Doctor to Businesswoman: What it Takes to Be Selfmade
BY VITTORIA ANGELONI
“Learning to stand my ground” is the most important lesson learned by Ljuba Andrejevic, a Gynecologist with her own practice in the heart of Frankfurt.
Following her lifelong dream to become a doctor, she began her education in Munich, Germany, where a degree in medicine takes approximately six years. Later, she started working as an assistant doctor in a Frankfurt hospital, a standard job for an aspiring doctor: “When I started looking for a job there were many doctors around, it was impossible to find a job. It was not my priority to become a Gynoecologist, but this was the offer I got here in Frankfurt, so I took it.”. To the question of whether she is happy with that decision, she doesn't hesitate. To her, it was the best decision of her life.
Thinking ahead is what prevented her from burning out as she tackled medical school: “I was looking into the future. I knew that my mother had done the same thing.”
Still, she says, even after she started her assistantship, comparable to American residency, the work was exhausting. Competition among doctors, nightshifts, and a baby at home made hospital work a tiring profession and a key motivator to start her own practice. “You have to be a doctor and a business-owner at the same time. It's a learning-by-doing-process.” Today, her practice is led by a group of doctors including Gynecologists, Obstetricians, Fertility Therapists, Endocrinologists and Physiotherapists, all of whom share ideas and opinions on how to best treat patients.
Ljuba Andrejevic. Praxisgemeinschaft am Goetheplatz.
“When I started my practice, I was always trying to be diplomatic.” She explains that having your own opinion when you're trying to succeed is vital, no matter if it turns out to be wrong in the end. “It was a long learning process, but who wants to go into medicine needs to understand this.” According to Ljuba Andrejevic there are two things that make someone right to succeed in her profession: for one, you have to be willing and capable of learning (a lot!). The other: you need to have a slight sense of arrogance to survive the competition that plays out among aspiring doctors.
Needless to say, apart from any qualities one might have, the work it takes to build what she did is unmatched. “My son, who is also a doctor, has a good work-life-balance. He started with a practice already prepared. I started with no practice at all. My son's childhood happened all beside me. I wasn't there when he learned to walk or tie his shoes.”
She highlights that in choosing this path, she made the decision to be less present in her son's life. It's not for everybody, but to her, it was most rewarding.
