I'm A Boss!

When I was 9 years old, I made the decision to become a doctor. I guess while working on my "What I Want To Be When I Grow Up" essay, I must've concluded that my original plan of owning a Baskin Robins might not be the best idea. However, I'm someone who at a very young age began setting goals and doing everything I can to accomplish them. I genuinely believe I'm just stubborn and resilient and those two qualities see me through. Get the lead in the play: check. Play varsity soccer as a sophomore: check. High School: check. College: check. Dental School: check. Associate Dentist Job: check. Buy a dental practice by my 30th birthday: CHECK!

Yep, as of June 15th, 2018, I officially had the keys to my own dental office! Crazy to say it, hear it, write it, breathe it. The truth is that my head is still spinning from the amount of emails that flew back and forth the past week along with how many documents I had to read over and sign. But let me tell you, I haven't been this excited about a personal accomplishment in a while. However, I'm not just excited for owning a practice in itself, but everything that came with it; for managing to work full-time, continually plan my wedding with my fiancé, devote time to him, my family, friends, and myself while simultaneously meeting with brokers, mentors, website designers, graphic designers, marketers, accountants, lawyers, landlords, insurance agents, sellers, and financial advisors. I've learned so much in the process of this; I've learned more legal terms than I'd ever care for, I began understanding more of what it takes to have a business and in return, appreciated my dad so much more because of it. I learned to negotiate even when I was out of my comfort zone and I even learned to put my foot down (surprising, I know). I learned how to read/write contracts better. I learned some ins and outs of ownership.

I learned that some people genuinely just want the best for you and it humbled me in ways I cannot even begin to describe. There were phone calls I had with people where I would simply say, "This is my first time doing this & I really have no idea where to start or what I'm even doing," and the individuals I selected to work with held my hand through it. So most of all, I learned the weight of the quality of people you surround yourself with. I love my team; my lawyer, banker, accountant, my mentors, my past/current staff, my family, fiancé, friends. They saw my vision and helped me start it and continue to put it together. They made this possible for me because without them I wouldn't have learned the biggest lesson that I did, which is to simply jump even when you're scared. You can find a thousand reasons to talk yourself out of something (I know I did) or you can just find one reason to go for it and hold onto that reason with all your might.

So I jumped and I can tell you this, my feet are still not steady on the ground. I'm both excited but insanely nervous for this next chapter in my life. I'm excited to build something for myself, something that I can look at and say, "I did that!" I'm excited to show my kids one day, that their momma is a bad*ss, I'm excited to have my own patients and treat them with the care and respect they deserve. However, I'm nervous- nervous about the unknown, the things I've never been exposed to as a business owner and all the bumps that may come with it. It's a double edged sword because it's those nerves driving me to give my all to this.

So here's to All Heart Dental in Palos Heights. Here's to my next chapter and turning it into everything I could ever dream of! If you need a dentist or hate yours, come see me! I'll give you a free toothbrush, but that's about it because now I got bills to pay. Seriously though, I will forever be grateful to all the people who support me in this and to everyone who shows up at the door to schedule an appointment, I hope I get the honor to treat you and be your dentist.

As for everyone who helped me in this process, even simply saying, "You'll be okay," thank you. Thank you so so much.

PS: My first day was absolutely horrendous. I had 10 mental breakdowns, staff quit on me while patients were scheduled, credit card systems went down, etc etc but at 7PM when all was said and done, Elias showed up with a package. The package was filled with cake, balloons, beautiful flowers and my family and his trailing behind. I obviously started sobbing because I realized how many people were there to catch me after I made the jump.

Sincerely,

Natalie Salman, D M D