Keith Black Interview (page: 4 / 5) Pioneering Neurosurgeon	Print Interview

In most careers there are setbacks and disappointments. Have you had those?

Keith Black: There's certainly been ups and downs.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I think one of the hopes that we all have is that the world will recognize us for what our talents are, and you work hard and you do a good job and that's it. Unfortunately, as we all know, there's politics. There are people with different political agendas that are not necessarily motivated by the same moral sort of drives that you might have. I mean, people do things not necessarily for the best interest of patients, or for humanity. They may do it for the best interest of themselves, so we have to deal with those political obstacles, which can divert a lot of time and energy. That can be annoying sometimes, because as you say, it's hard enough trying to find a cure for cancer, and have to step back and say, "Wait a minute. What is this political agenda here?" And have to be wise enough to circumnavigate those to achieve your objective.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

What about criticism, controversy? How do you deal with that?

Keith Black: I think that's good. I think that it keeps one in check. I think one should be their worst critic, and when criticism comes from the outside, I think it makes one tougher in a way. As they say, a strong wind makes for a strong tree.

Did you learn that from your father?

Keith Black: I did.

We have talked about dealing with failure and criticism. What about success? How do you handle success? Can that be a problem?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Keith Black: I think you never read your news stories. I've had a fair amount -- for a physician scientist -- of media exposure, and one of the things I tend to do is to ignore it, and to essentially stay focused on the ball, to stay focused on what the objective is, and to not let that become part of what you are, because it's not really who you are. I mean, who you are is what you do and what your work is. I think the notoriety is important, because it shows other people the path, but besides that, what's really important is what you do.

How did it feel when you were named one of TIME magazine's "Heroes of Medicine?"

Keith Black: It felt great. You say, "Wow! I'm on the cover of TIME magazine!" And what you do is sit back and take a few days and just enjoy it and celebrate it, and then you say, "You know what? I've got to get back to work."

What do you know now about achievement that you didn't know when you were younger, or when you were starting out?

Keith Black: Not much. I think that it's important to just follow a couple of principles: Doing what you love to do, being in the right environment, making the right environment for yourself.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. If you want to do something, one of the smartest things that you can do is go find someone that's done it and to try to get them to show you how they did it, to show you where the potholes are. What are the right steps to get there? If you want to be an NBA basketball star, go try to find people that are stars, and to try to get them to become your mentors. If you want to become a brain surgeon, go find a brain surgeon or brain surgeons, and to try to have them be your mentor. And not just in terms of where to go to school, but what are the things that are really tough that you have to overcome, and how did you overcome it. Just having the drive and the discipline and the focus to not take no for an answer.

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When you run up against an obstacle, to do what I call the principle of tai chi. You know, karate takes a force and it opposes with a force, but in most obstacles that you run up against, you're outgunned and you're outnumbered, so you're not going to overcome it with force. One of the smartest things that you can do is to take that force and turn it back against itself, which is what tai chi does. And to enjoy what you do, because if you're not having fun at it you're going to get tired real quick. But if you do what you enjoy, and if you're disciplined, if you find mentors, if you use your head when you come up against an obstacle, and find a way to overcome that obstacle and to keep moving forward -- or to move around and move forward -- you'll get to where you want to go.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

What do you say to a young person who asks you what you had to overcome and how you did it?

Keith Black: Well, if a person asks me that, they're probably not going to get a lot of information, because it's not something I could really say in five or ten minutes.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. One of the great mentors that I had was a doctor by the name of O.T. Randall, when I was a medical student at the University of Michigan. He was a professor in cardiology, and I was working in his research lab. But the best time with him was not designing the research project, but it was at the end of the day, when we would sit in the lab and listen to some John Coltrane or Miles Davis, and he would tell me about the obstacles that he had just faced in, for example, getting promoted from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure, or the politics in doing that, and the strategy that he used to sort of overcome that, and I would listen. And then I realized, ten years later, when I was facing the same obstacles, that I would use some of his same strategies that I was listening to him talk about ten years ago. That's what being a mentor is all about. It's sort of building up that repertoire, so that when you have to use it five years or ten years later, you have it sort of in that background.

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