The School of Greatness - 561 Make Mistakes with Dr. Oz

Episode Date: November 10, 2017

"If you make no mistakes in life, it's going to be a pretty tedious experience" - Dr. Oz If you ever feel discouraged by mistakes, remember that living a life without mistakes would only mean you weren't trying nearly enough things. On this 5 Minute Friday, Dr. Oz talks about the mistakes that he has made in life as well as in the operating room, where the difference can be life and death. While the emotional toll of mistakes can be immense, they show us that we are on the road to success, as we learn from them and overcome what caused the mistake next time we face it. I want to remind you that mistakes are an essential part of your path to greatness, on this 5 Minute Friday, Episode 561.

This is Five Minute Friday! What's up guys, Lewis Howes here and I'm with the legendary Dr. Oz. Really grateful for you and appreciate everything that you do to impact people, to not only impact people and their health when you're working on them, but also to help people around the world who are watching your show. working on them, but also to help people around the world who are watching your show. Make mistakes. If you make no mistakes in life, it's going to be a pretty tedious experience. And that was always one of the jokes you would tell in cardiac surgery. When you describe me a complication during an operation, and you're talking to somebody else, and the other

surgeon says, well, you know, I have no personal experience with that problem. Yeah. That's not because he's a good surgeon. Right. Because he hasn have no personal experience with that problem. Yeah. That's not because he's a good surgeon. Right. Because he hasn't done enough to have a problem. Yeah. And that's the bigger epiphany that a lot of us need to appreciate. Yeah, I'd rather, I never regret the mistakes. I regret the things I never tried.

Really? What's the biggest mistake as a surgeon that you've made? Oh, I've done things in operations that I have to believe hurt that patient. Really? Thankfully. And there's no way any surgeon could argue otherwise. Because you make subjective decisions. I'm going to cut here or here.

The patient's dying as they hit the operating room. I'm going to quickly go for this problem or that problem. Gunshot comes in. Do I open the chest first or the belly first? You have to make these decisions without all the information. And if you're wrong, the patient pays the ultimate price. And how do you cope with that mistake, knowing that it may have hurt someone?

You get back in the ring again. The biggest mistake I think that surgeons make when they've been involved in a complication, any physician, is that you don't go back in and do it again, try to do it better. Learn from what happened. And it's not that it's easy, it's just you can't live with yourself otherwise.

You've got to move to the next play. That's a skill to master. It was in the birth of heart surgery, the number one challenge I think those pioneers felt. They would do operations where they would take the mother and the child, because the child would have a congenital heart defect, and they would use the mother's blood

to keep the child alive while they were stopping the heart. Really? Because the mother's heart could pump blood to put the child into hurt. She does it in utero, right, before the child's born. But stopping the heart. Because the mother's heart could count blood to put the child into hurt. That she does it in utero, right? Before the child's born. But when the kid's two years old, it's a lot more difficult.

This is an operation that has a 200% mortality rate. Right, I could lose the kid and the mom. So, despite the fact the mom was previously healthy. And they would have catastrophic complications because they were doing things the man had never done before. And they'd have to take the kid in the morning, go to the operating room, do an operation, do the best they could, and then lose the child. And then go back out to the waiting room, get another child, have the parents give you

the child, trusting you to save your blood. Wow. And then have to do it again. And that takes a lot for anybody to wrap their mind around that. And I remember speaking to one of the pioneers in this field who said that was the single biggest challenge he faced. It wasn't even being innovative and, you know, the science would eventually catch up. It's the emotional burdens while you're catching up that hold us back.

Humans don't die from the dark, they die from the cold. Metaphorically it's not wisdom or knowledge, which is life. It's the lack of emotion, lack of love that kills us. And remembering that will always push you back to the second truth, which is what matters more than anything else is making sure that people around you know you love them. It's not that you did love them, which I'm hoping is also true, but they have to know you love them, which means you got to go the extra step, the extra little nudge to make sure that you're in people's lives in the right way. And the third tip, which is the corollary, because if without this one, you can't do the other ones as well, is no one's a jerk on purpose. You'll meet a lot of people you don't like,

but they probably don't realize what they're doing both to themselves and to you. And when you open yourself up to that reality, you become much more forgiving, both of themselves and to you. And when you open yourself up to that reality you become much more forgiving. Both of them and to you. Wow. Okay. Powerful truth. Last one. And before we get to the last one, make sure you guys get his new book. It's out right now. We'll link it up and everything. Food can fix it. If I can take one second on this. Yes. So I love food, but for many, I've written a lot of books, but I took a long break because I wasn't sure that the science could really describe forcefully enough the power of food. But when you walk into a grocery store, you're walking into a pharmacy. That is the power of food.

To recover from injuries, to excel, to do your best, to make sure that the people around you are thriving, you have to pay attention. It's not just the nutrients. It's literally things like the substance, the texture, the taste. All of these play into the bigger reality that what makes food most sacred is it brings us together. Wow, yeah. So make sure you guys get the book.

We'll link it up. And what is your definition of greatness? I promise that's the last question. Definition of greatness. Greatness is when the people who are closest to you love you and respect you. And you want to have both ideally. And I don't care if they like me.

I just want them to love me and respect me. Dr. Ross, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.