 So in this video, I'm going to break down seven ways on how Squid Game is exactly like medical school and how you can use these lessons to avoid being all limited. Now full warning, if you haven't seen the show or haven't finished it, there will be spoilers in today's episode. So pause the video, go ahead and finish the show, and then come back when you're ready. So lesson number one, everyone has lessons that can help you win. So one of my favorite scenes and games from the show had to be tug-of-war. Despite our main characters having three girls and an old man on their team, they managed to beat a loaded team of strongmen in the game of tug-of-war to the death, literally. And all of this of course was thanks to Goodo Ilnam who went from being a physical liability to being an asset for his team as he used his childhood experiences to set the team up the best chance to win. Similarly for all of us on the medical journey, we forget that everyone has something to teach us. Even the people who look like they're constantly struggling, they seem like they're like the person below you on the totem pole. Everyone has a lesson to teach you. For instance, when I was in medical school, my first year, our oldest student was 38 years old. He had a family, he was married, he had three kids, he had been in former military, so it had been quite some time since he had come back to like formal education. And despite that, he crushed it. But the main lessons I took from him were how do you manage your time, how do you prioritize yourself and the people that are most important to you, while also going after your own goals, which was for him to be a doctor. So in your own experience, make sure you look around and remember that everyone has something to teach you to help increase your chances of winning as well. And at the very least, avoiding a deathly blade. Lesson number two, everyone has problems. Some people are just a little better at hiding them. Often in our Instagram driven culture, particularly in the medical school environment where we have more and more students who are giving tips and aids and showing pictures of their notes, it makes us seem like those who share their experience have it figured out. And if you're not one of them, then you just don't. But the plain truth is we all struggle. Just like in the show, how characters like Sangwoo look like a prodigy businessman to the outside world, but was more broke than anyone else in the game, we all have our scars that we tend to hide. And for us in the medical journey, that's important to remember because all of us have had that moment where you're just saying, why can't I just freaking get this right? And the truth is no one really does. Now I try my best on this channel and I probably could do a better job of sharing my failures, including when I was a brand new med student, I was seeing sees after sees after sees. And the reason I didn't talk about med school early on to my families and my friends is because I had nothing good to share. So just always keep it in the back of your mind that the people who look like they're succeeding all the time also have their own struggles. Sometimes they just do a better job of hiding it than you and I do. And when you're looking around, particularly in social media and you think that your struggle is unique and representative of your own abilities, remember that everything on social media is really just a highlight reel. Most of us don't share our bloopers. Now lesson number three, the ruthless always lose, at least in some way. Now in the show, characters like Daksu use their peer aggression and fear tactics to make it through the games and often at the literal cost of the lives of others. But this approach had him walking throughout the entire game on fragile footing, pun intended, and ultimately led to his demise. In medicine, we have this well known term, the gunner. This is the student who will do everything that they can, despite the cost of others to achieve what they want, particularly high grades, better evaluations. But the truth is they always lose in some way. But now with the role that I have as an upper level resident, when I grade these students and see them on rotations, I can easily tell the difference and call them out for their BS for the student who is trying to put on a show and try to look a little smarter than they truly are compared to the student who is truly authentic and wants to be there. And yes, there are some students who do sneak themselves through the process and ultimately reach the goal that they want. But more often than not, I found that these students tend to be unhappy and constantly looking for validation. And as you go higher on through the totem pole, there are less people that are willing to give you that validation. So the best thing you can do, whether you're in medical school or in the squid games, hopefully not the latter, is to just do your best to stay out of their way. And real quick before we get to the rest of the lesson, comment down below. I'm curious, who is your least favorite character in squid games? And tell me why in the comments, I'd be curious to see what you guys think. Now lesson number four is to remember your childlike joy. Until at least the very last episode, two fan favorites of the show were Oh Il-Nam and Ali and mainly due to their innocence throughout the entire game. Now while he had an unknown backstory for the majority of the show, Oh Il-Nam made these crazy games just a bit more enjoyable for us as the audience oddly enough. And mainly it was because he had this childlike joy while playing the games. So much to the point that there's literally a viral meme of how he's standing in one of my favorite scenes from the show in red light green light. And while I was reflecting on this lesson, I asked myself like, which character would I be more like on a medical journey? And the answer is I would probably be like Oh Il-Nam because in medical journey, two people can go through the same experience and come out with completely different perspectives of what that experience was like. Recently, for example, I had gone to a wedding for a good friend from medical school and I managed to run into a lot of my old med school classmates. And one of the main topics that kept coming up and coming up was this, how close we were to finishing and how regretful or like, unenjoyable many of us were at this point in our careers. And throughout the majority of these conversations, I really didn't speak up because in all honesty, I have freaking loved this journey despite it being hard. And it's not because I am always a natural happy person, but I think it's just because I live all these hard experiences through a childlike lens where things are okay and they're not as bad as we may come out to be. And so yes, this journey is going to be hard, but I definitely don't want to be somebody down the line who regrets my decisions for pursuing it. So why not actually try to enjoy the process throughout the way. Now lesson number five, strategy beats food force. Now going back to the tug-of-war game, another takeaway that I was big enough and important enough to be its own separate lesson was how important strategy is. Just like how strategy was able to help our main characters in the tug-of-war game overcome a variety of genders, weight, strength, strategy in medical school is so critical. And unfortunately, as I've worked with more and more students through the MD journey, I realized that a majority of students take the brute force approach more hours, more resources, more studying, more stress, more and more and more. And it's actually a rare occurrence where I meet a student on her first encounter that says like, I can't do 10 hours plus day and more resources and more stress for the duration of this journey. I need to figure out how it can be effective as possible using both my strengths and knowledge of my weaknesses. Now one of the biggest struggles and areas that students tend to use brute force is how they study. So if you're interested in how you can be more effective, get better grades and less time, there's a free course down below called the study rehab course. It's three steps, probably takes 10 minutes to watch. I promise some of those approaches and mindsets on how you should look at your studying and your entire system is going to change a lot of your time, approach, definitely stress. So if you guys are interested, that will be linked down below. Now lesson number six, the finish line may not be what you expected. Aside from the marbles episode, which in my opinion is the saddest, the second saddest for me was the finale, where the wind didn't really feel like a win for our main character. Despite obtaining all of the prize money, you still unfortunately too late to finally care for his mom who had neglected for so long. In the same way, often we look always to the next graduation or the next milestone on our medical journey, thinking that that is going to be a part where we're finally happy. I am going to study hard in college. I can finally get into medical school and be happy. I'm going to do well in medical school so I can get into the residency one and be happy. I'm going to finally get through residency. So I'm going to have that first pay check as a doctor and be happy. That happiness never really comes because often we focus so much to the peak of the mountain while we're making the climb that one, we start hating the steps we're having to take and two, the peak doesn't look as desirable anymore. So instead it's important to have enjoyment while doing the hard work in the first place. One of the biggest things that I stress with a lot of my one-on-one coaching students is to enjoy your wins. I have students who come to me wanting A's and they're getting C's and failing and I want them to enjoy that because they didn't achieve the A that they ultimately wanted, but you managed to do the hard work that was able to get you 80 plus points. Now instead you can say with motivation, what type of things can I do better? What type of things can I still improve on my system second that eventually gets the A, but this is also success because in all honesty as I look back to that wedding and my experiences with my colleagues who are not recommending medicine to their kids or other people that are on this journey, it's because they looked for a finish line that ultimately was never there in the first place and unfortunately many of them didn't focus on trying to enjoy the process and now they're stuck in a career that they're just not happy with. So don't let that be you. If you're on this journey, remember the finish line may not be what you expected. It's not what I expected but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying the journey along the way. And finally lesson number seven, don't do it for the money. Finally, and this goes without saying, if you're invited to a party with this card, just say no. And as we bring it back to the medical journey, the money is not worth your life, your stress, the PTSD that comes from being in a career that you just don't feel satisfied with. Being a doctor for the money that at least here in the United States, you don't even get until you're in your early late 30s or your friends are living it up doing the careers ideally they've enjoyed is simply not worth it. If you wouldn't take the job at a half or a third of the pay, then you probably can find yourself something better to pursue your life with and your interest. Now it's important to remember that shows like the Squid Game truly do paint a lot of the actual financial difficulties in countries like Korea and the sequelaes and problems that come from money problems are honestly very similar to a lot of problems, including medical school. And so for me, one of my biggest takeaways was to enjoy what you have, be focused on how you'll achieve what you don't have and be respectful and learn from those around you to ultimately get to where you want to be. And if you're currently on your journey and you are not happy with where you are, there are tons of free resources down below, including that same study rehab course. So if you're not getting the grades you want and you are like me where you're putting away too many hours and the results simply don't equal what you want, then go ahead and check that out. But as always, my friends, thank you so much for watching. If you did make it to the very end of the video, just go ahead and hit that like button, hit that subscribe button notification bell to get more videos like this. All these ideas are like super fun for me. So if you guys are truly enjoying the video, just drop a comment down below. If you listen to a podcast, consider hitting follow and subscribe and leaving an honest review on iTunes. And as always, thank you for being a part of my journey. I was hopefully I was a little helped to you guys and yours. If you did enjoy this video, you'll probably enjoy this video right here on how Elon Musk was studying medical school, as well as this video on how you can use Aki to study like a pro in medical school. But with that, my friends, say no to the squid games. Hopefully you guys learned a thing here in two. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.