Sometimes the pathway to success is not a straight road. Growing up in love with the New Jersey shore, I was a big fan of the television show Baywatch, despite the fact that it was filmed on the opposite coast. Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. But the path that Baywatch had to take in order to become a global success certainly proves that persistence is a required ingredient for success.

Greg Bonann was the creator of Baywatch. What many people don’t know about the hit show is that the show was

originally a failure in America. It struggled with ratings, had very little audience, and was canceled after the first season. It was a crushing defeat for him. He spent years getting this show on air, only to be told one Friday that it was over. A few days later, he was back at the beach working as a lifeguard, feeling sorry for himself.

On Father’s Day, his dad asked him what he was going to do with the show. Since the network owned the rights, he didn’t think there was much he can do. But his dad told him to ask for it back. He tried to explain to him that’s not how it works, and they can’t just give it back to him. But his dad made him promise that he would at least ask. So on Monday morning, just to honor his promise, he called and asked if he could meet with the network executives.

As he tells it, he was told that he would not receive the rights to his TV show back unless he was prepared to pay for it. He braced himself for a massive price tag, and then was told that they’d give him back the rights for $1–since they weren’t going to do anything with it.

After he got the rights back, he went to Europe with the show and hustled every network to take the show, leveraging one country’s interest against another, until he began to get traction.

The tactic that ultimately made Baywatch the most-watched show in the world was the fact that he gave the show to China for free. Then, two years later, once it had built an audience for itself and had become a proven success, he demanded that China begin paying for the show. China ended up paying more money for Baywatch than they had ever paid before for a single TV show.

Finally, America began to take notice, but this time it was on Bonann’s terms. Persistence and ingenuity eventually turned Baywatch into a multibillion-dollar enterprise.

Like Baywatch, medical practice success is not a straight line event. It takes persistence and sometimes out-of-the-box thinking. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. If you can use more money or perhaps more time to spend with your family on the beach, contact me at John@nemohealth.com. Our consultants can help and we have plenty of sunblock.