The Community Pharmacist Blog

Wishing you all an early happy St. Patrick’s Day! As we spend the day celebrating Irish heritage, the Waypoint team has come around to the discussion of luck. Are you lucky like the Irish, or do you have to work for things?

Traditionally, Valentine’s Day has been reserved for couples. But this year, we want you to think of it differently. Your year-round valentine in the pharmacy is someone or something that loves you back. As an example, PBMs are probably NOT your valentines.

Keeping New Year’s resolutions is difficult for everyone – especially when they revolve around your pharmacy and livelihood. The stakes are higher and the pressure to succeed is significantly greater than resolutions pertaining to yourself. So, why is it that setting and achieving goals for your pharmacy year after year is such a difficult task?

Pharmacy owners often leave things up to chance. Sometimes it is a result of not having enough time to focus on them. Sometimes they simply have put important things on autopilot and they hope they end up some place they can live with. They're often like the airplane pilot who radios the control tower and says, "I'm lost, but I sure am making great time!"  Here is a brief list of things that we have seen put on autopilot: retirement planning, exit/succession planning, contingency planning, personal/family planning, etc. Isn't this like trusting a fortune cookie to make decisions? Aren't these too important to leave up to chance?"

I actually got a fortune cookie message a few weeks ago that said, "The Future is Yours." I immediately began thinking what that actually meant and if I needed to do anything to get this future the little white piece of paper promised. I then realized that it is what it is. It is a little white piece of paper with a saying on it that means nothing unless I take action.

This means taking my future and the important things off autopilot and assume some responsibility in my future success.