The pathways to financial independence.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

The three biggest mistakes that pharmacist historically make are:

Assuming that their job is stable and will not get taken from them as long as they do a good job.

This is not true today and it has never been true. In my career my “job” has been taken several times due to mergers and acquisitions or just plain stupid management decisions. If some executive decides to sell your company, close your store or consolidated two teams in to one it will happen without your permission. The most recent example would be the Walgreen’s and Rite Aid merger. You can lose your job at any time for reasons that are not your fault so until you realize that you may be making financial decisions based on a flawed set of assumptions.

Buying stuff rather than buying income producing assets

The temptation when you start earning decent money is to want to buy some of the nice things you haven’t been able to afford as a starving student. Therefore many young pharmacists get the new Lexus, the new home, the new boat and begin loving life. But what happens if you do lose your job and all those bills come due? It isn’t pretty. Pharmacists used to be able to make up the difference by working overtime or picking up extra shifts but a lot of that work has dried up.  They key to long term success is that you have to build a base portfolio of income producing assets that add income not expenses to your family budget. Once you do that then you can afford to add some of the luxuries you want.

Developing your clinical skills at the expense of your business skills

The mantra at school was that clinical skills are the holy grail of pharmacy. If you have good clinical skills you will be successful.  And yet the evidence doesn’t necessarily support that conclusion. It is not uncommon for highly trained residents to get paid less than retail pharmacy managers. Even in the hospital space the pharmacists that get paid more are the ones that progress in to management and get paid more for their supervisory role.  So do you have the business skills you need to excel and get paid more? In a major nationwide survey of 3700 pharmacists (Table 7 )the skills employers rated as being in short supply were marketing, business operations, management, innovation and leadership. In addition, when comparing the attributes that actually determined whether or not the applicant would get the job the Character Traits of the individual were far more important than any of the traditional academic markers of success.

The net result is that if you want to excel in the 21st century and be able to achieve financial independence, you need to hone your business skills.

You can gain the skills you need by enrolling in the Pharmacist Success Academy Now.

Greg L. Alston Chief Value Officer