Opportunities for Leadership:
Education of a
Foreign Medical Graduate
Surendra K. Varma, M.D.
Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education
Ted Hartman Endowed Chair in Medical Education
University Distinguished Professor
and Vice-Chairman of Pediatrics
Professor of Physiology and Health Services Research
Residency Program Director
Department of Pediatrics
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Coming to America
Goals
Further education
Desire to excel
Beginning
You are an ambassador for your
country. If you do good, people will
appreciate it. If you have no good
work ethic, people will say that all
Indians are like it.
- My Father
3
Boston
Learning Curve
Culture
Language
Adjustment to Environment
“Nothing is as necessary for
success as the single minded
pursuit of an objective”
Frederick W. Smith
6
“The starting point of all
achievement is desire”
Napoleon Hill
7
 Stay in mainstream. Do not
migrate/flock to your ethnic
group at workplace
 Be proud of your heritage
8
Influence
Mentors
Peers
“Six essential qualities are the key
to success: sincerity, personal
integrity, humility, courtesy,
wisdom, charity”
Dr. William Menninger
10
Lubbock
“He who would climb the ladder
must begin at the bottom”
English Proverb
12
Work Ethic
Diligence
Drive
Collegiality
Respect Cultural &
Religious Diversity
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Balance
Clinical Skills
Education
Research
Administration
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Protected Time
Research
Personal Development
Family
 Balance between family and
work
16
 Involve yourself in but do not
over commit
Involve in:
Departmental Activities
Institution’s Activities
17
“Make service your first priority, not
success, and success will follow”
“Secrets of Effective
Leadership”
18
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
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•Community Service
•Child Advocacy
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Community Service
•Opportunities
•Resources
e.g. Diabetes Camp for Children
with Diabetes
Resource – Rotary Club
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“All politics is local”
Tip O’Neill
22
Start at local level
Regular Participation Is Essential
“Eighty Percent Success is
Showing Up”
-Woody Allen
23
Volunteer your time and
services
Fulfill Commitments with
Sincerity and Integrity
24
Next Step – Participate in State
Society Leadership as your
local representative
- Listen, Observe and
Volunteer
- Avail Leadership Opportunities
“Many People Have Gone Further Than They
Thought They could Because Someone Else
Thought They Could.”
- Unknown
25
Child Advocacy
•Need Based
•Personal Commitment
e.g. – Newborn Screening for congenital
Hypothyroidism in Texas
Resource – State Senator
Target – State Legislature
Bill – Passed 1977
– Money Appropriated 1979
26
Next Step – Avail Opportunities
for Leadership at National Level.
Keep focus of your expertise.
Do not overspread yourself
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National Level
- Listen, Observe & Volunteer
“You Can Observe a Lot By
Watching”
- Yogi Berra
- Keep your Ego in check
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“The deepest principle in human
nature is the craving to be
appreciated”
William James
29
“No amount of study or
learning will make a man a
leader unless he has the
natural qualities of one.”
-Archibald Wavell
“London Times”
February 17, 1941
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Do your home work
“People
don’t care how much you know until they
know how much you care.”
-Unknown
Volunteer your services for things
you can do effectively.
31
Express your opinion in a gentle
fashion
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are
truly endless”
- Mother Teresa
Listen to other points of views
“In a Room Full of People There May be
Persons Wiser Than
You.”
- My Father
32
‘It is unwise to be too sure of
one’s own wisdom. It is healthy
to be reminded that the strongest
might weaken and the wisest
might err.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
33
Success vs Failure
Success is that old ABC –
“Ability, Breaks, and
Courage”
- Charles Luckman
In my case add luck as well
34
“Leadership is a
combination of strategy and
character. If you must be
without one, be without the
strategy.”
-Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
35
Failure
Do not blame others
Do not take shelter behind Ethnicity
Bias
Try to get over it
“But man is Not Made for Defeat. A Man
Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated.”
- Ernest Hemingway
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“No man fails who does his best”
Orison Swett Marden
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WHAT NEXT?
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IS THERE A GLASS
CEILING?
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I DO NOT KNOW
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“The very essence of
leadership is that you have
to have a vision.”
-Theodore Hesburgh
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“Learn from yesterday, live for
today,
hope for tomorrow.”
- Anon
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“No man succeeds without a
good woman behind him.
Wife or mother, if it is both,
he is twice blessed indeed”
-Harold MacMillan, 1963
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“In three words I can sum up
everything I’ve learned about
life: it goes on.”
-Robert Frost
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Mentors
Raghubir P. Varma (My Father)
Charles Janeway, M.D.
John F. Crigler, Jr., M.D.
John B. Stanbury, M.D.
John D. Crawford, M.D.
 Deceased
45
“I want to thank you for making
this day necessary”
- Yogi Berra
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