Dr. James Magara shares some of the struggles he experienced when wanted to make some major changes in his life and career.  Kampala Uganda Africa #000215

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Embracing Change

By Dr. James Magaro

I am Dr. James Magaro. I am a dentist here in Kampala Uganda. I would like to say a few things about change concerning my practice as a Dentist.

Many years I lived a comfortable life and was not very keen to learn new things. But I have learned to network and be challenged by other colleagues who are always pushing to be on the cutting edge. It is said that for change to happen something has to change.

I remember some years back about three years ago it became clear that the dentistry industry was going digital. I was not really keen to change what I was doing but some colleagues begin to go to digital x-rays and impressions. I was not growing.I said look it doesn’t matter. I have done this and it always works, I don’t think anything is going to change. But it soon became clear after I lost a few clients, that something had to change. I realized I was burying my head in the sand. Because I didn’t want to go to the transition necessary to stay current. However, soon I realized I was losing customers and that if I didn’t update I could lose everything.

I started updating my practice everywhere that I could. Three years ago we began the migration to storing all of our records digitally. We are not exactly paperless yet,but all our records are now digital. We are also making moves toward other trends in the industry. We are even doing 3-D printing.

Modern technology has leveled out the world. We can offer services here that are offered anywhere in the world. All this came through developing my my listening skills and maintaining a humble teachable spirit. If I kept myself buried in the way things always have been I stood a chance of becoming irrelevant. So I am always evolving through continual education, learning about new technologies, attending conferences, even international conferences to get a feel for what is happening around the world. We go to dental trade shows and anything else that might help us be more adept at our in our industry. I don’t just adopt change because it’s new and the latest and greatest. But at the same time I’ve learned if you don’t make those moves, you’ll be left behind and your business will soon suffer. We have suffered a bit in that regard, but we are gaining ground rapidly. And I will not make that mistake again.