
THIS SITE IS ABOUT PERSEVERANCE!
THE PURSUIT OF OUR HIGHEST PURPOSE IN THE FACE OF ALL OUR FEARS!
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
THIS SITE IS ABOUT PERSEVERANCE!
THE PURSUIT OF OUR HIGHEST PURPOSE IN THE FACE OF ALL OUR FEARS!
Idiosyncrasies of cosmetic surgery... What makes cosmetic surgery very different than any other field of surgery?
Cosmetic surgery is an interesting field! Opposite to the common belief that the outcome of cosmetic surgeries only depend on the surgeon's skills and abilities, that is not true. That is any patient’s responsibility to educate himself/herself adequately before surgery. They must educate themselves about the limitations of a cosmetic surgeon's abilities in general by performing the procedure that they are interested in, the limitations of the particular cosmetic surgery procedure in terms of its results, potential known complications of the surgery they are about to have, and then they would have the choice to have it or not. If they do not want to take the risk of having any of the known potential complications of the surgery, they should not have the surgery whatsoever. Patients must be willing to take full responsibility for their decision and their part, which is extensive and very serious. It is a very serious decision to have cosmetic surgery. It is taking a perfectly healthy body, and putting it through invasive, risky procedures with all types of known and potentially unknown and even possibly unexpected complications in the hopes of having a better subjective appearance. Better appearance than whom, and in whose eyes, and by what standards? When you think about it, it is a pretty risky undertaking, hoping for something uncertain!
Cosmetic surgery is unfortunately a type of surgery that is prone to all types of issues that could result in patients being less than totally happy at the end, despite a surgeon’s excellent work.
Outside of what the surgeon and the staff tell a patient, it is the responsibility of the patient to do his/her own research, educate himself/herself, take total responsibility for his/her part of the equation, and not to blame others for his/her own lack of education, knowledge, or irresponsibility.
There are multitude of issues that result in cosmetic surgery patients, despite the excellent work of their surgeons, not ultimately being perfectly satisfied with their outcomes. The outcome of a cosmetic surgery procedure depends on a multitude of factors besides the cosmetic surgeon’s capabilities. I did my absolute best for every patient, but I also on occasion had patients who had less than their ideal outcomes. These factors include but are not limited to the nature of the procedure being performed, its level of complexity, the pre-existing scarring in the area of surgery, the patient's predisposition to scarring, the patient’s genetics, the patient's physiology such as immune system function (natural defense of the body against infections), patient’s possible allergy to suture, surgical tapes or implanted materials, preexisting medical conditions, quality of the patient’s diet and nutritional status, patient’s use of herbs, alcohol, drugs, and tobacco, patients not following pre and post-operative instructions correctly, potential accidents or untoward occurrences that could jeopardize the surgery or surgical site during or after surgery, other individuals’ actions other than those of the surgeon’s, errors by other surgeons or medical staff, and many more.
On the other hand, Cosmetic surgery is very different than most other surgeries in one distinct aspect. While most surgeries are intended to treat pathology, and once performed, there is no subjectivity for the most part, cosmetic surgery patients’ level of satisfaction depends on how the patient feels about the results of the surgeries, and it is extremely subjective.
While cosmetic surgeons cannot ever guarantee results and how the surgeries will heal, or even if the patients will be happy with the results, some patients will never be happy no matter how great the results are.
For example, there are those patients who have a condition called Body Dysmorphic Disorder who may look in the mirror and see themselves as being overweight or fat and seek cosmetic surgery for that purpose. These individuals in fact may have a small pocket of fat in the lower area of their abdomen and they may have a liposuction procedure to remove this small amount of fat. However, after the fat is removed, and the patient's abdomen is washboard flat, the patient still looks in the mirror and still sees a fat person. This disconnection from reality causes a huge problem for the patient and the surgeon. Neither the patient will ever be happy, nor the surgeon can ever make the patient happy.
Another huge problematic situation arises when someone decides to have a cosmetic procedure for a secondary reason other than the primary reason which should be the actual result of the cosmetic surgery. For example, imagine a woman who is growing older, and finds out that her husband is cheating on her with his young secretary. She may decide that if she has a bunch of cosmetic surgeries on her face to rejuvenate herself, he is going to find her attractive again and stop cheating. After all the cosmetic surgery is done, the husband continues to be the cheating scumbag that he is. However, the wife may suddenly develop a belief that the reason the husband is still cheating is because she has a few residual lines and wrinkles, she does not look young enough and that’s because the surgeries were not done good enough. She may claim the reason her husband is cheating is that she does not look young enough and that is the surgeon’s fault.
Another issue is unrealistic expectations. For example, an individual may seek to have cosmetic surgery expecting to look like a certain favorite actress to whom she thinks she has a certain amount of resemblance. This is most likely not going to happen. That is an unrealistic expectation, so is it an unrealistic expectation if a patient expects a certain preconceived amount of improvement after surgery to be satisfied. Looking at the before and after pictures, and in the opinion of everyone else looking at them, the result of surgery may be excellent, but not to the level of the expectation of the patient. In this situation, the patient will not be happy, and it is because the patient believes that the surgeon did not do a good enough job of giving her the results to the expected levels that she expected to receive.
Another situation is when patients decide on one procedure, and then they change their mind after the procedure is done. For example, a tall, large-framed patient may decide that against the surgeon’s advice, she does not want to have 600cc breast implants that the surgeon feels fit her frame because she does not want to look “like a prostitute”, she chooses 400cc implants. Hence, in her medical record, her choice of 400cc breast implants will be indicated. When weeks later she comes in to have surgery, she does not recall much that has occurred in the consultation with her surgeon. She will undergo surgery. The surgery will go well. After everything is said and done, she heals well, and the swelling is gone, she suddenly realizes that her breasts have not changed enough After all, and she is not happy. Now, there is a problem. She believes she should have been told on the day of surgery that her implants were not right for her.
Another situation is when patients have a predisposition to forming scars or keloids. These individuals often end up with unsightly scars at the incision lines. These scars usually end up diminishing the cosmetic value of the surgeries to the patients, and perhaps to their significant others. Certain genetics and ethnicities, such as dark-skinned individuals, are known to be predisposed to hypertrophic scars and keloid formations. These genetic and ethnic groups include those with darker skin color individuals like African Americans, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, Arabs, and others.
This is especially terrible in those who have liposuction and other types of cosmetic surgeries such as abdominoplasties and facelifts where the scars are under the skin and in the subcutaneous tissues. The overgrowth of the scar tissues, although not visible, could cause deformities of the skin overlying these scar tissues. These deformities could include but not be limited to dimpling, indentations, retractions, lumps, bumps, and irregularities, among many others.
Another issue is specific to liposuction and fat transfer. These two procedures are magical and amazing. They are transformative, they can change one’s body appearance completely, creating a perfect hourglass feminine figure in the ideal candidate with no complications. Just like facelifts, nose surgeries, facial procedures, breast surgeries, and other body contouring surgeries, I have performed thousands of these procedures as well and have had thousands of ecstatic patients who have kept on referring patients over the years. They can change patients’ lives for the better. But the challenges are also quite concerning at times, and most of the time, they are caused by explainable physiological reasons. When tumescent liposuction is performed, tumescent fluid which is a combination of Lidocaine, an anesthetic, and Epinephrine in Saline is injected into the fatty tissues under the skin in the deeper fatty subcutaneous layer which is held to the skin and muscles in the deeper layers by fibrous tissues. Then using various cannulas, the fat is removed. While doing this, hundreds of hollow tunnels are created where the fat used to be. After the fat is removed the patient is instructed to wear tight liposuction garments that are meant to collapse these hollow tunnels preventing the accumulation of fluids and allowing the skin overlying the area of surgery to shrink and create a beautiful and tight contour according to the contour of the special liposuction garment. If the patients fail to wear the correct garments, for the correct amount of time, in the right way, and fail to follow the exact post-operative instructions, of course, they will not get the ideal cosmetic results.
An ideal candidate for liposuction and fat transfer is a young person with a small amount of fat in a specific area perfectly healthy and tight skin, with no stretch marks, who is mentally 100% normal. This individual must have educated him/herself completely, understanding the nature of the procedure that he/she is about to undergo, its risks, benefits, alternatives, its limitations, and he/she must have completely reasonable expectations. This individual must listen to the surgeon’s preoperative and postoperative instructions well. He/she must follow them 100% perfectly. This individual must not have a predisposition to excess scar formation, and his/her physiology must be 100% perfectly conducive to excellent healing.
In most patients, the skin overlying the fat cells being removed is already stretched due to excess fat, previous pregnancies, and additionally has injuries and damages to the deep layer of skin such as stretch-marks, surgical scars, and others which would then result in poor retraction after liposuction.
The failure of skin to retract perfectly and smoothly after liposuction would most likely result in hanging, loose, wrinkly, or unsightly skin after surgery, especially if the person has folds of skin and fat left behind and this creates indentations in the skin areas repeatedly for long periods of times when the individual in sitting position. This could be much worse if the individual is prone to scar formation, as stated above, then deep bands of scars will be holding parts of the skin down to the deeper layers of the tissues, creating severe irregularities. No matter how skillfully the procedure has been done, there is nothing the surgeon can do about how the patient's physiology heals. That is a huge disappointment for a perfectionist like me, who loves people and wants them to always be happy, pleased, and satisfied with the work I have done. I always give 100%, and often go way beyond the call of duty, just because even if my patients can't afford certain things, I do the work anyway, because I want my results to be excellent. It is just who I am and how I feel about my work and how I always do things. However, the fact that I am not in control of a patient's healing is the most frustrating part of cosmetic surgery. That is a huge variable that I can't control, and ultimately it is the variable that controls almost 90% of the outcome.
Additionally, fat cells that remain under the skin are not all implanted after surgery immediately. They are healthy fat cells that are mobile and floating around. They move around under the skin in the deep tissues through the deep channels that the cannulas have created and eventually depending on the patient's body contours and folds, movements and clothing post-operative garments, and many other factors, get trapped and implanted under the skin. Once the fat cells are implanted, they do not implant equally and smoothly. They may congregate in one area a whole lot more than another area, and as the person gains a bit of weight again after surgery, suddenly, those areas where the fat cells had congregated would balloon up into a ball of fat.
If there are many of these balls and irregularities, intermixed with the irregularities of hanging skin due to loose skin secondary to childbirth and deep scars, the patient's post-liposuction results can potentially be less than cosmetic. The problem is, that the surgeon could attempt to touch up some of these balls of fat and remove them or smooth things out secondarily in a second surgery, but the patient may never get the results she is expecting. This is one of the curses of cosmetic surgery. When you combine this with fat transfer, as is a common procedure, again, another challenge presents itself. Fat cells that get transferred may not all survive equally, as much as desired or expected at all. In addition, don't forget those patients that form extra scars.
Another issue is that there is a limit as to how much fat can be removed safely. There is a legal and ethical as well as professional limit as to how much fat can be removed in the operating room. This is not a lot of fat. However, often, especially obese patients, expect the surgeons to remove a whole lot more than the legal limit despite how many times the surgeon explains what the legal limit is and how many times he/she helps explain what that limit may look like in her body, the patient may imagine that amount to represent a different outcome than the reality. This is a huge potential problem.
These patients who have fat transfer may not have the exact outcomes that they were expecting no matter how skillfully the procedure was performed, all because, during the healing process, the patient's physiology is in control and the surgeon is not.
Now imagine an obese African American female woman that you can imagine is 75 pounds or more overweight, has had multiple childbirths, has a lot of stretch marks and loose skin, skin is hanging, and has folds of fat. She is prone to scar formation, has surgical scars, and does not listen to preoperative instructions, regardless of how many times the staff and the surgeon explain things, she does not pay attention to the details and she does not even bother to go and do her own investigation and educate herself, read, watch YouTube videos, have a consultation with other surgeons, nor does she have the level of understanding or the education to even understand all the idiosyncrasies of the surgeries she is about to have, and she does not wish to take personal responsibility for the potential complications and the outcome should they come to pass, instead decides to cast blame on others if they happen. She does not read the preoperative and postoperative instructions, and due to her limited education may not understand or choose to understand the seriousness of their accuracy so when she the first liposuction garment that she washed she hated it because it was too restrictive and dried, she wears her dance outfit that looks like the liposuction garment because “it looks just like the liposuction garment they are selling for so much more”. She only has one liposuction garment, and she hates it, so she prefers her dance outfit, so she prefers it because it is “more comfortable”.
Then she ends up being upset because she expected to have beautiful curves and round, beautiful buttocks like her much younger sister, and she is extremely upset with her surgeon that she does not have ideal results. Her skin does not heal and retract perfectly, the scars under the skin cause her skin to retract, and the fat cells implant in clusters, and she gains weight again, so they create irregular contours. She ends up with irregular dimpling and all the things described above in the previous sections. Of course, the legal limit of fat removed is not nearly enough in her opinion for what she expected her surgeon to remove. She wanted her surgeon to remove enough fat “so that she could at least see a difference”. She feels cheated and upset. She paid all that money, not only she did not get thin, and beautiful like her sister, but she now looked worse. She goes around and writes on all social media, complains everywhere, tells her upset to everyone, comes back demanding her money back, and on top of that demanding a repeat surgery for free, and still after a free touch-up surgery, goes around and continues to bad-mouth the surgeon and accuse him of all types of things and damages his/her good name and reputation. Now what should the surgeon do? What could he/she have done? Prior to surgery, the patient claimed she understood all the risks, benefits, and alternatives and signed all the consents. She took all the preop and postoperative instructions home with her. She was given instructions about where to purchase the two liposuction garments: one for the day of surgery and one for backup. after an excellent and eventless, perfect procedure, here we are!!! This could be a very familiar picture or a slight variation. The point is, no matter what the variation, the surgeon could do his job perfectly well and still he can’t prevent the same outcome, right?
Another situation could be when individuals may be allergic to suture or implant material. They may develop inflammation, scarring, infection, wound breakdown, or all types of complications jeopardizing the outcome of the surgery.
Taking a shower or bath too early after surgery against the surgeon’s advice may result in bacteria as contaminants find their way into the wound and cause infections which eventually may jeopardize the results of the surgery.
Not following the instructions on how to prepare for the surgery, take care of the wounds or drains, take the antibiotic, or any other preoperative or postoperative instructions may jeopardize the results as well.
There are a lot of factors other than the surgeon’s skills and capabilities that ultimately contribute to patient dissatisfaction. Hence an extremely busy cosmetic surgeon who has done thousands of surgeries cannot help but have unhappy patients during the course of his long career!!!!!!!!!!!
I have always done my absolute best under the circumstances, given my limitations, and of course that included as a cosmetic surgeon. However, despite our best efforts, we all occasionally make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Making mistakes is human. Leadership skill is accepting faults, learning from one's mistakes, and not making the same mistakes again. The obstacle to admitting fault is usually our ego. I have a huge one, which is as big as that of most surgeons. I would rather conquer mine and apologize. I apologize to my patients sincerely and humbly for any of my shortcomings as a human. I love people and I would never intentionally hurt anyone. However, if by making any poor choices, in some way, I have caused you pain and hurt you, please accept my most sincere and heartfelt apology.
I do love you all and appreciate you for bestowing your trust in me. Performing thousands of surgeries and fulfilling the greatest dream of my life of becoming a successful and prominent cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills became possible with your love, kindness, and support, and for that, I would forever be thankful to each one of you. I have had the privilege of working with many amazing colleagues in my career. There are too many to mention, many of whom are already retired, or no longer with us. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them as well. Without them, my dream of becoming a cosmetic surgeon would never have become a reality. Cosmetic Surgery was my life's dream, and my number one passion. My first mountain. I must thank all those who in some way contributed to my reaching my goal of practicing cosmetic surgery in Beverly Hills. You made it possible for me to experience some of the happiest years of my life before these, and for that I truly thank each one of you. It was as if, as an “eagle”, I experienced flight and got to soar and land on top of my “First Mountain”.
But God often, has His hand in our lives and has his plans for us so he wanted me to “fly off” that mountain, so I had to take flight again towards my “Second Mountain”. I am blessed in the path God has chosen for me currently, and truly happy. As a result of grace of God, and His kind wishes, although disguised, I have grown tremendously. I have learned many lessons which short of these experiences I would not have learned. My “wings” have grown much stronger and larger, I am mentally, emotionally, and spiritually much stronger now. I am a wiser “eagle”. Although far from perfect, I am working on myself every day, as I know the value of what God has been trying to teach me. For the grace of God, I have not died, although I could have on several occasions. I survived and I am not defeated. I feel truly blessed. I find it necessary to thank God for sparing my life, and carrying me through the fire into safety, and glory of the present. Achieving the “Second Mountain” would certainly be an amazing blessing. An achievement with all the efforts, and I am certainly excited and thankful for the opportunity.
This is what I would like to respond to those who have taken it upon themselves to bad mouth me maliciously and intentionally to harm my name and reputation for personal gain. It truly hurts me that people can these days get away with so much cyberbullying, character assassination, personal attacks, name calling, unfounded accusations, destroying-the-competition’s credibility, and blatant defamation as well as fraud in the name of freedom of speech and the right to write “reviews”!
I do not know many of the people who claim to have been patients, and many very well know that I have not been almost any of the things that the media have made up in the fake news. Many of the people who are leaving these reviews are most likely getting paid as part of the fake media themselves, work for the competition, or in some way have some secondary gain from their efforts to bad-mouth me. So, all the reviews that go around and many of these individuals make about professionals like me are obviously not honest.
Someone had claimed I am crazy, many other claims, none of which were true, all very hurtful and intentionally toxic. Obviously, these are offensive, disrespectful, and false claims; and it is obviously their attempt to publicly assassinate Dr. New Me (my)’ character as a prominent, respected, and successful public figure; and only someone malicious, malignant, and hateful with an intention to commit tortuous acts of defamation for personal gain would commit such outrageous acts that shock a normal person’s conscience. Anyone normal knows these acts are harmful to the subject receiving such malicious, hateful, defamatory remarks publicly; as well as it is damaging to the public as it promotes hateful speech and prejudice; and it is very dangerous to themselves as now I am justified to come after them legally and take their home if I can prove their claim were baseless and tortuous which in almost all cases are; and there are many lawyers who would love to take these cases on contingency just to teach these type of dangerous people a lesson that IT IS NOT OPEN SEASON ON GOOD AND KIND PEOPLE WHO MAY HAVE HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE IN LIFE ON ONE OCCASION AND NOT BE ABLE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINS EVIL PEOPLE IN THAT MOMENT!
They often make all these disgusting false claims and all these repeated misrepresentations to hurt others under the guise of wanting to warn others, and to make sure that they are not hurt, and to help them because they are good people; while they are publicly showing the world how toxic of human being they really are who have no problem hurting others, calling them names, making false claims online; assassinating their character; destroying their reputation; putting them out of business and stopping their ability to earn a living, or embarrassing to the point they would be ashamed to raise their head in the public! Now if that is not criminal, malignant, vicious, tortuous, hateful, prejudiced, terrible, un-Godly and utterly wrong, I do not know what is! This is not only a tortuous act of intentional defamation, infliction of emotional distress, interference with competitive advantage, fraud, and many other horrible things in my opinion and it is also criminal, and the definition of cyber bullying, among many others.This is what I would like to respond to those who have taken it upon themselves to bad mouth me maliciously and intentionally to harm my name and reputation for personal gain. It truly hurts me that people can these days get away with so much cyberbullying, character assassination, personal attacks, name calling, unfounded accusations, destroying-the-competition’s credibility, and blatant defamation as well as fraud in the name of freedom of speech and the right to write “reviews”!
I do not know many of the people who claim to have been patients, and many very well know that I have not been almost any of the things that the media have made up in the fake news. Many of the people who are leaving these reviews are most likely getting paid as part of the fake media themselves, work for the competition, or in some way have some secondary gain from their efforts to bad-mouth me. So, all the reviews that go around and many of these individuals make about professionals like me are obviously not honest.
Someone had claimed I am crazy, many other claims, none of which were true, all very hurtful and intentionally toxic. Obviously, these are offensive, disrespectful, and false claims; and it is obviously their attempt to publicly assassinate Dr. New Me (my)’ character as a prominent, respected, and successful public figure; and only someone malicious, malignant, and hateful with an intention to commit tortuous acts of defamation for personal gain would commit such outrageous acts that shock a normal person’s conscience. Anyone normal knows these acts are harmful to the subject receiving such malicious, hateful, defamatory remarks publicly; as well as it is damaging to the public as it promotes hateful speech and prejudice; and it is very dangerous to themselves as now I am justified to come after them legally and take their home if I can prove their claim were baseless and tortuous which in almost all cases are; and there are many lawyers who would love to take these cases on contingency just to teach these type of dangerous people a lesson that IT IS NOT OPEN SEASON ON GOOD AND KIND PEOPLE WHO MAY HAVE HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE IN LIFE ON ONE OCCASION AND NOT ABLE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINS EVIL PEOPLE IN THAT MOMENT!
They often make all these disgusting false claims and all these repeated misrepresentations to hurt others under the guise of wanting to warn others, and to make sure that they are not hurt, and to help them because they are good people; while they are publicly showing the world how toxic of human being they really are who have no problem hurting others, calling them names, making false claims online; assassinating their character; destroying their reputation; putting them out of business and stopping their ability to earn a living, or embarrassing to the point they would be ashamed to raise their head in the public! Now if that is not criminal, malignant, vicious, tortuous, hateful, prejudiced, terrible, un-Godly and utterly wrong, I do not know what is! This is not only a tortuous act of intentional defamation, infliction of emotional distress, interference with competitive advantage, fraud, and many other horrible things in my opinion but it is also criminal, and the definition of cyber bullying, among many others.
MY LIFE BEFORE COSMETIC SURGERY:
I was born in Persia. I grew up in a family where my father had a government position as a doctor, working for the healthcare agency that supervised medical clinics and outpatient facilities in part of the capital city of Tehran. Hence, I got exposed to the healthcare field at a very young age. My entire life's passion, and motivation was to become a surgeon. On the other hand, I was also highly entrepreneurial in spirit since a very young age. It was innate in me. When the Iran-Iraq war broke out, I was a teenager, and the universities were closed, hence the chances of attending a university were nonexistent.
Many teenagers like me flee the country. Without the privilege of having the supervision of my parents, under those circumstances, I also had to flee my war-stricken country of birth, to pursue my passion. After a few months awaiting a visa in Europe, I arrived in Los Angeles. My brother and I rented an apartment together. I got a job and enrolled in high school. I continued to work throughout high school, college, and most of medical school. I graduated high school and attended junior college. I was on the Dean’s list, and got accepted into an accelerated, off-shore Caribbean medical school's dual degree BSc./MD degree program at the age of 19. That meant, that I would be able to study straight through summer breaks, and in four years I would graduate with an MD and a Bachelor's degree (BSc./MD) at the same time. I was excited about becoming a doctor at the age of 23. I did not know any better! I was young and naive. Obviously, I was new in America and unfamiliar with all the intricacies of what the future had in store for me. All I knew was that I wanted to be a surgeon, and I could not wait! I decided to go to this school not knowing that later it would make my chances of becoming a surgeon in America, and an ABMS board-certified plastic surgeon hundreds of times more difficult. This turned out to be by far the most life-altering decision of my life. and I made it at the age of 19, which affected the rest of my life ever since.
I have been a committed student of “personal growth” movement since my teenage years. To grow as an individual, one of my most favorite things beside reading motivational books, attending seminars, listening to talks or asking advice from mentors is to learn from my own poor decisions by reviewing those decisions and their consequences. Quality of our life directly depends on the quality of the decisions we make.
We make our decisions based on the methods we use for decision making. I have found that making decisions based on emotions, rather than objective data and facts, and the lack of adequate facts and information are usually the two causes of most of our poor decisions.
Objective, least emotionally based decisions that are made based on facts, and data, usually have consistently proven to be the best decisions in my life in the long run.
Cosmetic Surgery, a Double-Edged Sword!
The First Mountain of My Life!
CONQUERING THE FIRST MOUNTAIN OF MY LIFE, COSMETIC SURGERY:
Nevertheless, despite many difficulties and tremendous challenges, I completed my medical studies and after medical school, I completed two years of general surgery residency, followed by three years of cosmetic surgery fellowship training, and passed the written and oral examinations of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery. This was a board of specialty that had been established about twenty years prior and was working towards recognition as one of the Boards of Medical Specialties (ABMS), like Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery or Neurosurgery. Being that medicine is a very systemic, traditional, and for a good reason strictly standardized and of course political field, American Board of Cosmetic Surgery not being an ABMS recognized board of specialty was always a problem, and the Medical Board of California also will not recognize it until it becomes ABMS recognized. This was a huge problem my entire cosmetic surgery career.
I started my cosmetic surgery practice. I placed a few small ads which were all that I could afford, and as soon as I did a few surgeries, I started to get referrals, and suddenly my practice got busy. To attract patients, and to help people, I tried to keep my prices low. By 2005, I had by the grace of God developed a very successful cosmetic surgery practice. In fact, in 2003, unbeknownst to me, Daily News, one of the main newspapers of San Fernando Valley had conducted its annual consumer election of Los Angeles service providers, and I was named the Runner Up (in the second position), in the Best Plastic Surgeon category. That was one of the highlights of my career, and I felt as if I had achieved what I had worked so hard, for so long for. Soon I was able to buy a beautiful home in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, from the head of the Department of Plastic Surgery of one of the most prestigious hospitals of West Los Angeles. I felt as if I had reached the summit of the mountain of my life’s dream. I felt like an eagle soaring. I truly loved my profession and loved helping others. Life could not be better. Looking back, I was at the top of the first mountain of my life.
Between 2003 to 2008 I had a very busy cosmetic surgery practice. I was in the operating room from early morning to the late afternoon, doing several cosmetic surgeries each day, followed by pre-operative, post-operative, and new patient consultation visits. After all that, I needed to attend to all the administrative paperwork, medical documentation and all the other things that had accumulated from all day’s staff’s work. As you can imagine, it was a tedious work, which occupied 16-18 hours per day, usually five days per week and I was on call seven days per week. Solo practice is quite grueling, and to lighten the load, I did bring on partners who eventually did not work out. When the 2008 economic crash occurred, the financial world of cosmetic surgery took a massive tumble and with it so did my life. It was like a free-fall as you can imagine. All the massive overhead that had been built around the business operations of the practice of cosmetic surgery, as well as the cost of living, all accumulated to a massive number each month. Income, some where not much higher than a few hundred dollars. In a very short time, I found myself millions of dollars in debt. There was absolutely nothing I seem to be able to do to stop this massive bleeding and the free-fall. The heartbreak of letting your beloved staff go, your business down-sized, and eventually completely shut-down the surgical center, then the clinic, and one by one, your home and everything else. It was a nightmare that I could not wakeup from. The worst of it all is that one in that situation can hardly speak of the devastation to anyone. It is too much to bear by oneself. It was truly overwhelming! I ended up in the ICU!
From the end of December 2019, until January 6th, 2020, I suffered from a severe and life-threatening COVID-19 infection that resulted in my hospitalization in the ICU. I was told by the ER physician, who cared about me as a colleague, to make my final arrangements. He felt that due to the severity of the bilateral pneumonia that I was suffering from, the low oxygen saturation, and the clinical presentation, based on his experience, I most likely was not going to make it out of the hospital alive. I was 51. As you may be able to imagine, that was a huge shock.
I made several calls and made final arrangements, and then sat back in the gurney in a state of shock! I truly was.
I believe in God strongly, and I felt that He had spared my life many times before, but I thought that God intended to end it by COVID. My entire life started to flash before my eyes like a movie. My life had been spared in 1990, when a group of young armed robbers who had been on a killing spree in Chicago, decided to let me live because I had showed them kindness before I knew they were about to rob me. It had been spared in a car accident, when I ended up being hospitalized in the ICU with a collapsed lung, and I could have died. Several times I had ended in the ICU, during one episode of which I had nearly died. I also reviewed the struggles of my life, since my teenage years, and all that it had taken to become a doctor to that point. Working and attending school had not been easy. As far back as I could remember, and up until that night, all I could remember was school, residency, building a medical practice, working to provide for a family and raising kids, then rising from the ashes again and again, and now it was about to end.
I then started to think of all the things I wished I had done differently during my life. All those choices that I had made, that I wished I could take back. All those mistakes that I had made. All those people I had hurt in the process, and how I wished I could erase those mistakes, or somehow find each of those individuals, and apologize to them one by one, and let them know how sorry I was for the pain I had caused them, in any way that it may had been.
It was a very strange feeling. A very incredible, private, and spiritual time. It was two in the morning. I had a very difficult time breathing. I did not feel well at all. My whole body was weak. I was perspiring uncontrollably, and shivering. My eyes could not focus, and everything seemed blurry. I could hardly sit up, and I had to just lay down. I fell asleep.
The next thing I remember is that I was in the ICU in a small room, connected to a whole lot of machines and tubes and IVs. It was the next day in the afternoon. I was alive. That was good. They kept me in the ICU, keeping me alive with oxygen, giving me medications IV, and doing their best under those terrible circumstances of the COVID-19 Pandemic Disaster, when there was shortage of beds, drugs, hospitals supplies and literally everything healthcare.
Those few days were almost the most awakening, memorable, and impactful six days of my life. They were truly an opportunity for me to start reflecting. After six days, due to a shortage of hospital beds, they had to discharge me home, straight from the ICU. There were no hospital beds, and there was not much more that they felt they could do for me. They wished me luck and sent me home. I was still extremely sick and weak. I could hardly walk, and my eyes could not focus. COVID is a terrible disease. It had affected everything. After I finally got home, still feeling sick, I was truly thankful that my life was yet spared one more time. But this did not really sink in as much, until I read on Facebook that another cosmetic surgeon who was two years younger than me, and had no previous medical conditions, who had been in the same hospital's ICU at the same time as I was, had just passed away from COVID. It could have easily been me. I could have been the one who died, and he could have been the one who was spared! This has been on my mind since the moment I heard the news. This was a sad, shocking, and impactful experience that has permanently changed my outlook on life. This was very real. He had three small children. A young and wonderful man, who also practiced cosmetic surgery in Beverly Hills. This truly drove the lesson home. Life can end in the blink of an eye. It is so fragile and unpredictable. We should never take anything we have for granted. But COVID also taught me so many other lessons that I am going to spend the rest of my life sharing them with others.
Admittedly, I am a very stubborn man. I guess it takes a lot to have me challenge my own beliefs, and positions about things. But those six days, sick, near death, in the ICU did the trick. They started something that nothing else seemed to have done before. Those of you who know me know that I have had almost all the challenges that a physician can possibly experience in life. Financial, professional, social, legal, and personal. I had survived them all, and none of those huge problems had cracked me. After all those hugely devastating experiences I had in my life, I was still as self-righteous and egocentric as ever. COVID-19, the little virus had done the job to some degree.
Since COVID, my life has changed. It has found a new meaning. This website is an extension of that meaning.
MY DECISIONS AFTER COVID:
My decision after my near-death experience after COVID has been to be true to myself and to my purpose in my life. I don’t want to take my life, and my blessings for granted. I intend to enjoy and appreciate those things that I have in my life to the full extent possible. I plan to do my best to fulfill my calling in my life. I know I am blessed with many things, and I often forgot to have gratitude for all the massive blessings in my life. Health being foremost. Lack of gratitude is the foundation of unhappiness in life. Recognizing our blessings, and our gifts are paramount. Sharing those gifts with others is what we are here on earth for. It is our job to find out how we can benefit the greatest number of people in the world sharing our gifts and blessings, doing that which God has put us on this earth to do.
I know that I was meant to be a healer, a teacher, and an entrepreneur. I plan on doing these things for the rest of my life. I enjoy doing these things. Doing them give me a sense of purpose, fulfilment, joy and accomplishment. That is what I was put on this earth to do. It is my responsibility to share all that I have gathered over the last 54 plus years of my life with as many people as possible. I educate myself in some way at least three to four hours per day. I am committed to my constant and never-ending growth and improvement. I try to not make mistakes, but most importantly, knowing that making mistake is human, I do my best to forgive myself for my mistakes, and beg for forgiveness from those whom I have harmed, make restitution if required, then learn from my mistakes and do my absolute best to never make the same mistake again. That is all one can do as a responsible person and a leader.
My role now is no longer limited to the United States. I am involved in the service of global community in any capacity that I am called to serve. I have been an entrepreneur since I was a young boy. I have pursued business studies, and I have always found myself fascinated by entrepreneurship and the business world. I would most likely be practicing medicine and surgery on a volunteer basis globally to serve those in need. Utilizing my leadership, teaching, philanthropic, administrative, and entrepreneurial skills, I would make sure I am instrumental in making healthcare accessible to as many people globally as I can.
BEGINNING OF A PAINFUL CRASH:
I am a highly entrepreneurial person. While my first passion was cosmetic surgery, I was always a natural entrepreneur since childhood. I have created and owned businesses since I was young. I have always truly loved entrepreneurship. When I started my practice, I was gifted by a business name in my sleep. I immediately woke up and wrote the name down.
NEW ME®
This became the name of my business, I trademarked it. I called my practice New Me Institute and later, New Me Surgical Institute. As I marketed the name and did surgery, I kept receiving referrals and kept marketing and kept receiving referrals. I was in entrepreneurial heaven. I could not get enough. I loved the challenges, and the education of entrepreneurship. I enrolled in business school. I wanted to grow. I kept trying to hire qualified partners to expand the business.
It was not the money that motivated me as much as the passion for entrepreneurship. I wanted New Me to be a national and a global brand. So, I tried to learn business, professionally and, academically while getting a degree, and hiring other surgeons to join my practice. There were many problems. For a few years, I could not recruit anyone with sufficient cosmetic surgery experience who wanted to work for me. I could hire new graduates without enough experience, but I was not willing to subject my patients and practice to that.
Most highly skilled and qualified cosmetic surgeons were in high demand. They did not want to work for the salary I was able to afford to offer.They could earn a whole lot more on their own. So, I would book my patients further out. I was fully booked months in advance.
Never the less, the patients were always my prioirty and during these years as I was searching for permanent, qualified partners, I increased my work hours to a point where I was only sleeping three to four hours per night. The demand for my time was increasing and I could not slow things down.
The overhead had become massive, I was expected to do all the surgeries myself, and I had to watch every little thing to make sure nothing went wrong. I loved everything that I was doing. Every moment of it. I could not get enough of either. Not enough of cosmetic surgery, and not of entrepreneurship. But unfortunately, it had become way too overwhelming, and no matter how many administrators and managers and topline staff I hired to help take the load off, instead they just added to the overhead! All the responsibility and liability would finally end up on my own shoulders as the medical director, the surgeon, the boss, and the business owner. I am sure you are all familiar with that
In the meanwhile, my pursuit for great, talented cosmetic surgery partners continued. The problem was my patients wanted me; and if someone else did the surgery and something did not go perfectly, as the medical director and the captain of the ship, still I was the one who was responsible to fix the problem. So, it both increased the overhead of the practice because I had to pay the surgeons' salaries and be responsible for their complications and unhappy patients. That was a deal that I had not signed-up for!
This crazy routine continued, it started to reverse things in my life. I was no longer at the "peak of the mountain". I was tired, fatigued, and burned out, "on the way down". When the financial meltdown of 2008 came about, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It became a free-fall. Ultimately, in retrospect, almost all my problems most likely have been caused by my own poor choices.
If early on in my career I felt like an eagle soaring, I was now on my way down, and it was going to be a crash-landing! It ultimately did not end well. I ended up not on the ground, but it felt like I was under the ground. I lost everything. I felt crushed in every way imaginable.
In the meanwhile, as I explained in the blog article below, "WHY COSMETIC SURGEONS HAVE UNHAPPY PATIENTS?", my mental state started to deteriorate as all the pressures were compounded with the unhappy patients complaining. I needed to calmly educate them, and simply resolve their misunderstandings. But with all the emotional, and mental pressures I was under, I was in no state to do that. Instead, my interactions with others further aggravated them, and created a viscous cycle that ended up involving me into all kinds of additional troubles. Eventually, I found myself in trouble with the Medical Board, legal issues, financial loss and devastation of my great professional reputation. I had also extended credit to many of my patients in good faith which they never paid me despite their great results, causing me hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, and making me feel betrayed and cheated. I ended up in even deeper depression, and my mental health deteriorated even further. In the meanwhile, a lawyer brought six simultaneous malpractice lawsuits against me. He also hired a TV reporter to unbeknownst to me create a horrible video to make me look like a monster, to help him win his cases. When I learned I was set-up, I was understandably extremely upset, and intentionally they edited the video, in which they only showed the portions of it in which I was upset, and they succeeded in making me look like a monster. Later, several sites on the internet picked up the video and ran with it. It became a nationally devastating embarrassment. You could see Dr. New Me, on the internet misrepresented and defamed, that now had become totally depressed, and because of the antidepressant medications’ side effects had gained a whole lot of weight. I gave up after that. Everything had become a huge, overwhelming mess, and the Medical Board pursued the issues hence my license was suspended and revoked.
Later, after I got to know the attorney who had brought the six lawsuits against me, he turned out to be a very nice guy. He was just trying to make money representing his clients, and nothing else. It was just that he had advertised in the same place that I advertised so my patients who came from the same source of advertisement called him and he was overenthusiastic in accepting their cases. I learned that he hired the news reporter to make the news clip to get back at me for my angry behavior towards him in the beginning.
I learned another lesson that in a bad situation, my own poor behavior would only make the situation worse. It has been eleven years since that time. I have come a long way. It takes moment to moment awareness.
When we eventually went to court to defend my practice against each of the six malpractice cases, and presented our defense, thanks to the evidence, the truth, the before and after pictures, documentations, and the expert witness testimonies, nothing came of those malpractice lawsuits, and with God's grace they were all resolved. They all went away but too little too late. The mental, emotional, and financial devastation that they caused me will be forever a part of my every fiber and memory. That video did something to me, and my self-esteem, self-confidence, my reputation, my ability to earn a living, my social life, and even my relationship with my children that I can't even describe with any words. As I write this at this given moment, I am in a state of disbelief and awe.
One thing I learned is that there are amazing people who have great intentions, but when they hear something, without adequate investigation, or objective knowledge, they jump into conclusion and spread the information. This can become cyber assassination. The internet world has become such a double-edged sword. I love the side of the internet that can help us grow as individuals by learning, sharing our ideas and opininions, and teach each other. It can also help humanity, be impactful in a positive manner and make our world a much better place. I watch YouTube, educational channels, and videos all the time. On the other hand, there are all these toxic social media and dark sites. All these destructive sites that have been designed with no good intention, accountability nor consideration for the best interest of our human family. Sometimes even media intentionally participates in these kinds of spreading of fake news behaviors. When the reporters are allowed to be paid privately and the segments are allowed to be edited with an intended angle regardless of the truth, that is fake news. On the other hand, a competitor cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills used his own Yelp account to write defamatory claims that were founded on misrepresentations and untrue statements to hurt me and my reputation, in a public forum, then using that in his own advertisements, to associate decades of my notariaty to his own name for the purpose of personal gain, truly caused me deep anguish, as did when I learned of his demise of COVID-19 during the same time I was hospitalized in the same ICU as he was. An anesthesiologist, Dr. Nosrat K. who defrauded me out of about $400,000 by selling me a bankrupt medical facility by faslsifying documents in 2004 wrote a horrible Google review under his own name making malicious false claims and hurtful defamatory remarks, whose outragous reviews were allowed by Google to remain. Interestingly enough, his horrible behaviors, I heard, backfired on him and his life is totally destroyed. So many misrepresentations and false claims have been spread all over disguized as "Reviews" and are protected by the First Amendment which leaves room to wonder how much freedom does one possess to say whatever one pleases about someone in an open forum, with impunity? When we say dishonest things about others, spread hatred, try to hurt someone intentionally by spreading information that we know is not true, knowing it will truly devastate their life, we intent to assassinate their character and destroy their reputation, all with the excuse that this is America, and we have the right to Freedom of Speech; that is not exercising our rights, it is something else!
At the end, the lessons I learned from all these experiences are still being processed. Working on myself and trying to overcome my anger, reactive hatred, and resentment, I have decided to turn this around. I have accepted that I was the cause of it in some ways. I prefer to not be a victim. When I see myself as a victim, I give my power away. There is no power in being a victim. As a victim, I can do nothing to change something that has happened to me. But as a person who accepts that he was responsible for what happened, I have all sorts of power. I can change all types of things, do all types of things, and learn all types of things. Suddenly I am in a position of power.
I have shifted my position from a victim to a proactive cause, victor, and source. By starting this blog, educating my previous patients, writing articles on the internet, communicating with Yelp, Google and Fox News who allowed this "Fake News" to be aired and disguised as real news, and the other internet sites that used this “news video” to increase their traffic, and all the other things that I intend to do, I will do all the things I need to do to take my power back.
After all the previously mentioned devastating experiences, from 2008 financial melt-down to the 2013 video fake news, and its demoralizing, devastating irreversibly destructive effect on me in every way, and the six lawsuits, which made the loss of my medical license inevitable and all its aftermaths, I felt as if I had had a free-fall crash-landing that drove me proverbially six-feet-under.
Life Immediately After the Crash Landing:
I am not sure if you’ve ever experienced something similar to what I am describing, however, what my first reaction to all that was going on at the time was, was just a sense of total awe and disbelief. It takes quite a long time for us to be able to make sense of such a tremendous series of events that happen all in such a very short period of time. It is very much like a tornado that hits one’s home, and once it passes nothing remains standing, and one is left facing total destruction of everything familiar and valuable. It leaves nothing behind, but total devastation. That level of destruction is only in an aspect of one’s home but imagine if this happened in every possible aspect of your life! How would you possibly deal with that?
To assess the gravity, and extends of it all, and to make sense of what has happened, and to put it all in perspective, to come up with some strategies to execute and move forward from there takes superhuman fortitude and strength. It may take weeks or months of grieving and mental adjustment. If one is already vulnerable as I was, and has already been almost broken as I felt, this was definitely the final straw. Under those circumstances, those first few days, I hardly could find the strength and the desire to live through, yet one more day. But with the grace of God, I somehow survived. That definitely was a miracle, and I have an obligation to give back now, as I know there are many out there who may be struggling with the same experiences. If any of you who are reading this, are in the same or similar circumstances, from repeated experience of rising from the ashes like a phoenix, let me assure you that there is always hope. No matter how grave the circumstances seem to be at this moment, there is always hope. It is all about the perspective that we have to the situation. When we are so close to the problem that the problem looks greater than our own life is worth, then what we need to do is to just change our perspective. Try to put some space between you and the problem. If at all possible, physically I prefer you do that. Try to get away from the problem for a while. Get away from everything if you must. Take a few days off. Or weeks, or even months. There is nothing more valuable than your life and health. You must find a big enough reason to live. In any time of trouble, you have got to find the big “why” and the “how” takes care of itself. Whatever the problem seems to be, find the reason as to WHY it is important that you overcome the problem, the challenge, or the obstacle? What is at stake, who is it that you love who would suffer if you did not solve the problem? Once you find a big enough WHY, the HOW will take care of itself. You will find a way. Your mind is brilliant. It will come up with all kinds of solutions to get you to the next step and then the next step and the next.
Just to initially change your perspective, you may need to go to the countryside and enjoy the fresh air and just enjoy the nature and realize that life can be beautiful without any of those things that you are so incredibly upset over. Having fresh air in nature, water, food, and being alive are enough; everything else is secondary. Exercising gratitude and appreciation for all that we are blessed with is hugely important. Grace, I earned is the blessing of the fortitude and the strength we obtain to get through each moment when we focus on the moment. Don’t worry about tomorrow or the next week or the next month. Focus on this moment. Get through this moment the best you can. Then do your best with the next moment and then the next and the next and the next. When you string along hundreds of moments you create a day and then weeks and months and as you keep focused on your big WHY, you will find yourself where you need to be.
As you can imagine, these moments where not all easy moments to get through. Sometimes it felt like crawling one inch out of the deep hole I had been driven into took a whole month. Sometimes I slipped back into the hole a lot further down due to one bad choice. The hole was so deep and tortuous, and I was so injured and traumatized that it took over 10 years to finally make my way all the way out of that hole. During these ten long and painful years, and continuously since, I attended numerous seminars and classes, I participated in countless counseling and therapy sessions, I read hundreds of self-help books and watched hundreds of videos. I prayed, meditated, and worked on myself spiritually. In fact, there is not a day that I do not feed my mind with some positive personal development educational material from some source. I spend at least about three to four hours per day doing this. I love the YouTube and Audible. They are my best friends. I am committed to constantly growing, improving, learning, and becoming a better person as an individual, executive, father, friend, partner, and a leader. In every capacity that I serve, I am committed to being the best that I can be. I want to live up to my absolute full potential. We are either growing or becoming obsolete and dying. The technology and the world in general are advancing by leaps and bounds. Just to keep up, we have no choice but to keep learning and expanding. We are the ones who choose our own limitations and determine where our limitation for growth and success are. If we are willing to push through the limits of our comfort zone and grow beyond it, we will have to feel the discomfort, and tolerate it, and if we stay the course and keep our eyes focused on our intended goals, then, there is no limit as to how far we can go, and what we can achieve.
HEADED TOWARDS THE TOP OF THE SECOND MOUNTAIN:
Cosmetic surgery seemed to be the FIRST MOUNTAIN of my life. I reached its peak in my early thirties, and I truly enjoyed the triumph for years. However, I experienced the unexpected 2008 financial meltdown, and the crash-landing, as well as all that followed. This free fall from the top of my First Mountain, proverbially, drove me Six-Feet-Under. Once I was successful at climbing out of the hole that I had put myself into, it was time to start climbing up a new mountain. This time, I would make sure the mountain would be much bigger, lusher, and greener. I am in no rush to get to the top. I am taking as many people as I can with me. It is a true joy to celebrate our great successes with all those who have worked hard shoulder-to-shoulder with us to achieve those great results.
The purpose (WHY) of the Second Mountain for me is to live my life to its fullest, fulfilling my dreams and my fullest potential, doing those things that I know I am truly gifted at doing, and helping the maximum number of people in the process. I intend to share as much of every bit of everything I have in me with as many people in this world as possible, hoping to benefit the greatest number of people, before I am gone. To fulfil my obligation and fulfill my calling, living with passion and adding value to others’ lives while making prosperity for myself and others is such an inspiring mission that has kept me going in the face of all challenges and adversities. The inspirations and motivations have enticed me to face many obstacles and with God’s mercy I have triumphed, over and over again. Ultimately the Second Mountain is a matter of helping others, and the purpose is to be of service, being true to my life's calling and making a difference.
Making mistakes is human. But this time around, as I have grown wiser and learned a great deal from my many mistakes of the past, I get to catch myself early. This gives me a sense of a battle-hardened warrior who has the confidence to know that he can handle almost any challenge that may come his way as he has been through many wars and has many scars that are his medals of honor.
In the last 15 years I have been working hard at building my life on the right track. Finding my purpose in life and putting it all back together again has been an exciting opportunity to re-create myself. From Dr. New Me now to Dr. American Elite, I have experienced a total transformation. Let me explain.
In the last thirty years, I knew that I wanted to align my business entrepreneurial passion, with my interest in teaching, consulting, practice of medicine and surgery, administration, business leadership, philanthropy, and my artistic inclination, creative interests, investment interests, global business venture, public speaking, writing and my many other passions and interests. To figure out how to do all of that seemed like an impossibility. When the crash landing of 2008 occurred, this gave me a start for that transformation. I don’t believe it was a choice, but it was the WHY that I had to figure out the HOW to.
I have been doing healthcare administration, leadership coaching and business consulting since 2012 on a full-time basis, although I did that on a part time basis on and off, for decades before.
I created a nonprofit organization in the nineties to participate in philanthropic efforts, serving others. I am now increasing these efforts.
God has put me in a situation where I am the head of my own global organization in which I do exactly all the things that I love doing. I am busy working as a consultant, teaching, providing healthcare administration, business leadership, philanthropy through a nonprofit organization I have founded. I am constantly expanding and growing my business tapping my artistic inclination, pursuing my creative interests while creating logos, videos, websites, brand materials for our various business clients and others. In addition, I have invented things that I have patented, for example a tire that is flat-proof and does not go flat even if it is struck by a bullet. I have written many books now that I am about to self-publish, seven of which were initially published in 2006 and have library of congress registration numbers. We are developing over thirty educational courses for executives, entrepreneurs, and others. We are being scheduled for public speaking and I am also pursuing my many other passions and interests.
I have learned the joy of living on my life's purpose. Through the nonprofit organization, we are now planning on providing medical services to the needy and underserved in all those communities that are in need and lack access.
FROM SIX FEET UNDER TO THE TOP OF THE GROUND:
Since my teenage years, I have been involved in the self-help movement, and I have been in every way possible feeding my mind with self-improvement concepts. It was using these concepts that helped me crawl myself out of the hole, one inch at a time.
Sometimes it felt like crawling out one inch took a whole month. Sometimes I slipped back into the hole a lot further down due to one bad choice. It took 10 years to finally make my way all the way out of that hole. During these ten long and painful years, and continuously since, I attended numerous seminars and classes, I participated in countless counseling and therapy sessions, and I read hundreds of self-help books and watched hundreds of videos. In fact, there is not a day that I do not feed my mind with some positive personal development educational material from some source. I spend at least about three to four hours per day doing this.
TOWARD THE TOP OF THE SECOND MOUNTAIN:
Once I was successful at climbing out of the hole that I had put myself into, it was time to start climbing up a new mountain. This time, the mountain will be much bigger, lusher, and greener, I am in no rush to get to the top, and I am taking as many people as I can with me.
It is a matter of helping others and the purpose is to be of service, being true to my life's calling and making a difference.
Making mistakes is human. But this time around, as I have grown wiser and learned a great deal from my many mistakes, I get to catch myself early.
I created a nonprofit organization in the nineties to participate in philanthropic efforts, serving others. I am now increasing these efforts.
In the last eleven years, God has had me function as the executive administrative consultant to a clinic in the South Los Angeles and the South-Central Los Angeles where this clinic is serving the needy and the underserved population of the city. I have learned the joy of living on my life's purpose. Through the nonprofit organization, we are now planning on providing medical services to the needy and underserved in all those communities that are in need and lack access. I have been doing business consulting since 2012 on a full-time basis, although I did that on a part time basis on and off, for decades before.
MY SECOND MOUNTAIN IS COMING INTO VIEW:
While I call Cosmetic Surgery, the First Mountain of my life, now I am climbing the SECOND MOUNTAIN of my life and ironicallly I had started my climb 35 years ago. It was always lurking in the background in my mind, all my adult life. In reality, I thought it was something that should stay in the background as a secondary endeavor, where in fact, it was meant to be my front and center, and God chose to help me see that.
Sign up to hear from us about our next article.
Copyright © 2023 Dr. New Me of Beverly Hills, Shane Sheibani - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.