Play to Win: How Dentists Can Use The Strategic Power of Choices for a Better Life

-Written by Dr. DeAngelo S. Webster

You worked for years to get here. You built a career, a reputation, maybe even a thriving dental practice. By most measures, you’ve won. Yet, if you are honest, something feels off.

The schedule is packed, but your time is not your own. The income is high, but so are the responsibilities. You’ve created success, yet you still don’t feel free.

The problem isn’t dentistry. It’s not even the business. The problem is that you have been making moves without a strategy. You have been playing someone else’s game, following a script handed to you long ago, never stopping to ask:

What game do you actually want to win?

A grandmaster in chess does not move randomly. They control the board. They think five, ten, twenty moves ahead. They dictate the tempo and know the outcome.

You must do the same.

Move #1: Define the Game—Or Be a Pawn in Someone Else’s

Most people drift through life, responding to circumstances, assuming that if they work hard enough, success will automatically lead to happiness. 

This is a lie.

If you do not define what winning means for you, society will do it for you. Maybe you’ll like that outcome…or maybe you won’t.

Stop and ask yourself:

• Is your goal freedom—to work less and live more?
• Is it power—to build something massive and dominate a market?
• Is it time—to step away from the chair and still have your income grow?
• Is it peace—to strip away complexity and live on your terms?

Most never ask these questions. They keep moving forward like pawns, unaware they are being positioned by forces beyond their control.

But you—you will stop playing blind. You will choose your own definition of victory.

Because if you don’t, you will wake up one day realizing you spent decades climbing a ladder that was leaning against the wrong wall.

Move #2: Control the Board—Eliminate the Unnecessary

You are exhausted not because you work hard, but because you work without control.

Every hour in your schedule, every email, every decision—each one is a piece on the board. The question is: Who is truly in control?

Grandmasters control the center. They dictate the flow of the game. They remove distractions and concentrate their energy only on what truly matters.

Look at your life with brutal clarity:

• Are you saying yes too often—taking on tasks, patients, or obligations that serve no higher purpose? Do you fear saying no to a patient’s demands or to say no to that friend you don’t really want to meet up with?
• Are you so immersed in daily operations that you have no space to think, to plan, to create leverage? Are you being driven by the tasks of the day – instead of being the driver?
• Are you letting your practice run you instead of designing it to serve your life?

The solution is a lean mindset.

• Eliminate what doesn’t serve your endgame. Cut out low-value work, delegate aggressively, and refuse to trade time for money – unless it’s on your own terms.
• Redesign your systems. Fill your life with things you enjoy, systematically. We can get more into this in future journal articles.
• Set clear boundaries. Control your schedule, guard your time, and refuse to let urgency dictate your life.

Mastery is not about doing more—it is about doing only what matters.

As Steve Jobs once said, “Focus is about saying No.”

Move #3: Sacrifice Wisely—Trade Pieces for Position

In chess, there is no victory without sacrifice. Oftentimes a pawn or lesser piece must be sacrificed to win the game. But the mistake most make is sacrificing the wrong things.

Look at those around you. How many of them have spent decades sacrificing their health, their time, their relationships—only to realize too late that their so-called success was a trap?

You are already making sacrifices. The question is: Are you choosing them, or are they being chosen for you?

A grandmaster sacrifices with intention. They trade pieces to gain long-term victory.

• Trade short-term income for long-term leverage. Cut the procedures, plans, patients, and peers that drain you, and replace them with those that bring higher returns and more happiness with less effort.
• Trade comfort for control. It is easier to micromanage than to build systems. It is easier to work than to delegate. But these choices keep you constrained.
• Trade approval for independence. Many will not understand your decisions. Some will judge. Let them. They are not playing your game.

What things are you willing and able to sacrifice, in exchange for winning your game?

Move #4: Play to Win—Not to Avoid Losing

You can’t be afraid to lose in the short term. The greatest winners have lost time and time again. The only way to avoid losing completely is to stay out of the game.  But when you really play to win – you know that losses are temporary. They are merely chances to learn and improve.

Grandmasters force their opponents to react. They move first, think ahead, and dictate the game.

• Instead of waiting for “the right time, make the move now.
• Instead of hoping your income will be enough for the future, design a financial plan today.
• Instead of saying you’ll be more present for your family “someday,” build a system that allows you to spend the time with your family that you know they deserve.

The biggest mistake in life is assuming you have time.

You don’t.

Start making moves.

You now understand the game. You see the board clearly. You have power, but only if you use it.

What are you optimizing for?

Freedom?

Power?

Time?

Peace?

Rank them.

The choice is yours.

The game is waiting. Make your move.

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