Very Short Interview No. 1

I interviewed my boyfriend's father, John Moor, for this post. Mr. Moor owns his own orthopedic surgery practice in Sarasota, Florida. He started Advanced Sports Medicine Center about 25 years ago, and the practice has been extremely successful ever since.

I called Mr. Moor while he was in between surgeries on a regular afternoon full of breaking bones and putting them back together. He was on speaker phone with me while Jordan, his son/my boyfriend, was sitting nearby, constantly interrupting my questions with humorous quips of his own.

Question 1 : What do you think is the most important thing for an entrepreneurship class to teach?
       Mr. Moor: "Accounting. It's often overlooked by people just starting out. All the self-made guys will tell you that everything is based on accounting. You need to know how you're doing and where your going, and the numbers will tell you everything you need to know."

Question 2 : What's the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome?
       Jordan Moor (trying to be funny): "Oh he didn't have any clients when he started. He hurt people just so they'd need him to give them surgery."
       Mr. Moor: "Actually, no. Government was the biggest issue. Their overhead costs are non stop roadblocks when I was trying to get things started, and even now they sometimes get in the way. And for the record, I've never injured anyone to get their business, but thanks for that Jordan."

Question 3 : What does it mean to you to be an entrepreneur?
       Mr. Moor: "Being an entrepreneur means that I get to do things my way. I get to select the best and do things the easiest, most efficient way. It's better than being in a group making decisions, I get to make the important snap decisions that I want. I am considered to be in the 99% of my peer group, and that is only because I work for myself."

This interview, while very short, was quite eye-opening for me. When creating these questions, I couldn't help but thinking of the answers I assumed Mr. Moor would give. I was surprised that his answer for the first question was accounting, when I assumed he would've said perseverance and dedication. I also learned a lot about Mr. Moor and his pride for what he's made for himself. I never knew how important is is to be able to make your own decisions in the medical industry, but it makes a lot of sense. When someones life is on the line, you need to make snap decisions and not have to worry about clearing the decision with a board of directors. Overall, I'm very glad that I decided to do this very short interview on Mr. Moor. It just goes to show that this class and the blog posts are opening my eyes to things I never would have known otherwise.