08 Jul A complete Story of Success
„ If you follow the publications of successful patient cases on social media channels, you get the impression that dental technology is dominated by men. Danijela Modrić is an example that women are not inferior to their male colleagues. Therefore, dear ladies, have more confidence and show what results you can achieve!
These success stories of dental technicians of the younger generation show you how they followed their career path and the passion with which they live their profession. Once again, these examples show that you can be successful as a dental technician, regardless of the background, if you love the profession, constantly keep on learning, strive for successs and seek exchange with like-minded people.
Even the technological change and progressive digitalisation in recent years have not changed the fact that dental prostheses are only as good as the knowledge and craftsmanship of the dental technician who operates the digital systems and processes materials.
We are looking forward to a lot of young dental technicians who will be inspired by our Stories of Success to write their own success story. “
Thomas Hiebel, Marketing and Sales Director
at Creation Willi Geller
I am writing these lines prompted by the editorial above and the Stories of Success campaign run by Thomas at Creation Willi Geller, which gave me the opportunity to give an interview and present my career path as I see it, alongside eight other top colleague technicians and as the only female participant. The entire campaign is designed to encourage young technicians in their ambition to become excellent professionals, aesthetes. It was done superbly and I am grateful to Thomas and Mr. Geller for the opportunity. However, within it, I had neither the space, nor the opportunity to give my full view of success and myself. In parallel, and as promised, I started editing the Philosophy section of this website and thought: Why not start with the material from Stories of Success and my completed story as an introductory for all future texts?! Really! Why not?
Everything I said and that was published in the interview is true, but what I consider to be my real success is a much deeper process within my personality that this demanding profession allows me and which I am painstakingly and long lastingly mastering. In addition, the view on what I considered a success and what most people mean by that has changed dramatically and I am happy to share that reflection with you. Therefore, please endure and read it to the end. It’s worth it.
Everyone wants success, but they do not want the effort and discomfort that the path to it gives us. That is how it was and how it still is with me as I am not a masochist, nor have I turned into anything like that in the meantime to enjoy it. Why is it difficult? Well, because we do not know the price of any success in advance and we must be willing to pay it. It is not easy, if it were easy everyone would be successful. Perhaps 2-5 % of talent participates in the entire story while the rest comes down to grooming character weaknesses and not giving up. For example, I have gone from being a withdrawn person who was reluctant to engage in public appearences and contacts, someone who has never reacted when her real title, MDT, was regularly omitted on a business card or in a public presentation due to unease, to becoming a person who presents herself correctly and without intermediaries with ease. I realised that my ambition to be as good as possible and for it to be recognised would not be achieved by sitting in the corner of a dusty laboratory, shedding tears at midnight over my misery and the veneer that broke for the seventh time, waiting for someone to notice me, but that I have to stand up for myself, my skill and results, thus exposing myself to the public. No one can help me or you but, as many of you already do, we have to get back on our feet from a knock down again and again like a crazy bruised boxer. My true success is that I ceased to cry over poor Danijela and the broken veneer. When I’m having a hard time, I go home to sleep and early in the morning I usually solve the problem, whatever it is. And you see, it strengthened me. I realised I was a lot tougher than I thought. I compare myself and copy others less and develop my own expression and style more, whilst respecting all the role models that still exist. I am not materially rich, or perhaps I am?! On average, I spend 10-12 hours a day at work, often working on Saturdays and Sundays but not as long then. I own a small apartment that is half paid off, a laboratory in my own premises and a 17-year old Toyota Yaris. I’m fine with that. The domain in which I know I am wealthy is my experience and skill + I have a family, a friend, a partner, a family dog, I love… Do I consider myself successful? Yes, because I am living my dream.
I recommend to all of you who are starting, as well as to those who are already in the game and ”something is not right”, not to complain, do not give up lightly when it is difficult and do not do anything half-heartedly! Understand hardships in a sporty manner and learn constantly as learning is a lifelong process. Carefully allocate your energy because everything you do requires a part of it. Insist that your efforts and knowledge are respected, thus removing people who burden you and do not support you from your life.
And finally: Do you know that the Chinese ideograms for the words problem and opportunity are identical?