Completing (for now) my Web 2.0 Platform
November 21, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
Today, I introduce a new level of web 2.0 integration by incorporating social medial channels on every page of my website. Watch the short video I shot in my vlog section on this idea.
As many of you know, I relentlessly post videos on YouTube. However, you have to go to YouTube to find these videos or scour my site for the newest video that I have shot. Two things will rectify this encumbrance. First, the updates section will tell you when a new anything (video, text, section, etc.) has been posted with a direct link to it. Second, I will now have a link on every page to my YouTube videos. (Btw, another option is to subscribe to my videos on YouTube if you don’t mind an email sent to you that I have a new video shot and uploaded).
In addition, I have made a lot of changes to make this website a truly aggressive Web 2.0 platform, meaning fully integrating social media into this site with the incorporation of Facebook (a new group that I just created on Facebook dedicated to LFP’s shenanigans) that facilitates more easily my posting photos and other stuff that my staff and I are doing, e.g., thoughts that lie outside of my blog entries, vlogs, and forum postings. (Btw, you must register for Facebook to see the page). Twitter updates from my staff and me. (We’ll see how successful this is, but my staff is already getting crazy and loving to submit “tweets” [that is what short updates are called].) A direct link is also now displayed on every page to my podcasts (far right icon) that I publish in iTunes for your iPhone and iPod. Hopefully, these changes will encourage a broader sense of community, participation, and integration into what LFP has to offer our global tribe of followers.
Btw, as you probably would surmise, I really haven’t “completed” anything. This is just the beginning of the journey over the next 6 months and beyond.
Our Credo, S.A.M. L.A.M., Part 2 of Defining Culture
October 22, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
I really like the word “Credo” instead of “Mission Statement”. I have always used the word “Mission Statement” until I read The New Gold Standard on Ritz Carlton’s legendary service. The word credo for all of you Latin neophytes (I took and taught Latin for four excruciating years!) means “I believe”. I think that my staff must buy in to our “credo” and know it. Before I give you my credo, here’s the Ritz Carlton’s:
The Ritz-Carlton is a place where the genuine care
and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.
We pledge to provide the finest personal service and
facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm,
relaxed, yet refined ambience.
The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses,
instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed
wishes and needs of our guests.
I really love the last part, “fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.” I think my staff does a lot of that without my prompting. They are truly hospitalitarians. (For my blog on my spawb site on hospitalitarians, click here.)
Now, here’s my credo. It is a simple mnemonic, my name, SAM LAM. (Thank goodness my name is not Alberto Gonzales. That would be hard to remember.) The “SAM” stands for Serve Always Mentality which is focused on how we serve our loyal patient base, putting the consumer first with the mind of serving always at the core. “LAM” is not focused on the patient at all but on each individual staff member. Remember we are all essentially selfish people, “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me.) L stands for Laugh: I want my staff to come to work every day and have a blast. A stands for achieve: I want them to come to work and feel self-actualized on the Maslow’s triangle. They should learn something every day and feel as if they are growing. M is for Mentor: I believe that as a team our goal is to mentor the next person next to us. We can’t oftentimes motivate the unmotivated but we can inspire the uninspired.
If you call my office or come in as a patient, every one of my staff members should be able to recite our credo by memory. I instilled this into them about a year or more ago, and I do occasionally quiz them on it. I hope you guys find your own credo. In my EO forum group, I learned an interesting thing is that a family can also have their own credo. Perhaps if you are not part of a company where you are in a position to create or sustain a credo, you could try this at home to define the culture where perhaps it matters most, with your family.
Blinking Beauty
October 10, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
I was attending a lecture by my colleague in St. Louis 2 weeks ago and I really liked how he envisioned the facial aging process. He likened it to the book, Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. For those who have not read Blink or Gladwell’s other phenomenal book, The Tipping Point, I would highly recommend both reads.
Gladwell’s thesis is that we judge another individual or almost anything in a visceral blink of an eye. It does not take 5 minutes to figure out something but we can tell almost immediately about something and we are typically correct in our initial assumptions, which are also very hard to shake if we are wrong.
That is how we view each other when it comes to aging. We can almost instantaneously tell if the other person is older, younger, attractive, or unattractive. We can tell in a blink of an eye from 10 feet away. However, when people come in to fix something, usually they are focused on the minutiae that no other human being can even see. In particular, because women put makeup on, the tiny lines around the mouth (that no one can see. believe me.), the crepiness of the upper eyelid, the dot on the right cheek, the tiny asymmetry of the upper lip, etc. are on the top of the wish list for correction even though after paying all the money to do those things nothing really looks any better.
Instead, I truly believe that overall facial shape (geometry) and proportion is how we make a judgment about another person in a blink of the eye. So, when people come to see me, I would rather help them create a favorable blink impression on all those around them than try to fix the minor flaws that only they can see. If you want to understand how we view aging geometrically, you can watch the first part of my video lecture I gave 2 weeks ago in St. Louis that discusses in my opinion an original thesis on how we see aging. Here is the link to the video.
Btw, a patient of mine told me that Gladwell’s new book is coming out in a few weeks so I checked it out on Google, and it’s called Outliers, about how successful people are successful not just because of who they are but where they are from (at least that is what Amazon says).
Exploring Silicone Part III, Silicone Versus Fat as a Permanent Filler
October 7, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
The patient on the left is shown AFTER a facelift by another dallas plastic surgeon. On the right the patient is shown one year after a single session of fat transfer to the face and 3 serial injections of silicone into her lips and facial folds.
To conclude this 3 part series on understanding silicone, we should explore how I envision silicone versus fat use in my practice. If I am to perform a permanent filler in someone I would love to know the long-term safety of that product as well as its efficacy. As mentioned before, medical-grade silicone injections have been used for cosmetic enhancement since the 1960s. The first fat transfer was performed in 1898, and the first fat transfer using micro-injections done since the 1970s. Most of the new permanent injectable fillers have only been around a year to 15 years with many of the ones which have been around for 15 years undergoing constant purification, refinement, and other changes due to long-term problems. That does not sound safe to me, and I have no interest in using any other product other than silicone and fat transfer as permanent fillers.
In answering my forum questions, I realize truly how difficult it is to understand when I use one product or the other and why. I will first describe how I use each product and why then offer a short table to have the reader better understand these principles in a synopsis format. First, fat transfer is NOT a bio-inert substance. It is in fact a live “graft”. It survives based on blood supply and can fluctuate due to weight and blood supply take. Therefore, fat transfer should be used in this fashion with respect. I use fat grafting solely for volume contouring of the aging face but not to fix a little scar here or there. By putting fat in entirely asymmetrically you risk that the fat will grow disproportionately. You should not have to worry about that with silicone. Second, fat is very soft and fails in my opinion to make much change in the folds and lines of the face, whereas silicone works much better for that. I think fat transfer also leads to significant prolonged distortion of the lips with high resorption. Therefore, I always have the simple mnemonic “fat is not good for lips and lines” to help my prospective patient understand where fat fails. Interestingly, these are the two areas where most surgeons use fat. I use silicone to fix scars, to augment lips, and to correct folds of the face. Another way to look at it is that I use fat over large areas of the face and silicone over tiny areas of the face.
Over the long-term, subtle changes (typically positive) can occur with each product but for different reasons. With the micro-droplet silicone technique, collagen builds with each treatment so you will see changes after a few months particularly with acne scarring that can help you see positive changes. With fat transfer, remarkable stem cell changes have been witnessed (I have seen it) that shows skin texture improvements, scar reductions, etc.
These two permanent fillers have very distinct qualities, properties, limitations and must be used skillfully, as they are both permanent. Here is a quick summary:
Liquid Silicone Versus Fat Grafting
Learning to Say No
October 2, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
I have learned to be much more selective in what projects I choose to move forward with. In the past, whatever someone asked me to do, I would invariably say yes. In fact, up to about a month ago, I fail to remember whenever I said, “No.” That has led to a devastating compression of my personal life to zero.
In the past month alone, I have said, “No” three times. I was asked last week to write another chapter in the book, Master Techniques for Rhinoplasty and Nasal Reconstruction, on alar-base reduction because the editors loved my first chapter that I had already submitted. (Perhaps they loved the fact that I was one of the few authors to get the job done on time and done well.) I said, “No” to my distinguished colleague and friend who asked me to fly out to China as an honored guest speaker all expenses paid for his Rhinoplasty Workshop. I also said, “No” to my colleague who asked me to write yet another book. That is a world record for me. Not Michael Phelps but at least a personal milestone.
I don’t say no to everything. I said, “Yes” to my colleague who asked me to be the course director for a hair transplant workshop in St. Louis next year but I have reasons for saying yes. First, I am very interested in the project, since this will be a unique platform to advance hair restoration in a hands-on cadaver workshop that I think has never been offered before. Second, I like being challenged to be a course director, which is something that I don’t have a lot of experience with. Third, I have already finished the entire syllabus and speaker list in two short hours on Saturday. Efficiency is something that I am known for.
I assumed the Editor-in-Chief position last year for a consumer’s guide for facial plastic surgery, entitled, The Face Book (don’t worry, we copyrighted the first edition before facebook.com), which was something I really had no interest in doing. I did it because a senior member in the Academy basically asked me in front of 20 board members, “Sam, please do this. You are the only one that can do this.” I was honored and also in my state of never saying no last Fall. However, the project has now morphed into something that I think will radically alter the landscape of my field in that it is no longer targeted for surgeons’ reception areas (which is an untenable and antiquated concept) but now I am seeking a literary agent to push this into the mainstream and making it a major (hopefully) blockbuster.
My friend Robert said, “Sam, a wife and kids will be the worse thing for your career.” I think he may be right. However, I believe that our passions can remain unmitigated but we can choose what we want in life by following those passions and not following every opportunity presented to us simply because it was presented to us. I will never give up my passions, but I have learned to choose projects more wisely and I have learned to say, “No.”