By 
“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them” — Seth Godin
“Jonathan I think we are going to run with your idea for a forum, but we only have a few months to plan it”, Scott the experienced medical educator said to me over the phone.
I was speechless, overwhelmed with excitement.
Finally we were going to have a dedicated, Western Australian workshop for GP anaesthetists!
The most interesting and inspiring aspect of this was that the idea had been thought of and developed 12 months previously, in a notebook where I had written,
“The Western Australian GP Anaesthetic Workshop”, two days of immersive training with the brightest and most enthusiastic rural proceduralists from around Australia, gathered to empower and upskill GP Anaesthetists.
Fortuitously an opportunity to present this idea occurred a few months later in a feedback form to Rural Health West.
Under suggestions I wrote:
“GP anaesthetic workshop to empower and upskill WA GPA’s — I can help you organise this if you’d like”
To my surprise I received an email a week later asking me to elaborate on this idea.
Looking through my notes, I copied the program that I’d loosely written, which eventually formed the framework by which the forum was based upon.
On November 24–25th 2017 at the University of Western Australia, we ran the first uniquely Western Australian GP Anaesthetic Forum, funded and organised by Rural Health West, birthed from an idea written in my notebook.
My greatest struggle with ideas
Anyone who knows me will attest that my one of my greatest strengths and struggle respectively, is having a continuous supply of ideas but unfocused attention as a consequence.
But over the last few years, I have refined my ability to generate ideas and funnel them through several filters to find the most useful and beneficial, thoughts that I will share in part 2.
Many ideas are simply memorialised in my notebook and never see any further action. For the few that filter through, these have powerfully changed my trajectory and uncovered several life-changing opportunities.
I’ve learnt that:
One of the key marks of a person’s credibility is their ability to execute on ideas
Henry Ford famously said:
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do” — Henry Ford
Michael Hyatt describes large ideas without execution as building “Air Castles” in this brilliant piece.
The great benefit of executing on ideas that benefit others
In late 2015, I recognised that there weren’t any courses or instruction in Western Australia for General Practitioners (GP) to learn about the business of medicine.
Seeing that each GP practice owner is in business for themselves, this key topic had been overlooked throughout our training!
An idea was birthed.
I sent an email to an influential colleague outlining the idea, he loved it and we worked together over several months, gathering speakers and crafting an interesting program.
The Business of General Practice Workshop ran in June 2016 and it was a raging success.
Throughout the process I worked hard to execute on this idea because I wanted to learn from these successful GP owners, but I didn’t realise the real benefit until after.
The Chair of our college board and President personally found me and genuinely thanked me for the effort and idea of the workshop. The real surprise came later when I was invited to be part of an inaugural medical leadership training program!
I learnt this powerful lesson:
The greatest catalyst for influence, growth and favour as a leader is executing on an idea that directly benefits others!
One of my favourite thought leaders Gary Vaynerchuk says:
“If you are giving more than you are taking, you have leverage for life” Gary Vaynerchuk
This piece of worldly wisdom has its foundations in the book of Proverbs.
“Those who live to bless others will have blessings heaped upon them,
And the one who pours out his life to pour out blessings will be saturated with favour”
Proverbs 11:25 (Passion Translation)
Don’t you love this idea about being “saturated with favour”?
This comes as a direct result of living your life as a leader, to bless others with your ideas, not with your best intentions, but with your best ideas, executed!
Using your ideas to help change the lives and trajectory of others is one of the most valuable uses of your time.
Live intentionally!
Stay tuned for Part 2 on “How executing your ideas execution will grow your leadership”
Please follow and share if this piece helped you, thank you so much for reading!!
Dr. Jonathan Ramachenderan
@thehealthygp
@thoughtsbyjonathan
The healthy GP 