The World is Flat with Dr. Javed Butler

Javed Butler, MD, is a Professor and Chairman of The Department of Medicine at The University of Mississippi. Prior to joining the University of Mississippi, he was the Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Co-Director of the Heart Institute at Stony Brook University in New York. Dr. Butler served as the Director for Heart Failure Research at Emory University and Director of the Heart and Heart-Lung transplant programs at Vanderbilt University prior to that. After completing his medical school in Pakistan, Dr. Butler completed his residency from Yale University and fellowships from Vanderbilt University and Harvard University. He also completed his Masters in Public Health degree from Harvard University and an MBA from Emory University. He serves on several national committees for the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, and was recently elected as a member of the prestigious Association of University Cardiologists. Dr. Butler is the recipient of the Simon Dack Award by the American College of Cardiology and the Time, Feeling and Focus Award by the American Heart Association. What if we told you the world was, indeed, flat? Okay, fine. It’s round. However: Dr. Javed Butler encourages us to adopt a mindset that everyone is equal, regardless of where they fall in the institutional hierarchy, and that we have a duty to treat every person with dignity and respect. Today, he offers sage advice as we continue on this path in medicine: Align our best opportunity with our best interest, and though it's important to recognize what we enjoy, it's even more critical we identify and avoid what we don’t enjoy doing. Lastly, he encourages us to be truthful with our mentors and think about helping our mentors achieve their mission as we learn from them. Pearls of Wisdom: 1. View the world as flat. No one is above anyone else and we need to treat every person with dignity and respect. We are all equal. 2. Use the “meaningfulness equation” to align the best opportunity in the market with your best interest. 3. Do not be afraid to reach out to mentors. We should enter into these relationships with the mindset of helping them achieve their mission and learning in that process.