I’m Ryan Fightmaster, MD, author, furniture refinisher, and former psychiatrist. I’ve written a book, 32 Lessons from 8 Years Lost in Medicine, and published hundreds of guides to successful career change on Substack and YouTube.
Everything I write is designed to encourage you to go for it, to bet on that ounce of knowing inside your heart that’s begging you to be who you are and commit to your dream. Because I promise you this:
It’ll be worth it.
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Latest newsletters
Newsletter #143: Once Begun, Better Finish
Something said by Suzanne Rouvier, a character from Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, haunts me. A painter’s mistress, Suzanne made a living by posing, and when those artisanal springs stopped flowing, she found…
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Newsletter #140: Fighting the Fevers with Fire
I’m shivering under a scalding shower, trying to fight the fever with fire. The pyrexic mind is a toxic place, an environment that should never be trusted. But I only know this…
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Newsletter #139: Running Hills
To run in Asheville was to run hills. As my neighbor, a cyclist, put it, “I can’t pedal down my driveway without starting a 1000-foot climb.” A plainsmen by birth, I knew…
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Life after Quitting Medicine
A Cat Story: Why We Take the Leap of Faith
CALL TO ACTION: Asheville Needs Help
25 Years Later, I Accept My Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis
No, Really. I Want to Be Here.
Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It
A 35-Year-Old Man Completes Adolescence
See the full archive of Ryan’s past writing HERE
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