What does the Picasso sketch story teach a dentist about valuing their own preparation time?
That the visible time spent on a piece of professional work represents a small fraction of the actual preparation that made it possible. Picasso was sketching in a park when an admirer asked him to draw her portrait. He agreed, studied her briefly, completed the sketch in under a minute, and named a price equivalent to roughly five thousand dollars. The woman protested that the sketch took less than a minute. Picasso replied: “Madame, it took my entire life up to this point to be ready for that minute.” The same logic applies to dental work. The doctor’s hour with a patient at the diagnostic visit is not an isolated hour. It is the cumulative output of years of professional education, post-graduate training, continuing education courses, clinical experience, and accumulated judgment. The fee for that hour reflects the lifetime of preparation that made it possible, not just the minute-by-minute cost of being present. Dentists who underprice their own time underestimate their own preparation. They are not selling an hour. They are selling a career.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.
