Story : The Compass of Optometry ,right direction of optometry profession.

EP₂   : the story of loft optometry.

By     : dr.loft ,O.D.

 

Introduction

 

In this episode of "เข็มทิศทัศนมาตร" (The Compass of Optometry ,right direction of optometry profession), I would like to tell the story of the creation of loft optometry. I want to explain how it came about and what the "why" is behind it. This will help you to see another model for creating your own optometry clinic, in case you are a young optometrist looking for ideas.

 

The model of a traditional optical shop is pretty straightforward. The "why" is clear: to make money. This leads to a focus on "what": selling frames and lenses. The "how" is often through cheap promotions and price competition. This is a viable model, and it is easy to understand why people are attracted to cheap things. However, it is difficult to achieve sustainability or customer loyalty with this model. If someone offers a lower price, customers will go to them. After all, if you are not passionate about your work, why should you expect customers to be passionate about your business?

 

Before you get the wrong idea, I am not saying that I have succeeded in everything. In reality, I have only succeeded in providing quality care in my optometry clinic. I am still far from being a wealthy person. However, I focus on the joy of working. I wake up every day eager to do something related to my profession. I read books, research information, and study to learn more about optometry. I am excited to come to work every day, whether I have patients or not. I don't think about anything more than how I can improve my work. If I make mistakes, I try to fix them as much as possible. I am simply happy to do good, and I am grateful that people appreciate my good work.

 

Start

 

I decided to create loft optometry out of my love for working in an optometry clinic. I personally had quite complicated problems and had some bad experiences with the eyewear industry since I was a child. I understand the feeling of fear that people with vision problems have when they need to find someone who understands and can solve their problems. Most shops are not open to solve problems for people, but for the benefits of the eyewear business. They only see glasses as a type of product that generates income. This is because most consumers lack knowledge and the law does not protect those who do not know. And once upon a time, I myself played the role of a victim to this industry.

 

Pain

 

Optometry started with me having vision problems that no one could answer since I was a child, even when I was a novice. It all started when I was studying Buddhist scripture, which required a lot of reading. The problem was that I saw the letters double. At the beginning of reading, it was not too much, but after reading continuously for about 30 minutes, the double image became heavier, like a newspaper page with smudged ink. In the morning, it seemed to improve a bit, but when I went back to reading, it happened again. It was an indescribable torture because I didn't know how to explain the problem I saw and the difficulty of reading to people with good eyes. The bigger problem is that "I can't stop reading." Only novices understand that "besides meditation time, it's time to study." Especially during the rainy season, I had to study Buddhist scripture as well, which made it even worse.

 

At that time, I could not stand the problem of my own vision, so I decided to go and try to get glasses. The eyewear store I chose at the time was inevitably a “convenient eyewear store" that currently has the most branches in Thailand.

 

The receptionist started by giving me a seat and a glass of cold orange. I really didn't want to drink the orange, but I understood and was afraid from the start that I would be forced to do something or something when I entered a store like this. But our choices were limited because there was no internet like today.

 

A male optician took me to a small room about 2.5 meters deep. He used a computer vision test (auto-refractometer) to have me look at a balloon. Then he took the values from the machine and tried to put in the lenses for me to try on.

At that time, my knowledge was still limited. I thought that the computer vision test was the most advanced thing. Because I saw the sign "computer vision test" everywhere. In the era when home computers were starting to become popular, this word was pretty cool. But now I understand that it is stupider than we thought and cannot be relied on. It is a machine that does not show the intelligence, skills, knowledge, or ability of the person who is testing our vision. Anyone can do this even in taxi’s driver.

 

After the test, it really shouldn't be called a test. It should be called "randomly inserting lenses." Any lens was clear. In the end, he let us choose one. Even though I  told him that it was clear but it was squeezing, bright, sore eyes, and sore eye sockets. He told us that I was new to glasses. Then he let me choose a frame. He also recommended a lightweight one. In conclusion, that day I had to pay 5,000 baht for the glasses after the discount. In fact, it was a frame that nowadays on Shopee would probably not be more than 2-300 baht, but they mark it up by 3,000% and then discount 50-70%. But at that time, I was stupid. Being deceived by a wolf in sheep's clothing was common. The price was not cheap if you compare it to the price of gold at that time, which was 4,500 baht (in 1987, gold 1 baht was equal to 4,869 baht).

 

After waiting for 3 days, I went to pick up the lenses. They were clear, but they caused headaches, pressure in my temples, and eye strain. After wearing them for a while, I felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. The staff said that it was because I was new to wearing glasses, and that I would get used to it after 3 days.

After 3 days, I still didn't feel better, so I went back to the store. The staff said that everything was fine, and that I just needed to adapt for another 5 days. After 5 days, I still had the same problems, so I went back to the store again. The store said that the warranty 7 days had expired, so they couldn't help me.

 

I wasted 5,000 baht on that pair of glasses, that mean I paid 35,000 baht today for junk. It was the most expensive orange juice I've ever had. It wasn't the price of the glasses that bothered me, it was the fact that they made my problems worse. They actually made the double vision worse.

 

I went to another store, this time a "beauty-something" store that translated to “beautiful (sound like sillyful)“ in Thai. The store looked nice, and the TV ads were catchy. However, I had the same experience there. I wasted another 5,000 baht on a pair of glasses that I couldn't wear.

 

I talked to Luang Por Charin (the abbot of Wat Tumruk Samakki at the time) about my problem. He showed me a box of glasses that he had collected. There were 5 pairs, and I had spent tens of thousands of baht on them. I couldn't wear any of them. Luang Por Charin told me that there were no good glasses, and that I should just put up with it.

 

The problem wasn't the money (because I had sponsors who paid for my glasses). It was the time I was wasting, and the poor quality of life I was living because my vision problems were not being solved. I couldn't avoid reading books, which made my problems worse.

 

One day, a van came to the temple to sell glasses. They set up a computer vision test in the dining hall. I decided to try it out. I spent another 3,000 baht on a pair of glasses that were sent to me by mail. They were tinted blue, and they were no better than wearing nothing at all. This was my third time being ripped off. If I had saved the money, I could have bought 3 baht worth of gold ,mean 100,000 bath today.

I was fed up, so I told my sponsor about my problems. He took me to a public eye hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 4:00 AM, and I got a Q-ticket at 6:00 AM. The doctor saw me at 10:00 AM, and he spent 5-10 minutes using a slit lamp to examine my eyes. He said that my eyes were normal. Even though I told him that I saw double vision like a newspaper with smudged ink, he didn't seem to believe me. He told my sponsor that I was "just imagining things" (because my visual acuity was within the normal range). I didn't have to pay for the glasses, just a few baht for the nursing fee.

 

I understand now that my problem, although it may seem severe to me, is not the specialty of a doctor who treats diseases. However, I at least wanted to know the cause of my problem and how to fix it. I didn't get anything, except for wasting my time and being told that I was "just imagining things.”

 

These experiences made me afraid that I would go blind. I didn't know where to go for help. I just lived with it, squinting and straining my eyes. I graduated from the Buddhist studies program and went on to high school. The symptoms were not as severe in high school because I didn't have to read as much as I did in Buddhist studies. However, I still wanted to know what was wrong with me.

 

Hope

 

Until high school, I was interested in studying something about vision. The only thing I knew was "ophthalmology," but I had never heard of "optometry." I admit that my high school grades were not good enough for medical school. I started to think about waiting to take the exam again, but I kept looking for information. I finally found optometry on Google, and it gave me hope that I would be able to understand my own problems and use that knowledge to help others with the same problems.

The whole story seemed like a miracle that was meant to be. I decided to study optometry, despite the objections of everyone involved in my scholarship. The tuition was the most expensive in the country at the time (75,000-80,000 baht per semester, which is now probably down to 65,000 baht). The program is also long, at 6 years, and it is a new field with few universities offering it. It was a huge risk, but I decided to move forward. When they saw my true intentions, the objections died down.

 

 

While I was studying optometry, my old vision problem still existed. I finally got to know my own problem when I was in my fourth year of study, that I had astigmatism, but not the same type of astigmatism that most people have, which is usually constant. My astigmatism is induced by the accommodation of the lens of the eye, which is called lenticular astigmatism. This occurs when the lens of the eye focuses to see close up. When the curvature of the lens of the eye changes, it causes astigmatism. The letters will be stacked in two layers. Then the lens of the eye becomes stuck, called accommodative spasm, making it blurry both near and far. It will return to being clear enough to live with again by letting the lens of the eye relax. I have ever checked my own vision that when I am fully rested and let the lens of the eye relax fully, I have about -1.75DS of nearsightedness and only -0.75DC of astigmatism. But if I don't get enough sleep, look at close-up objects heavily, and drink, my astigmatism value will jump to -3.00DC. That's the problem.

 

This is the reason why optometrists cannot open for patient consultations 24 hours a day. Even though the doctor can do it or is capable of doing it, the patient's body is not ready, causing the test results to be wrong.

 

The solution to my problem was not difficult if you understand the causes of problem. I just used progressive lenses to reduce accommodation. When I accommodated less, the astigmatism was induced less and the accommodative spasm was less. Nowadays, I hardly feel that this problem will cause me any trouble in my life. But to get to this point, I had to spend a long time for ten years to know the problem and solve it. (Now I feel so lucky that my score was not enough for medical school. Otherwise, I would not have learned the science that could give me the answer to my own problem.)

 

Because I already had problems, I studied especially hard. I never read just to pass the exam, but I read because I wanted to know. Whether it is on the exam or not is not important, but I must know as much as possible. And now, even though I have graduated for many years, my curiosity is still great and I still have to read and I should probably have to read for the rest of my life. Because the science of optometry is much deeper than just refraction. What we see in the eyewear shop probably uses knowledge that is not even 5% of the entire knowledge of optometry. It is only a part that makes money. Many people therefore often stop at this 5% and devote 95% of their knowledge to marketing. This is the overall picture.

 

Work & Experience

 

After graduating, one of my seniors invited me to work at Rodenstock Asia, a German lens company that was just starting to enter the Thai market and establish its own office. Previously, the company had marketed its products through distributors.

Since the company was new, everything was still in the works and there were few employees. This gave me the opportunity to learn and do everything that was my responsibility, even if it wasn't my direct job. We had to help each other out because we were so short-staffed.

 

Although I was hired as a lens consultant, my real job was a supporting role for all other departments, including marketing, sales, customer service, and even helping sales representatives sell lenses (but the commission went to the sales representative). I did it all, just for the experience.

My first job at Rodenstock was a challenging one, even though my salary was half that of my peers. The responsibilities were greater and more diverse than those of my friends. The rewards came in the form of a variety of experiences, rather than just a salary.

 

I had to do supporting work in the office, read and study white papers from the company's R&D department, and then summarize them into PowerPoint presentations. I also had to practice speaking and explaining them in a way that was easy to understand. I even had to write academic articles for the company for a magazine about eyewear under the pen name "rod." Rodenstock consultants are required to write an article for the magazine every year.

 

When I left the office, I would travel to visit customers at various eyewear stores to help promote Rodenstock products. I had the opportunity to meet a variety of customers, including those who were passionate about their businesses and wanted to learn how to improve their services. I also met customers who were only interested in discounts. Some customers believed that high-quality products, even if they were expensive, would sell in their markets. Others didn't think that expensive products, even if they were good, would be likely to sell in their markets. Some customers didn't buy because they were expensive and had to wait a long time for delivery, while others bought because they were expensive, had to wait a long time, but were good. This made me think about why different store owners would have completely different thoughts about the same thing.

 

I learned a lot during my time at Rodenstock. I saw it as an opportunity to learn and earn some money while I was in school. After working for four years (2010-2014), I had completed the Rodenstock program. The company had also taken shape, with more employees and a more structured system. I had completed most of the major presentation slides, and the only thing left to do was to update the technology. My presence or absence wasn't going to make much of a difference. I also wanted to work in a clinical optometry clinic. I wanted to meet real patients with real problems and use my knowledge to help them. I had a bad experience with my own eyes for many years, so if I could help them, it would be better. That's why Loft Optometry was founded on Watcharapol Road, Bangkhen, Bangkok.

 

From my perspective, I would like to encourage students who are about to graduate to choose a job that will give them the most experience, rather than just the highest salary. That is the real core value, and no one can take it away from you. Don't be just a small, worthless cog that can be replaced at any time. Be an important cog in the organization. That's how you will have value. When you have value, you will be valuable wherever you are.

 

I see many people who are trapped in a trap. They agree to work at a job they hate because they hope to get money at the end of the month. They are overworked, bullied, and harassed, but they stay because they are afraid to leave. They blame the economy, politics, or whatever they can to avoid doing what they really want to do. If you wait for the economy to improve, you will never start. The world economy has never been good. Ask your parents if there was ever a good time. The answer is no. But no matter what the economy is like, there will always be people who are successful. After being in the system for too long, people start to get older and become afraid. They start to have families and children to take care of, which makes them even more reluctant to take risks and start working on their passions. In the end, they have to sit and hug their chairs. The longer they stay, the more their salaries increase. When they get too high, or too high for the value the organization receives, that's when they will be fired to hire new

 

When I was working, I never took a vacation. I worked until the end of the year on December 31st (unless it fell on a weekend) every year. I never took sick leave. I only took one personal leave, which was to study for the board exam to obtain a Optometrical license for 5 days. I passed the exam on my first attempt, which was great because I only had 5 days to study (all day and night). That year, only 6 of my classmates and 2 seniors passed the exam, for a total of 8 people. If I had failed the exam, I would have had to wait another year to retake it, which would have been a waste of time.

 

My senior, who was my mentor, once told me that I was "unfit to live" and taught me not to be too crazy about the company. He said that "if you do too much beyond your salary, they will just thank you. But if you get sick, at most they will send you a flower basket on the first day, and then they won't come to visit you. And if you become disabled, they will just thank you for helping them, and then they will leave with a new employee to replace you. Then nothing will happen. It will be like a 'scratch on the sand on the beach that will soon disappear.’"

 

I understood what he was saying, but I chose to be "unfit to live" because I was happy doing what I was doing. If I stopped, I didn't know what I would do. The point is that I worked that hard, but my salary was only 22,000 baht (plus 7,000 baht for gas) . At the same time, another lens company offered me a salary that was twice as much as my current salary. But I chose to reject it because the company I was working for had just been established and there were still many things that were not finished and I still wanted to do, cause of money was not the object for me. It was the knowledge and experience that I needed. When I had learned everything I could, I left. But the Rodenstock blood in me is still there to this day.

 

Dream

 

During my four years working for Rodenstock, I had the opportunity to visit customers and present lenses for treating vision problems. I saw and heard their thoughts and perspectives, which made my dream clearer. I understood why my problems had never been resolved in the past 20 years.

Even the basic requirement of having a 6-meter examination room is difficult to meet. This is because 80% of the space is allocated for displaying eyeglass frames, leaving only a small space for vision examination.

 

This ratio reflects the priorities of most stores, which focus on making money from selling frames. The clinical importance is not part of the priority, so it is given little attention. As a result, the products we sell may have problems. Patients cannot use them, even though the problem is not with the lenses. It is due to the inaccurate vision measurement. The lenses are then returned for correction, but the problem is often compounded. The process continues until the customer becomes frustrated and gives up.

 

This is a familiar story that I have known since I was a child. It became clearer as I grew older, which led to a new dream of revolutionizing the industry and creating something new for the profession of optometry, which is involved in the diagnosis and treatment of vision problems.

 

Therefore, my dream during my time at Rodenstock is to open a good optometry clinic that is what it should be. I want to provide people with new knowledge and understanding about glasses. I want to create a new image for the medical device that is used to treat vision problems, which we are familiar with as "glasses." I want to create new understanding that "dispensing lenses is a treatment," which is an optical treatment, just like surgical treatment and medical treatment. It is not just an accessory like the old ones. I want to create new acceptance of the science of optometry in Thai society. I want to create clear distinctions between the profession of optometry and other related professions, such as doctors and opticians.

 

My ultimate dream is to see optometry in Thailand have standards of practice that are equal to international standards in developed countries like the United States. If I can achieve all of this, I will consider it a life well-lived. Then I will be able to retire to a mountaintop in KhaoKho’, read books, write academic papers, and upload my knowledge to the network. This is so that my knowledge will continue to exist for future generations to study.

 

Become

 

But before I opened my own clinic, I reflected on my experiences at the free orange juice store and the various optical stores that I had the opportunity to visit during my time at Rodenstock. I took the good ideas from each store and discarded the bad ones. In the end, I wanted to work in an optometry clinic that was not a glasses store, but still needed glasses because we use glasses and lenses to treat our patients.

 

The optical store that was my prototype was SPOD-Mukdahan, which was a Rodenstock customer with many good ideas to follow. The owner was a optician who worked at a level that many optometrists would be ashamed of. In that era, I saw a 6-meter examination room in this store for the first time. They had binocular function testing, retinoscopy, and handheld -JCC, which I had never seen anywhere else before. The owner asked me this question when we met for the first time: "What is the best sphere? How do you do it? How do you find it? And where is the neutral point on the retinoscopy?"

 

These questions may seem simple, but they reflect the knowledge and understanding that is inside. And if I can't answer them, He won't buy lenses from our company because I was lens consultant but dumb. I remember the answer was "nutral". There is no ideal neutral in retinoscopy, just not “with-movement or against-movement reflect in pupil . That's the neutral point. After this answer, I was able to sell the company's lenses to SPOD without any effort or discount promotion.

 

To elaborate a little, the search for the ideal neutral is like searching for the turtle's whiskers. It's tiring. Correct vision is vision that is not wrong in any direction, whether it is positive or negative, up or down, left or right , another word “center is nothing surround”. We must remove all abnormalities, regardless of where they are, and the rest will be correct. Therefore, vision examination is a matter of cutting out the wrong things. When we cut until there is nothing left to cut, the rest is the best or most accurate. So, anyone who talks about "accurate" but arranges vision, huh, stupid funny. Let's continue…

 

Now, the challenge is how to make a store that is not just a glasses store, but if it is necessary to use lenses and glasses in treatment, we have services. My shop looks more like a house than a glasses shop. When you look in, you don't know what it is. There are trees covering the entrance to the shop. There are no glasses on display in front of the shop. The signboard is so small that it is invisible if you don't pay attention. The small shop is in a hidden corner, so people driving by will never know I work here. And many patients, even though their homes are in this area, they often ask me if I've been open for a long time. When I say I've been open for almost ten years, they wonder why they never knew. Which I intended to do that. If there is a problem, please come. If there is no problem or you don't think there is a problem that requires a professional, you don't have to come. There are many glasses shops to shop around. But when you want to receive services from an optometry clinic, come in. Which is actually good. It is a way to filter people who will be involved with us. All patients who come in are appointments. This makes everyone wait and if there are no appointments, I don't have to standby and I have a lot of other things to do, which should be win/win.

 

Another personal perspective is that I probably don't want people to pass by and don't think they have a problem that needs to be fixed. Or just think that you see a beautiful pair of glasses and want to try them on. If they come this way, I probably won't be ready to receive guests either because I have a lot of work to do. This is the reason why I am not interested in opening a clinic in the mall. People who walk by and see a glasses shop think it's a clothing store. Go try, walk, grab, don't say anything, no, no, walk with your arms crossed, compare price with low value shop,  close yourself off, be suspicious. I couldn't stand that condition because respect is the basis for living together.

 

In the case of a glasses store, it is possible because their view of glasses is the same as clothing and utensils. It's not about health. Respect is not important because the target is sales ,customer is a king but patient is not a king cause of optometry job is professional not just seller optical. And the funniest thing is "free detailed vision test by doctor of optometrist, but the price of a single hinge screw is 50 baht, the price of a nose pad is 100 baht". Does this mean that the value of optometry work is lower than a single screw that it is free?

 

Be value

 

If you ask me what is the value in my work, the answer is to verify to find the root cause of the problem and use the skills and knowledge I have learned and the experiences I have had in the past to solve the problem for the patient correctly. There are also answers to the patient's vision problems. Some problems are beyond my scope of work, but I have to give the patient an answer to what the problem is, what the cause is, and who to help.

 

The tools related to verification, as well as the location, atmosphere, and time, must be conducive to the overall work and are the first priority to be prepared. The inspection tools must be of the highest standard, the examination room must meet the 6-meter standard, and the atmosphere must not be crowded or noisy, which will disrupt the work concentration.

 

In addition, continuing education must be available for professional work. Textbooks must be readily available for study and practice to become more proficient. And I found that many things are different from the textbooks I studied. The knowledge I got from the classroom is not true. For example, the teaching of modify prescription is not true ,that’s silly knowledge that should not happen in college. Because the lens technology is so advanced these days, we can work in a straightforward way now. There is no need to use the science of spherical equivalent as used in the prescribe of soft contact lenses. On the contrary, the more modify prescription you do, the lower the efficiency of the high-tech lens.

 

The problem is whether full correction is really full or just imagined. Therefore, the knowledge of verification is necessary. Both tools, examination rooms, the darkness and brightness of the examination room lights. If the preliminary factors do not pass or do not exist, do not mention full correction yet. Go back to the old way of modify prescribing glasses. At least you can sell glasses. Good or bad, let's talk about it. If it doesn't pay off, that's okay. Make promotions to attract new customers to the store. Because there are still many people in Thailand who don't know anything about it. And he is used to eyewear stores already. For the most part, they do not expect knowledge from a convenience eyewear store. When the value is low, he has to squeeze the biggest discount possible in case he can't wear it just throw it away so they do not have to regret the item.

 

Creating such value, the brain cannot think and analyze from more than 5 cases per day. In fact, it can only be 3 cases at the most. After 3 cases, your head will start to dull and dumb. The work will become coarser. The more you do, the more sloppy it will be. So don't be tempted to check 10 cases a day because the work that comes out is all sloppy. Think about the image of when we were students who checked vision 600 cases a day. Doing a lot means it's really good? In fact, if you do that much, you can only like measure glasses power in lensometer  because it doesn't require a lot of thought. It is still far from comprehensive eye exam. Some people are so heavy that they don't think at all. Shoot auto-refract and try on lenses for 5-10 minutes, then spend time and energy selling frames, selling lenses, hallucinating, creating expectations, ending with lens claims, wasting patient time. Some patients refuse to have to refund them. It is called losing wealth. Then how will this kind of work find value?

 

Belong

 

Running a business while maintaining value is not easy. And what makes it difficult is greed. "It wants to be fast." When it's not fast, it's suffering. For example, I want to grow fast, I want to be known fast, I want to be rich fast. When it's not fast, it's suffering. Because speed or slowness is a matter of cause and effect, sometimes beyond our control.

 

Many people can't stand it, and eventually they have to lower their value to make it fast. For example, devaluing yourself with rough eye exams (actually using a computer to examine) quickly, trying to close the sale, trying to make the price low to compete with the market that has no value and low cost such as convenience stores. When you saw the customer flow, your heart was filled with joy. Sometimes you don't realize that the real cost is not worth it. When you change your mind and take back the value, sometimes it's too late. You have to rebrand because repairing a cracked glass to look new is more difficult than building a new one.

 

Many young optometrists have asked, "I just opened a new store. What should I do to make them know me quickly?" I have to ask back, "Why do you have to let them know you quickly or known a lot?" The answer is "to get a lot of case (a lot of money)". Which is not wrong because business is measured by sell-performance as important. But I give this perspective that, suppose there is a case with a lot of purchasing power, pay unlimited, please solve the vision problem. Suppose he has double vision, can't combine images, can't see clearly with one eye, can't see clearly with two eyes at the same time, can't read books, has been since childhood as far as he remembers, has spent a lot of time and money but no one can fix it. Then this person walked in to ask for your help, willing to pay whatever it takes. The question is "Can you help him or have confidence to do this type of case?" If you are confident, not afraid, not afraid to do difficult cases, I can tell you that you don't have to be afraid. Just keep working hard, you will definitely be born. Because this person is not alone. He has parents, family, friends, bosses, subordinates, and customers he knows. He will definitely tell others. Then your base will gradually grow and be quality patients. They don't come to you because your services are cheap or expensive, but because they believe in you.

 

On the other hand, we brag on social media that we have free detailed eye exams and muscle exams by an optometrist, but when the patient actually comes, you can't do anything for him. Your mouth is shaking, your legs are shaking, or you may be good at closing sales, but in the end you can't fix it. The story will be the opposite. Because the patients you care for are not alone. He will also tell his friends that "don't come, the promotion what they said are lying ”. Over time, we won't see repeat patients coming back, making you have to find new ones all the time. That's the starting point we call "promotional sales”. Why does a 50-year-old eyewear business still have to find new customers all the time? Where have all the old customers gone? ,think about it.

 

The goods and services that you ask them to buy are not the same as the goods and services that they ask to buy from you. If it's not good, you have to "sell it" to make a promotion so that they buy it. But if yours are good, you don't need to sell them, they ask to buy. The principle of thinking is just this. If the noodle is delicious, why wouldn't they buy it to eat, unless it's not delicious. Selling a plate plus a plate, they might buy it to feed their dog at home. But would they let their dog eat that expensive every day? Noop!, I do not believe that.

But I repeat again that "it's not easy." Passion is the only thing that will keep us going to be able to stand firm in creating value. Of course, the early days will be a test of whether we are "real" or not. The market will respond to our stubbornness, making us feel that the path we are walking on may be "wrong somewhere". Until some people get confused, they give up their passion and return to the blood market again. And when you come down, getting back up is harder by thousands of times.

 

How do we do it?

 

Passion is nourished by love. So, we must fall in love with the work we are doing first. Be happy with the small good things we offer to those who come for service. Then be happy with the results that we can help patients. And take these things to nourish passion.

 

But the thing that will confuse us is the cost incurred by management, whether it is rent, water, electricity, food, accommodation, employees, technicians, and debt that must be paid every month. It will be a trigger for us to fight or flee, one way or the other.

 

Therefore, the important thing is to "make it small" but "small like a chili pepper, not big but hollow" to reduce fixed costs as much as possible. For example, make a small shop with cheap rent and convenient parking. When the shop is small, the decoration will not be high. There is no need for many sofas and furniture. Two air conditioners are cool. Two or three people in the shop are warm. It doesn't look lonely or lonely. Let's imagine a warm small shop with a big, empty shop. Which one looks more creepy?

 

Prioritize clearly with the budget you have. What is necessary is to provide. What can still wait, wait first. Walk slowly, move slowly. But if you have a lot of money, you don't borrow from anyone, it's considered lucky. But what comes easily, the value is usually not high. Leading to the lack of interest in work, no care, in the end, it usually doesn't survive either. There are many examples, such as a rich kid who has money left over, doesn't know what to do, invests in opening a big beautiful cafe, beautiful for people to check in, but doesn't know anything about coffee. Then who will check in again at just a beautiful cafe’ but not delicious coffee shop? Because people need new props all the time. In the end, they had to break up.

 

When we do good things, value is created. Trust is also created. Repeat service also occurs. At least one round takes about 3-4 years. But in the meantime, it will be gradually spread from one to two, four to eight, sixteen, and spread gradually exponential. Therefore, the length of time to keep passion is at least 10 years to generate return at least two rounds. Then you can go into the cave and work quietly.

 

 

Future

 

The future is unknown. It could be like the Israel-Palestine conflict, or it could be something completely different. But one thing is for sure: we should leave the world a better place by doing the right thing and not regretting the past, because we did our best.

 

If you ask me about my dream, it is to see the profession of optometry grow to the same level as developed countries like America. I want to see a strong profession with its own optometry council, no modify refractive manipulation, no deception or cheating, and a profession that works professionally and is a true source of support for people. I don't want to see optometrists competing with each other by hard-selling or lowering their values. Instead, I want to see everyone doing their best in their respective roles. That is the future that I imagine.

 

"When that day comes, I see myself sitting in a cabin on the top of KhaoKho mountain (which is already prepared). The fresh morning air, letting the waves of mist touch my face with a morning drip coffee, listening to the sound of birds foraging, planting trees, planting vegetables, raising cats, reading books, writing books, sharing my experiences. that I have for the younger generation to study further.

 

I don't know how possible it is, but today I have to keep going. And I would be very happy if any young optometrists who are about to start their own business and can use this idea in their business. Even though we are not blood brothers, but we are under the same optometrist roof with the same beliefs and ideals. Living to create good things for the world to continue.”

 

Thanks you all for reading and see you next

Good luck.

Dr.Loft ,O.D.