Aug 16, 2020

What's Your Hourly Rate?

By Mustafa Sultan • Issue #25 • View online

Hello friends,

This week, two people asked me for my hourly rate. Slight problem: I don’t have an hourly rate. I told one of them £20/hour and the other £100/hour—

Something That Keeps Coming Up

Every time I interview someone, I try and work out if they had a master (life) plan. It would make sense that most of them would.

It turns out — not really. Dr Pearse Keane told me that he just spent his career looking “for cool stuff and working with cool people”. Professor Shafi Ahmed told me that he just followed his interests but asked “what’s next?” at every step.

Not a single person I’ve spoken to could have told me where they were heading when they were in their 20s. That’s reassuring.

The Cardiac Arrest ♥️❌

Dr David Plans had a cardiac arrest from overworking in 2003. Now he’s working on ending mental suffering with BioBeats.

His advice? Say no more. Short term: you feel like a let down. Long term: people respect you more and you’re happier.

Dr James Somauroo told me that he regularly audits his life. He works out what’s always left at the bottom of his todo list and outsources it. Then he looks at what seems unimportant but he’s always eager to do. He does more of that thing.

The Current Approach 🛣

Over the past 18 months, I’ve mostly done whatever interests me — all the time. Life has been really fun.

I’m trying to continue this as much as possible. If the people I interview are anything to go by, this is the right thing to do.

But—

Outliers 🎯

The people I speak to on my podcast are by definition — outliers.

I do wonder how much I should listen to what they tell me. Am I getting the equivalent of Alan Sugar telling me to drop out of school?

My Hourly Rate 💰

This week, someone asked me to do something I’d probably do for free. I told him sure I’ll do it for £20/hour.

Someone else wanted me to do something I don’t like doing (intentionally left vague). Something really dull.

I don’t really like saying no. So I came up with a new approach—

Sure I’ll do it. But my rate is £100/hour

He thanked me for my time.

My Actual Hourly Rate ⁉️

As I start the final year of medical school — I’ve been wondering what my actual hourly rate is. I think I’ll have something like 2–3 hours of downtime a day this year.

This downtime is gold dust. So how much for someone to take it?

My new approach to projects: Hell yeah (I really want to do this) or £100/hour.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

Podcasts

#026 The AI Radiologist — Dr Hugh Harvey (Hardian Health)

‎What does the future radiologist look like? What does everyone get wrong when regulating their AI startup?

Dr Hugh Harvey trained as a consultant radiologist and is now the managing director of Hardian Health; a health-tech consultancy firm.

He has had an incredible career, sitting at the interfac…

podcasts.apple.com • Share

#025 How to Get Published — Dr Azeem Alam (Co Founder BiteMedicine)

‎You’re an average medical student with no connections — how do you get published!? Dr Azeem Alam completed his surgical AFP training in London and is the co-founder of BiteMedicine — the medical knowledge platform. He shares his step-by-step framework on getting published without a leg up…

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All the best,

Musty

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By Mustafa Sultan

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