brainstorming

My success, like that of many entrepreneurs, is built on challenging the experts – not relying on them. Our Founding Fathers weren’t expert politicians. Our captains of industry weren’t experts in their fields. Our best inventors weren’t experts. America and almost all of our achievements were built by a nation of amateurs, tinkerers and inventors constantly poking, prodding, testing and discarding what didn’t work until they eventually hit the magic formula for success.

In 1982, when I pioneered the field of legal nurse consulting, I challenged the experts. The whole concept of legal nurse consulting was contrary to what attorneys accepted as an industry standard. Typically, they relied on doctors to try to make sense of medical records. How crazy is that? As RNs, we know doctors don’t even read the medical records when they’re at work. So how could attorneys possibly be getting what they really needed? Not to mention the fact that physicians were charging way too much for their time and weren’t always giving the attorneys objective opinions (because doctors are way too protective of each other).

I had to go against the “experts” and educate attorneys that the registered nurse (RN) is the only healthcare provider who knows everything that is going on with the patient. We’re the ones with hands-on information, with face-to-face 24/7 contact with patients, and most important, the only healthcare provider who ever reads the entire medical record. As RNs, we not only have the expertise to uncover vital facts and key pieces of information that can make or break an attorney’s case, but we’re cost-effective too. As an added bonus, we bring our (highly developed) skills of critiquing other healthcare providers to the table. This ensures that we deliver an objective opinion.

Shortly after I started consulting with attorneys on the medical issues in their cases, I recognized exactly how widespread the need for nurses in the legal arena really was. My next step was to begin training other nurses on how to consult with attorneys too. Now I had two growing businesses in a field the experts said would never succeed. Today, over 6,000 CLNC^® consultants are still proving those same experts wrong!

Contrary to what most people believe, it doesn’t take an Einstein to spawn brilliant ideas, and even Einstein wasn’t born an expert (just a genius). Experts and extraordinary people can and do wake up with dumb ideas while ordinary people can and do wake up with extraordinary ideas.

The reality is that there are very few Einsteins out there and a lot more ordinary people like you and me (some with Einstein hair though). Like I said, ordinary people wake up with ideas every day; some are brilliant ideas, some are ordinary ideas and some are just plain dumb. But even a small, ordinary idea can pay off huge when you have the courage to own it and take action on it.

In my company, I encourage everyone, expert or not, to speak up when they have a new concept and to verbalize their objections when they think something isn’t working. Sometimes the person who knows the least about the subject asks a question that helps us make the biggest breakthroughs. In fact, I always know we’re onto a truly innovative idea at Vickie Milazzo Institute when one of the experts says, “You can’t do that.”

You’ll advance your legal nurse consulting business faster by listening to non-experts as well as experts. The experts aren’t always right except in their own mind. If it weren’t for people who didn’t listen to the experts, there are a lot of the things that we take for granted today that wouldn’t exist because the experts said that they weren’t needed or nobody would buy them.

What “expert” have you challenged lately? What “non-expert” have you listened to? Don’t let anyone stop you on your way to CLNC^® success.

Success Is Inside!

I’m a big advocate of brainstorming and often some of the best ideas for Vickie Milazzo Institute come from brainstorming, both formal and informal. People at the Institute are always brainstorming in the hallway, in each other’s offices, at each others’ desks and even in the restrooms.

The ideas are sparking and the atmosphere is almost incendiary. When we come together and engage in a conversation we raise new questions and think of things at a level we would not have reached on our own. Collaboration is genius.

Likewise, some of my best ideas for Vickie Milazzo Institute come to me not in the midst of a passionate brainstorm, but when no one else is around and I’m writing.

I confess, I write best alone – just me, Beethoven, my favorite pen, a legal pad and a stack of sticky notes for company. Even Tom knows to stay out of my way when the pages start flying. Sometimes, I even tune out Beethoven.

I love writing because it not only releases the creative energy that fuels ideas for my business, but also feeds my creativity which in turn fuels my endurance allowing me to create longer and produce more. Plus, I’m always careful to capture any random thoughts, even those that seem unrelated so as to not lose them. (Note to self: get much bigger sticky notes!)

Sometimes that stray idea is pure gold. Other times it’s only a sieve through which to mine the gold. And sometimes it’s nothing more than fool’s gold – but what have you lost beside the keystrokes or a piece of paper? The idea may not even be ripe for the time, but by capturing it, you can hold it until the time is ripe. Nothing gets lost (unless your desk is really messy).

Even if you haven’t had any training in writing (nursing school taught us to chart, not to write novels), you can still write. Buy yourself a Journal or notepad. Clear a space, sit down and take a stab at writing an opinion or write about a recent trip, a funny attorney experience or your last day off. Even better, just write what’s on your mind.

You’ll be amazed how new ideas for your legal nurse consulting business will emerge even when you’re not consciously thinking about your legal nurse consulting business.

Here’s a tip. Put on your iPod and play the scores from Slumdog Millionaire or La Vie en Rose or Beethoven’s 5^th and write away, write now.

Success Is Inside!