Do your best - let go of the rest: wisdom from Henry Tanner (and The Cub Scouts)
Lynn Carlisle
When I was growing up, I was a Cub and Boy Scout. It was a great experience for me. Many of the lessons I learned then are still with me today. One of them was "Do your best". It was the Cub Scout motto and I think it is a good motto for a dentist - much better than perfection and even excellence. Perfection is not attainable and excellence can be an arbitrary standard. When we do dental treatment, there are many variables. We may not be able to attain an arbitrary standard. However, doing your best under the circumstances is very achievable. A few years ago, I attended a meeting honoring Henry Tanner's 50 years in dentistry - there were many glowing tributes to Henry from dentists who had been his students at USC and The Pankey Institute. At the end of the meeting, Henry talked about what he thought was important in dentistry. (See the Tanner article below.) One of the things he said has stuck with me - "Do your best and let go of the rest". As I heard him say that I thought, "That is the Cub Scout motto!". Some things come full circle. A day with Henry Tanner, DDS - honoring his fifty years in dentistry.
This article is one of the first ISOC articles. It is from the ISOC archives. It was published on April 24, 2003.
Join the Conversation
Customer Comment or Reviews
|
|
Average Customer Comment or Review
|
Most Helpful Customer Comment or Reviews
Tell a Friend
| 
Testimonials
Feedback on this comment (0)
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
GoogleBookmark
Technorati
Furl
Twitter