For majority of my life I’ve had tunnel vision. My back was constantly against the wall with no ability to look back because nothing was back there. If I failed I was back at rock-bottom.

Every step of the way and with every potential success was a risk. I was raised with nothing, so if failed, I had nothing to go back to.

The fear of failing is powerful. Its 100% a negative emotion. But that motivation, is what propelled me to where I am today. Now as a surgeon, I no longer have that tunnel vision. The world is clear. I am out of the tunnel and sometimes that’s scary.

My Freshman year at the Naval Academy is when I truly decided to go to medical school. No one else believed I could do it. I know this because I have friends who told me they thought I was crazy for trying. I don’t blame them as a lot of us grew up poor, in the hood, and had little to no knowledge of Black doctors in existence.

At the beginning of my time at the Academy, I found out that I had validated a couple classes. As result, I ended up in higher level science classes as a Freshman. Majority of the class was juniors and seniors. So I got a lot of funny looks as a skinny kid who looked 13 years old.

It took a long time to feel comfortable in the class. One day, after getting comfortable and opening up to the rest of the class, I realized that majority of them were applying to medical school. So I began to ask, why couldn’t I do the same?

I can only remember one Black doctor prior to medical school. And he’s the one that saved my life. It just so happens he also was a prior Air Force physician. I’m actually eternally grateful for him because I wouldn’t be here without his intervention.

The one thing about not having an role model, positive influence, or mentor is that when you set a goal, it can be difficult to get started along the right path. As a Freshman, I knew I wanted to become a doctor but I had no clue how to get there.

So to make a plan I started with the end goal and worked my way backwards.

The first step was finding a doctor who could share their story with me. As an athlete, I unfortunately had access to a few surgeons which was the byproduct of sustaining a few injuries which required surgery. My first experience in the operating room was as a patient and from that moment forward I knew I wanted to be a surgeon. But I didn’t know what type of surgeon or how to get there.

My brother always said that I will not pursue anything unless it’s very difficult. My brother knows me well. So in keeping with that tradition, I set a goal of becoming a neurosurgeon which also happened to be the highest paid specialty in medicine (I didn’t know that at the time). In hindsight, I guess I was subconsciously chasing financial security.

After doing some research, I realize that I will need to go to a Neurosurgical residency which was very competitive and before that I would need to go to medical school again very competitive to get into. I wrote my plans. I researched and read everything I could get my hands on. I talked to every doctor I came in contact with, surgeon or not, and I took as many notes as possible.

By the time I was done I had a detailed plan how to get to where I wanted to be. Then I let everyone know what my plans were.

My world began to open up with the more people and with every conversation, the path became clearer. That’s a hidden key to success and I didn’t realize what I was doing.

I was networking and by constantly speaking of my plans, I was manifesting my success. I was speaking it into existence.

As a kid, I never learned how to network. If folks were not from your neighborhood or didn’t know your family, I was taught not to talk to them. Survival is everything and if you talk to the wrong person it could cost you your life. So I kept things to myself but success doesn’t work that way.

Its hard to achieve something without help. So I had to network and push past my comfort zone.

The reality is success is not created in a bubble. You are not alone in creating your success. The best tool that you have is your ability to speak and talk to others. Let everyone know what your goals are. Not everyone will be positive. You will experience negativity once you start vocalizing your goals. But you can learn from that too and just like in life you have to keep pushing forward.

Networking is a key to success and you have to refine that skill. Manifest your dreams and your goals by writing them down and they will eventually come true. Speak your success into existence. If you do not know the path start from the end.