@dr.stefano.sinicropi: Les Brown asked me what inspired me to encourage people to live an extraordinary life. I had to go all the way back to childhood to answer that honestly. I grew up the adopted son of Italian immigrants. And even as a young child I was just so keenly aware of the people around me and the problems they were having. Most eight year olds run around and play. They are oblivious to adult struggles. Not me. I was in the back of the car contemplating death and people's problems and trying to figure out how to solve them. I was always fascinated by the fact that we have this one life. And people were just arguing. In dysfunction. Sick all the time. Unhappy. And I always wanted to do something about it. I even had conversations counseling my thirty year old cousins on their relationship problems when I was eight or nine years old. Because I could not stand watching people not live their best lives. So as someone who had the privilege of building a large surgical practice and taking care of so many people I could not let that go. There was so much potential sitting in front of me. But people were so sick they could not even enjoy this one life they have. That is why I do this. Not the surgery. Not the business. The mission. The last chapter of my book is not the blue zones. It is the me and you zones. Take care of me so I can take care of you. If we were all living our best lives. Healthy. Dialed in. Really listening. Really present. Crime rates would plunge. Neighbors would help neighbors. The political system would be better. It is easy to prey on people who do not feel good. That is the world I am working toward. And it started in the back of a car when I was eight years old. #DrStefanoMD #WellnessAtTheSpeedOfLight #[email protected]

Markong :

Building something successful answers “what can I accomplish?” Purpose starts asking the harder question: “what am I going to do with what I've built?”

naaaadz :

This is such a personal story. ❤️Knowing where the mission actually started makes everything you're building now feel connected in a completely different way.

JAMES :

I like that the answer wasn't “I wanted to build something bigger.” It was that you kept seeing people with potential who weren't well enough to experience their own lives fully.

Deep Space Void :

There is a point where achievement stops being enough by itself. You start asking whether everything you've learned and built can improve lives beyond the work you're already doing.

Heavenly Home319 :

Same when you're family doesn't want you. We can only trust ourselves and keep pushing ourselves forward 💯

itsssdaniella8 :

Being adopted into an immigrant family must have shaped so much of how you observed people and relationships growing up. I would love to hear more of that story.

Dr.Sinicropi :

For a long time, I thought surgery was the answer to the question I had been asking since childhood: how do I help people? It took thousands of patients to understand that surgery was one expression of that answer, not the whole answer. The mission became larger when I realized health isn't ultimately about extending a life on a calendar. It's about giving someone enough health, energy and presence to actually participate in the life they have.

nigelfischermangusan :

I wonder whether you recognized this thread while you were building your surgical career or whether it only became obvious when you looked backward later in life.

RTorres :

I'm stuck on eight year old Stefano apparently running an unofficial relationship counseling practice. That story deserves its own chapter.

april :

This makes the book feel much more personal. Now I understand that the message isn't only coming from your experience as a surgeon. ❤️

Lorena_ A🐝 :

Now the whole thing makes more sense to me. You didn't suddenly become interested in helping people live better after becoming a successful surgeon. That little boy was already watching everyone around him and wondering, “Why are people living like this when we only get ONE life?”

JonJoneric Thornton :

The fact that this goes all the way back to childhood makes the mission make a lot more sense. It wasn't something invented after becoming successful.

Redress Required :

Velora Strategies :

An eight-year-old sitting in the back of the car thinking about life and death while everyone else is playing is quite an image. You were clearly wired differently from the beginning.

Keri maxim Hegwald :

In my case the cult that trafficked children hunted us all our whole life to steal our inheritance and identity