Developing a skill is painful, though. It is difficult. And that's part of the satisfaction. You will only find meaning in what you struggle with. What you struggle to get good at next may not seem the exact right thing for you at first. With time and effort, however, you will discover new possibilities in yourself-an ability to solve problems, for instance, or to communicate, or to create beauty.
Atul GawandeWhen I do an operation, it's half a dozen people. When it goes beautifully, it's like a symphony, with everybody playing their part.
Atul GawandeThere are times when you have sharp elbows, and people are trying to muscle you out of certain meetings - because then people could leak to the press that you had a role in certain decisions. I, at twenty-six, was very impatient and didn't know how to keep my powder dry. I was running a team of seventy-five people when I had never been a boss. I was the worst boss ever.
Atul GawandeOur ideas of what our priorities are shift as we come face-to-face with some of the struggles.
Atul GawandeThis was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong.
Atul GawandeOne of the consequences of if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, is that all of us now are at risk of being a preexisting - of having a preexisting condition waiting to happen. Life, increasingly, is a preexisting condition waiting to happen, now that we have more and more of this data available.
Atul Gawande