What Did I Learn at Brave Enough 2023 – Part 3

Earlier this month I attended Brave Enough.  Brave Enough is a conference hosted by Sasha Shillcutt, an anesthesiologist and physician life and career coach.  This is the second time I’ve attended and both times I left with so many pearls of wisdom that I have to share with you!

As I was reviewing the agenda, I recognized one of the speakers but her name was different than what I remembered. Upon further delving, I figured out that she was a resident at Riley Hospital at the same time I was over 20 years ago! For physicians that are looking for a career transition, Jennifer Sullivan’s career path is a great one to review – it will remind you that physicians have options!

I took so many learnings away from her talk and the best was the concept of Ikigai. Ikigai is the Japanese word/concept that means “a passion that gives joy or value to life”.  

The exercise involves answering the 4 questions:

What you love?

What you are good at?

What the world needs?

What you can be paid for? 

The venn diagram then helps you to see the overlaps between these, for example, the overlap between What you love and What you are good at is “Passion”.  Then further, the center of the Venn diagram is Ikigai. When you are able to find what the overlap between your Passion, Mission, Profession and Vocation you have Ikigai.

I started this exercise on my flight home from Brave Enough and I’ve continued to iterate on the musings I’ve done.  Honestly, I’ve not figured it out yet… and I will continue to pay attention to the answers to the 4 questions and hone in on my Ikigai.  

Ready to make a career transition to pharma/biotech… want to explore a way to use your medical training and knowledge in a fulfilling way without nights and weekends call or charting. Watch this webinar on Getting Past the Three Major Hurdles to a Career in the Pharma Industry HERE.