Creativity, Passion and the Doing what you Love

For years throughout my childhood I watched Formula 1 racing drivers on the television with envy. I admired what they did. Every Sunday as I sat and watched the start of the race, I would think that the 22 racing drivers starting the race were the luckiest men in the world.

How can someone get paid to do a job that was so much fun? How can you get paid to do a hobby? How can one even call this work?

Dentistry

I grew up and qualified with a dental degree from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, at first nothing changed. I still admired the F1 racing drivers and felt as if they were the lucky 22. However, as I did my job I realised that there were certain things I really enjoyed and it wasn’t the payslip at the end of the month.

I really enjoyed the satisfaction of reconstructing teeth and smiles in challenging situations. The most satisfying part of the job was to see how my work would influence the patient’s life in a positive and often life changing way.

I started to undertake more postgraduate studies to improve my capabilities to provide more advanced treatment as I realised, with more skills and training I could perform more advanced treatments. This inevitably led to more delighted patients.

I realised that I had a passion to improve people’s lives and that dentistry was providing me with a tool to do this.

A few years later, I teamed up with other like minded dentists and together we created our dental practice, Infinity Dental Clinic, which is built on a passion to improve all of our patient’s lives in however small, or big way possible.

Something had changed since I qualified from Dental School. I still watched Formula 1 every Sunday however, not with envy anymore. I realised that I too felt like one of the luckiest people in the world. I was doing a job which I really enjoyed. I enjoyed doing what I do so much that it doesn’t even feel like a job, it is a way of life for me.

Creativity is a process, not a product

When we set sail in search of our life’s work, this is what we must seek: passion. Not fame or rewards or riches, but a willingness to quietly do our work, trusting the sowing-and-reaping nature of life. Remembering that good things come in time if we do our jobs well.

Thank you for reading,

Mohsin Patel BDS MJDF RCS (Eng)