"Dare To Follow Your Dreams! The Lessons Are Worth the Risks!"
THIS SITE IS ABOUT PERSEVERANCE!
THE PURSUIT OF OUR HIGHEST PURPOSE IN THE FACE OF ALL OUR FEARS!
Learning More About Dr. New Me of Beverly Hills!
GRATTITUDE & APPRETIATION!
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.
FAKE NEWS, FRAUD, LIES, DEFAMATION --VS. --FREEDOM OF SPEECH
WHY CAN'T YOU SUE THEM IF THEY ARE ABUSING THE FIRST AMENDMENT FOR PERSONAL GAIN?
- ARE THESE REVIEWS? BY WHOSE STANDARDS?
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.
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE! NEVER GIVE UP!
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!
KEEPING OUR EYES TO THE FUTURE! ONE DAY AT A TIME!
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.
NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU FALL, RISE & RISE AGAIN! NEVER
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.
RISE FROM THE ASHES, ONE STEP AT A TIME!
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.