my MBA and law degree. I was good at academics. That’s my talent.
01:59
I then used that to work for Tony Robbins. I then used that to save my father’s struggling dental practice that ended up being very successful as a result of my work with my father and his practice. I then took that to build a personal and business development company. And then from there, my passion grew. I love building, I love teaching, I love helping. The second step is to commit to what you’re good at. Determine what you’re good at early
02:27
and commit to becoming great at it. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery. So you have to put in the work, the time, and then hone your craft. Example, a dentist will spend a decade perfecting his or her craft, and then eventually the business skills will come into play to run a great company. My company helps with dental practices and running their business. Third step.
02:57
Don’t hate it. You don’t have to love what you do, just don’t hate it. In life and business, we are not always going to love what we do. We just can’t hate it. Putting in a 10,000 hours can be grueling. And often, when we look back, we appreciate greatly the journey, the commitment. For example, when I look back two decades ago, all these different ventures that I did that didn’t complete or become a
03:24
long-term business may have been seen as a failure, but I learned from them. They were actually a blessing in disguise. They were learning to grow and improve, and they’re eventually building a successful one. And so when you look back, you love all the experiences because they make you who you are today. The fourth step is practice to love it. If practice takes you from good to great, the recognition and compensation you will command will make you start to love it.
03:53
So think of the definition of luck, which is where preparation meets opportunity. The preparation is a 10,000 hours. So when we have the opportunity in an area that we spent the 10,000 hours, we seize it. So for example, I mentioned a few failed business attempts. Well, they were not failures. That prepared me for when my father’s business was a need, and then chance encounters led me to create All-Star. When considering what field to pursue or to strengthen your current path, think about
04:22
Professor Galloway’s framework. Number one, choose talent over passion. Two, commit to what you are good at. Three, don’t hate it. And four, practice to love what you do. Thanks for joining me. Remember to like, subscribe, follow, comment, share with your friends. And until next time, go out there and be an All-Star.
04:47
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com
