CHAPTER 8The Playoffs

“All we have to do is to decide what to do with the time given to us.”

—J.R.R. Tolkien

When I finished my doctorate, I started my career in the wellness division of a hospital. After my shift one warm Fall night, I stood outside my car, talking to a young medical doctor who started to work the same day I did. I asked him, “When did you become a doctor?” His answer floored me. He said, “I was a doctor as long as I can remember, even as a small child. I eventually went to school and got a piece of paper to make it official.” Or in other words: It happens over a long period of time, all of a sudden.

These two phrases get linked together strangely as one describes the way this process of success ultimately takes place. There ...

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