Losing Everything
The families lived in a college town . Dr . A was a major contributor to the local university . While it can ’ t be confirmed ( for university sanctioning reasons ), it is widely believed that the nephew received a baseball scholarship his junior year of college because of Dr . A ’ s influence with the university . Dr . A had already funded the boy ’ s entire private school education from age 11 until the scholarship was received when the young man was a junior in college .
Dr . A ’ s nephew announced that he had decided to become a dentist just like his uncle and would come back to work with his uncle in his practice after graduation from dental school . Dr . A was both proud and delighted , to say the least . Dr . A immediately began working to get his nephew accepted into dental school . He was successful and gladly paid all four years of the nephew ’ s dental school tuition , room and board . Once he graduated from dental school , Dr . A ’ s nephew did indeed become Dr . A ’ s associate . Dr . A did everything he could to make things easy for his nephew and the nephew became an immediate success as a dentist . He quickly picked up speed and “ real world ” techniques from his uncle . They were together late into the evenings working on cases together . Dr . A was transferring many of his quality patients to his nephew . In fact , the nephew was actually producing slightly more than 55 percent of the practice ’ s total doctor production by the end of his second year with Dr . A , allowing his uncle to take a little more time off . It was truly like a dream come true for both of them . Life could not be better .
Dr . A was rejuvenated as a practitioner again . He and his nephew had grown the practice to an annual income level that was 250 percent greater than before the nephew came into the
practice . Dr . A was making more money than he had ever made in his life and his nephew was far ahead in both production and personal income than any of his dental school classmates . Dr . A and his wife were beginning to do some long awaited traveling . Life could not be better . The nephew began dating the hygienist . Dr . A really liked his hygienist and thought she was great for his nephew . He encouraged the relationship . During the nephew ’ s third year in the practice , the nephew and the hygienist were married . Dr . A was asked and gladly accepted to stand up with the nephew as his best man . Life could not be better .
Dr . A was now 57 years old and thinking about his retirement . He was considering age 60 as a target age – just three more years . As the end of the nephew ’ s third year approached , Dr . A decided he would sell half of his practice to his nephew and they could become equal partners . Dr . A ’ s intention was to work another three years and then retire . The practice was grossing enough now that Dr . A figured the dollars he would get from selling the practice would be plenty enough for him to retire at age 60 . They had never really talked about any of this before , but Dr . A knew this is what the nephew wanted too . With about two months remaining until the nephew ’ s third anniversary , Dr . A took him to dinner to break the great news to him .
What happened next was the shock of a lifetime . Before Dr . A could even announce his intentions , the nephew revealed that he would be leaving the practice to set up a practice down the street . He intended to have everything arranged within three months . He announced that he had already purchased the new equipment and had lined up some of his new staff .
Dr . A was flabbergasted . He did not understand at all . And the nephew really could not understand why Dr . A was upset . After all , this is what he had been told in dental school to do … work a few years with an older doctor until you gain some experience and then set up a practice of your own nearby . He was told that he should have a decent patient following after a few years with the older doctor that would give him a good start on his own practice . The nephew always wanted his own practice just as Dr . A had wanted when he broke away from his host doctor nearly 30 years earlier .
Dr . A was so devastated and depressed that he could hardly come to work for the next several weeks . Then his depression turned to anger and he lashed out at his nephew , reminding him of everything he had done for him over the course of the nephew ’ s life . He told his nephew that it was duty and his obligation to purchase the practice . The nephew continued to say that it was never his intention to purchase the practice . He said the practice was much too large
30 May / June 2010 • Pennsylvania Dental Journal