The 10 P's of Success

A Department of Surgery chair, from a well-known medical school, shared some pearls with a crowd of 250 eager medical students at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress, Division of Education Medical Student Program, which is being held in San Francisco this year.

She listed the 10 P's of Success in Leadership in Academic Medicine.
1. Plan
2. Be Prepared
3. Pay Attention
4. Look at the Process
5. Be Persistent
6. Demonstrate Power
7. Find a Partner
8. Be Pleasant
9. Pace yourself
10. Don't take it Personally

She asked the audience members to add any additional P's. I volunteered the following- finding inner peace, especially in difficult situations and as a general rule to balance one's life.

Other P's audience members provided included the following:
-Pride
-Politics
-Passion
-Proactive
-Productive
-Appreciation
-Potluck?
-Perseverance
-Prayer
-Patience
-Pure
-Possibilities
-Play
-Perform (under pressure)
-Push (your personal boundaries)

I'll try to attend more of the ACS sessions to learn more about a field that had continuously intrigued me and remains an evolving interest.