Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Waypoints of the journey

By David F. Baehren, M.D. | on January 1, 2013 | 0 Comment
Opinion
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

Life is a journey marked by the waypoints of humbling events. We all experience these affairs, great and small, in our personal and professional lives. We think more of ourselves than we have any right to, and we are cut down to size.

You Might Also Like
  • ACEP15: Dr. Al Sacchetti’s Mills Lecture Hits Highs and Lows of a Career in Emergency Medicine
  • What’s in a name? Formality in the ED
  • The deep well
Explore This Issue
ACEP News: Vol 32 – No 01 – January 2013

For two summers I worked for a roofing company. This was my first experience with a real employer. I had pushed a lawn mower in the neighborhood at 10 bucks a job but had never functioned in a workplace before. The work was tough and dirty, but I learned to handle my end of the log.

On a bright August morning my foreman, a big burly man, told me to drive a long stake truck out of the yard and park it in front of the shop. I knew how to drive a manual transmission but had never driven a vehicle bigger than a large sedan. I was too proud or stupid to tell him I was clueless. I turned the corner too quickly and clipped the edge of the gate.

The crew came running and bent the gate back before the foreman could see what happened. The guys tried to console me and told me to keep my mouth shut. I felt bad about the gate but worse about being the fool who couldn’t drive a truck 30 yards without breaking something. This was my first real-life lesson in humility. I try to keep that lesson in my head to remind me that I don’t know everything and that sometimes I need to ask for help before doing something beyond my abilities. This lesson has kept me out of considerable trouble over the years.

Have I always kept this lesson in mind? Absolutely not, and I have again learned to be humble through my miscalculations and poor judgment.

These humbling experiences are inevitable. Taking risks and being independent, by nature, will result in occasional failures. It is not the falling down but the returning to one’s feet that is the measure of a person. Mahatma Gandhi said, “I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

As EPs we have chosen one of the most humbling occupations. Every day we have multiple opportunities to eschew arrogance and embrace humility. But, these events don’t present with a blinking sign that says, “DANGER!” They slip in like a thief in the night to lay claim to our conceit. One of the biggest pitfalls in our specialty is to think poorly of someone based on limited information.

Pages: 1 2 | Single Page

Topics: Career DevelopmentEmergency MedicineEmergency PhysicianIn the ArenaPractice ManagementPractice Trends

Related

  • ACEP4U: Reinventing Research Education

    June 11, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • Can This Patient Leave Against Medical Advice?

    March 10, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • Emergency Physicians of the Sandwich Generation Face Unique Challenges

    March 10, 2025 - 0 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now: June 2025 (Digital)

Read More

No Responses to “Waypoints of the journey”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603