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If you would have asked me five years ago if I saw myself doing anything besides private practice, I would have told you no. Private practice was my dream from the time I started optometry school, and for a long time, I saw private practice as my final destination and never really considered the possibility that the start of my practice might be the beginning to a number of other career opportunities within optometry.

Everyone usually equates an exit strategy to retirement. I challenge you to think of your exit strategy in a different context. Think about your exit strategy as your option for change should you choose to exercise it. Being extremely passionate about the profession of optometry and equally passionate about private practice, it always saddens me to see ODs who are unhappy with where they are currently in their career. Regardless of their reasons for unhappiness, all of these unhappy individuals share something in common: they lacked the foresight to plan an exit strategy which has left them feeling as if they don’t have choices or options to make a change.

One of the most valuable lessons that I have learned is that I really empowered my career path by always having an exit strategy for everything that I have done. For example, I worked in commercial optometry in order to supplement my income while my practice was new. While my experience within commercial optometry was a good one, I ultimately knew that my exit strategy for working within commercial optometry was to pay down some of my debt and then devote more time to my practice as it grew. As a result, I planned for it so I was able to walk away from the enticing quick, easy cash that I earned while working in this environment. To the contrary, I have a colleague who also started a private practice and also worked in a commercial location for the exact same reasons, to pay down his debt and supplement his income while his practice was new and growing. Unfortunately, he didn’t plan his exit strategy and has now found himself financially dependent on the supplemental income that he gets while working for the retail chains. Let me stress that there is absolutely nothing wrong with working for a commercial chain if it is what you want to do. Unfortunately for my colleague and good friend, he is miserable and is finding that his practice’s growth is stunted since he can’t devote more time to growing the practice because of his commercial optometry commitments.

Know your exit strategy. Be sure that you keep your options open and you have choices. Life is too short to be unhappy, and optometry is far too great of a profession for you to feel as if it has you trapped, without choices or options. Plan your exit strategy now for both your short term and long term goals, and I can assure you, this will pay off dividends for you just as it has for me.