A Doctor, a Nurse, and an Entrepreneur Walk Into Orientation

Earlier this week, I attended the first day of nursing orientation for a new position, and on the drive home, I found myself reflecting on a pattern that has repeated itself several times throughout my life.

This is not the first time I have stepped away from nursing and then returned. Over the years, I have moved between several different roles and identities. I have served as a soldier, a nurse, a trainer, a coach, a speaker, a minister, and a singer. Sometimes one role occupied most of my attention, while another took a back seat for a season.

Each time I returned to nursing, however, I experienced a familiar concern.

What if I have forgotten too much?

What if the skills are rusty? What if the knowledge is gone? What if I am not as capable as I once was?

The interesting thing is that every time I have returned, the same thing has happened. The knowledge begins to surface. Procedures start to make sense again. Conversations sound familiar. The instincts that were developed through years of practice begin to wake up.

Not immediately. Not perfectly. But consistently.

As I thought about that reality, I realized this experience was teaching me something much bigger than a lesson about nursing.

The truth is that this return to nursing is not about abandoning coaching, speaking, writing, or entrepreneurship. It is about creating additional stability while continuing to build those things. Positive Perspectives is still my business. The people I serve are still the people I serve. My mission has not changed. What has changed is my willingness to use every skill available to me while continuing to pursue that mission.

This nursing role may be temporary, but the lesson it reminded me of is timeless.

Perhaps that is why this reflection felt so important.

Before I go any further, I should acknowledge that this lesson may not apply to everyone.

Some entrepreneurs have already reached the point where their businesses fully support their lifestyle and responsibilities. Others are just beginning to explore the possibility of starting a business.

I am writing to the people somewhere in the middle.

The ones who have gained traction. The ones who have paying clients. The ones who know their work creates value. The ones who are experiencing success, but not yet enough success to fully carry the weight of life’s responsibilities.

Those are often the people who feel the greatest tension between pursuing the dream and paying the bills.

Those are the people I had in mind during that drive home.

I know I am not the only entrepreneur who has wrestled with the tension between pursuing a dream and meeting practical responsibilities. Many business owners quietly wonder whether taking a job, accepting a contract, or returning to a previous profession somehow means they are moving backward.

I would argue that it often means the opposite.

Sometimes it means you are being wise enough to play the long game.

That realization led me to a broader question about entrepreneurship.

Many entrepreneurs carry a fear that they rarely talk about openly.

We celebrate stories about people who quit their jobs, bet everything on themselves, and build successful businesses. Those stories can be inspiring, but they can also create an unrealistic expectation about what success is supposed to look like.

Somewhere along the way, many entrepreneurs begin believing that if they take a job, accept a contract, work part-time in a previous profession, or create an additional source of income, they have somehow failed.

The logic sounds something like this:

“If my business were really successful, I wouldn’t need to do this.”

“If I were fully committed, I wouldn’t go back.”

“If I were doing things right, I wouldn’t need another source of income.”

The problem is that life is rarely that simple.

Most entrepreneurs are not building businesses in a vacuum. They have families. They have mortgages. They have responsibilities. They have goals that require both vision and stability.

There is a significant difference between giving up on a dream and creating enough stability to continue pursuing it.

Unfortunately, many people confuse the two.

One of the greatest mistakes we can make is believing that we must abandon our previous skills to validate our current ambitions.

Why?

Why would we throw away abilities that took years, and sometimes decades, to develop?

Before I ever started coaching, I spent years developing expertise in other areas. The same is true for many entrepreneurs. They spent years learning leadership, communication, healthcare, education, ministry, technology, project management, sales, or dozens of other disciplines.

Those experiences did not become worthless the day they launched a business.

In fact, those experiences are often part of the reason their business exists in the first place.

My experiences as a nurse help me understand people. My military experience influences how I lead. My coaching background shapes how I teach. My ministry experience helps me connect with people who are struggling. My speaking experience strengthens my ability to communicate ideas.

None of those roles cancel each other out.

They strengthen each other. They work in tandem.

This isn’t a deus ex machina. It’s stewardship. The skills that are helping me today didn’t appear out of nowhere. They were developed through years of service, learning, setbacks, and growth.

I am not forced to choose between being a coach and being a nurse. I am not required to stop being a speaker because I accept another opportunity. I do not lose my identity as an entrepreneur because I am using another skill set that I spent years developing.

Those experiences are tools, and there is wisdom in using the right tool when the situation calls for it.

One of the most practical lessons entrepreneurship teaches is that dreams and responsibilities must coexist.

Building a business takes time. Sometimes it takes longer than we expected. Sometimes it requires more patience than we anticipated. Sometimes it grows in bursts, and other times it grows steadily over months or years.

During that process, life continues.

Bills continue to arrive.

Families continue to depend on us.

Unexpected expenses continue to appear.

There is no shame in taking care of those responsibilities.

In fact, I would argue that responsibility is one of the clearest signs of maturity. Choosing to create financial stability while continuing to build a business is not evidence of failure. It is evidence of stewardship.

Too often, entrepreneurship is portrayed as an all-or-nothing endeavor. Either you are completely independent, or you have somehow fallen short.

Real life does not work that way.

Many successful entrepreneurs have moved back and forth between different opportunities throughout their journey. They consulted. They worked on contracts. They accepted temporary roles. They leveraged skills they had developed years earlier.

Not because they lacked vision.

Because they had wisdom.

As I reflected on today’s experience, I realized that perhaps the greatest lesson is that we are often far more than a single title.

In fact, one thought made me laugh during the drive home.

It occurred to me that I may be one of the few people who can legitimately introduce himself as both a doctor and a nurse.

Depending on who is listening, that statement either sounds impressive or completely confusing.

The funny thing is that our culture tends to rank titles. We assume some titles represent progress while others represent a step backward. We imagine success as a straight line that always moves upward, with each new title replacing the one that came before it.

Life has never worked that way for me.

I have been a soldier, a nurse, a trainer, a coach, a speaker, a minister, and a singer. Some of those roles existed simultaneously. Others emerged during different seasons of life. None of them erased the others.

The truth is that neither “doctor” nor “nurse” tells my whole story.

For years, I have introduced myself in different ways depending on the setting. Sometimes I am Dr. Hanna. Sometimes I am Coach Jay. Sometimes I am a speaker, a singer, a minister, or a nurse.

The reality is that all of those descriptions are true.

Life has taught me that many of our gifts were never meant to compete with one another. They were meant to complement one another.

The leadership lessons from the military still serve me. The compassion learned through nursing still serves me. The communication skills developed through speaking still serve me. The insights gained through coaching still serve me.

Those gifts did not disappear when I shifted my focus.

They remained available when I needed them.

Perhaps that is true for you as well.

The skills you learned years ago may still have value. The experiences you accumulated may still have relevance. The profession you stepped away from may still have something to offer your current season of life.

Sometimes we spend so much time trying to become the next version of ourselves that we forget to appreciate the value of the person we have already become.

As I drove home from orientation, I realized I had spent years worrying about whether I would remember enough to return to nursing.

The truth is that I had never really lost it.

The knowledge was still there. The experience was still there. The lessons were still there.

They simply needed an opportunity to resurface.

The same may be true of the entrepreneur who is considering returning to a previous profession for a season. You do not stop being an entrepreneur because you accept another opportunity. You do not lose your vision because you create stability. You do not abandon your dream because you decide to be responsible.

Sometimes progress means taking another step toward your goal.

Sometimes progress means using every skill you possess to make sure you can continue pursuing that goal tomorrow.

Both can be acts of wisdom.

You don’t stop being an entrepreneur.

You simply become an entrepreneur who knows how to use every tool available.

Think differently. Live brilliantly

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