Dr. Mena shares his top 10 favorite business books. He says these books will help you keep your practice “in the black” year-round, and will also help you maintain your personal fulfillment and health.
Black Friday optometry business strategies
By Vittorio Mena, OD, MS
Nov. 20, 2024
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, when many retailers finally get back “in the black” after operating until that point in the year at a loss, or “in the red.”
If you own a practice, you may even give out some deals in your optical for Black Friday, however, the real optometric tie-in to Black Friday is ensuring your practice is always operating in the black and that you are maintaining profitability.
Taking a cue from the SportsCenter Top 10 Play, I am offering my top 10 recommendations for business books. With information and advice across the business spectrum, these books can help you level up your skills as a business owner so there is no need to wait for a Black Friday to become profitable.
#10 Motivation
Drive by Daniel H. Pink
This 260-page book, published in December 2009, shows how selling is human and reveals truths of motivating others. Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money, but that often is not the best way to incentivize.
Pink points out an MIT management professor’s finding that “enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, meaning how creative/interesting/absorbing a person feels when they work on a particular project, is the strongest and most predictive driver” of success in a business organization.
Whenever money is used as an external reward, people lose intrinsic interest in the activity. This is why it is important to delegate tasks to employees that they will enjoy. An employee who is not self-motivated by a love of what they are doing is not someone you want to hire.
#9 Discipline
This 300-page book, published in Oct 2001, discusses why some companies make the leap to greatness and others do not. The reason is that good is the enemy of great, and greatness is largely a matter of choice.
Collins explains his “level 5 leadership,” which requires disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action. To get from good to great you first have to focus on getting the right people into your practice and the wrong ones out.
Managing your team is not about hierarchy, but about thinking together differently. In optometry, for example, that might mean finding ways for you and your team to embrace and optimize artificial intelligence, rather than fighting or fearing it.
#8 Our Thought Processes
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
This 499-page book, published in October 2011, details two different systems that dictate the way we think.
System 1 (automatic operation) is fast with no sense of voluntary control whereas System 2 (controlled operations) is slower and commands more mental activities/concentration.
Other Articles to Explore
Kahneman questions why is it so difficult for us to think empirically. He concludes that it is because we think metaphorically and by associating things with what we already know. In other words, most of us are System 1 thinkers.
As doctors, it is important for us to use different strategies of thinking to guard against the mental glitches that can potentially get us in trouble.
#7 Critical Thinking
This 307-page book, published in February 2021, highlights the power of being mentally fit. We think intelligence is most important, however what is more important is having a different set of cognitive skills, which provide the ability to rethink and relearn.
Psychologists point out that most people’s problem is cognitive laziness. We often prefer to hang onto old ideas/views instead of getting new ones.
As doctors, it can sometimes be hard for us to question what we know, but we should continuously be curious and willing to update our ideas/views based on new data/science to better take care of our patients.
#6 Sales
This 351-page book, published in January 2019, shows readers how to get started building an online business.
Suby writes that the statistics on operating a business are bleak: Some 96 percent of all businesses fail within 10 years, with 80 percent failing within the first two years.
In addition, Suby notes that 95 percent of companies will never reach $1 million in annual sales and that the No. 1 skill is being able to produce revenue, which requires marketing and sales.
Being busy is not the same as being productive, Suby points out.
As doctors, it is part of our job to be marketers. When you think about it, we are constantly marketing–marketing an eyewear prescription, a new contact lens, an eye health drug, or asking for referrals, to name just several marketing activities that are part of our professional lives.
#5 Self-Help
This 246-page book, published in October 2009, focuses on the power of “why” and the reason for its importance.
Sinek explains that “studies show over 80 percent of Americans do not have their dream job.”
As optometrists, I would hope we find passion in what we do since we have patients to care for.
Sinek writes that in our lives and in business, “we tend to say WHAT we do, we sometimes say HOW we do it, but we rarely say WHY we do WHAT we do. Realize that people do not buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it! No matter how clear your WHY, if WHAT you sell does not work the whole thing will fall off the tracks.”
This is why it is important for your practice to have a mission and a vision statement. A mission statement defines the business objectives and what you are currently doing today. The vision statement details where the organization would like to go/achieve in the future.
Always remember why you go to work every day, besides the paycheck.
#4 Communication
How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This 320-page book, first published in October 1936, argues that to change the world and reach success, you need to identify your own leadership strengths.
Carnegie writes that being a successful communicator requires making communication a top priority, being open to other people and creating a receptive environment.
As optometrists, the way we communicate to our patients is what builds a trusting relationship. We often have to motivate them to wear their glasses or take their drops, so they can see/feel better.
The better you are at communicating, the more successful your patients will be and the more patients you will retain.
#3 Personal Finance
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
This 242-page book, published in September 2020, examines peoples’ behaviors and thoughts toward money, which everyone thinks about differently.
Housel writes that financial success is not a hard science. It is a soft skill in that how you behave is more important than what you know, and behavior is hard to teach.
Housel also points out that the hardest financial skill is to get the goalpost to stop moving.
As optometrists, we make good salaries. However, sometimes our fear of the unknown, and our student loans, can make us hold off on making important investments.
Always remember: when coming out of school, time is on your side, so invest early and often!
#2: Health
How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Greger
This 562-page book, published in December 2015, looks at the power of food as medicine and how it can prevent or even reverse disease.
Dr. Greger (MD) contends that most doctors are good at treating acute illnesses, but bad at preventing chronic disease. He shows real-life, scientific examples of how lifestyle interventions and nutrition can potentially lead to a longer lifespan.
I featured this as my No. 2 recommendation because health, wealth and your ability to be a great doctor are intertwined. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not healthy, what’s the point? You will not be able to serve patients and enjoy your life.
Long-term bad eating habits lead to diabetes and high blood pressure, and often an early death, whereas poor money habits lead to us not having enough in retirement.
Our health should be our No. 1 focus, both for ourselves and our patients.
#1: Productivity
This 306-page book, published in October 2018, asserts that the quality of our lives depends most on the quality of our habits. This by far is my all-time favorite book (besides the Bible). If someone were to ask me to pick one absolute favorite book, this would be it.
Clear writes that if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year you will end up 37X better by the time you finish, but if you get 1 percent worse each day then you decline nearly down to zero.
To build a system, whether good or bad, make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying.
As optometrists, our goal is to continuously improve our knowledge, self, health and practice to better care for our patients.
In the end, we all have the opportunity to buy books or listen to podcasts, and get them on sale on Black Friday.
Dr. Seuss said it best back in the day: “The more that you read the more things you will know the more that you learn the more places you will go!”
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Black Friday!
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for my next article!
Vittorio Mena OD, MS, is the sports vision director with Optical Academy. Dr. Mena is also an Optometric Financial Planner, with Series 6 and 63 investment licenses and Series 2-14 life and variable annuity licenses. To contact him: menavitt@gmail.com
