Neurosurgeon
A football coach introduced a way of thinking about life, which he adopted for his daily guidance: “The 2% Philosophy: Can you be 2 percent better than you were yesterday? You can if you take small steps every single day toward a larger goal.”
MR said that “Following that philosophy helps me make more sense of the challenges, the tasks and responsibilities that I have.”
FAMILY BACKGROUND
MR’s parents emigrated to the United States from the Bahama Islands, which are part of the British Commonwealth. He has an older brother. His parents were supportive emotionally but could not control MR’s temper when he was away from home, having to confront racial discrimination due to the Brown color of his skin. Neither parent attended college.
CHILDHOOD
MR was a ‘hot tempered kid’ until age 11, when his brother gave him a copy of a book “Gifted Hands” written by a Black neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson, which detailed how Dr. Carson went from being an inner-city youth with poor grades to the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
(Editor’s note: Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of patients with injury to, or diseases / disorders of the brain, spinal cord and spinal column, and peripheral nerves within all parts of the body. Typical neurosurgical procedures involve herniated spinal discs, clogged blood vessels delivering blood to the brain and heart, brain tumors, stroke care and chronic nerve pain.)
After reading the book, MR stopped beating up classmates who called him racist slurs or made fun of his Bahamian immigrant parents and started chasing two dreams – being a pro football player and becoming a neurosurgeon like Dr. Carson.
EDUCATION
Due to his athletic skills, MR received a college football scholarship to a four-year university, where he was a standout defensive back and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. His combination of academic and sports achievement led to his selection as a Rhodes Scholar, which provided MR the opportunity for another scholarship: to study medical anthropology at Oxford University in England. During his post-graduate studies, MR’s pro football playing dream was ‘dormant’ but he still found time to train for the N.F.L. draft and was selected by the Tennessee Titans in a late draft round.
FIRST CAREER
MR’s football dream did not go as planned. Though he was competitive in practices between games, he never played in an NFL regular season game. After his rookie contract expired, the Titans made no effort to re-sign him. MR heard about a possible opening with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he was cut after the exhibition games season.
When MR was released by the Steelers, a coach told him that his talent was sufficient, but the team was keeping a different player on its roster because, though less talented, that other player needs football. “You can go be President one day, you can be a doctor, but the other guy can’t.”
The coach’s decision was very frustrating to MR, who believed he was more talented athletically than others who made the roster. “It was the most frustrating, disappointing time in my life, the most downtrodden I’ve been. I felt like I failed, and I let people down.”
Not yet ready to quit football, MR returned home, where he languished until his mother shook him out of his funk. She showed him his grade school notebook, where he had written two goals: pro football player and neurosurgeon. As MR said: “She looked me straight in the eyes and pointed at the first one, saying ‘This one’s done.’ Next, she pointed to the second one, saying ‘Now, we need to do this.’
Looking back from his sixth year of neuroscience residency training at Harvard Medical School, MR said: “Those words of encouragement, her belief in me, her thoughtfulness, her disposition during that moment, was just what I needed to move forward to the next chapter in my life.”
NEVER TOO LATE TO LAUNCH A SECOND CAREER
With his new career motivation, MR studied for and did well on the standard medical school application test (MCAT). His college grades also supported his medical school applications, which led to his acceptance by several medical schools and MR’s continued progress through graduation, internships, and residency.
CHALLENGES
In MR’s words: “Learning how to open up a craniotomy, learning how to put diapers on your newborn kids and be a better attentive husband, all these were tasks that I wanted to accomplish. Any goal, short or long term, doesn’t feel daunting or debilitating. They feel manageable by following the 2% philosophy. I appreciate and pat myself on the back for any small gains, the small wins I get every single day. It’s a rush of dopamine in my limbic lobe that says: “You’re doing right. This is a reward for doing well.”
“Right now, the biggest challenge is finding the time to be attentive and fully sort of present for all the aspects of my life. When I’m under a microscope and operating on a brain tumor, the patient has been seizing. They expect me to be the best neurosurgeon I possibly could be with the best skills, the best dexterity, with the great decision making.”
“And then when I’m done with that, I’m supposed to be the best mentor to the 12 or 13 young Black men that I mentor who are all pre-med or medical students interested in neurosurgery. We call it the Honor Rolle. And then what I’m also doing is just be the best father I need to be for our four children. And then the best attentive husband I can be. It’s just putting all these things into their spaces so that I can commit my life to them and myself to them because they deserve that. All of them deserve 100 percent.”
“If you look at the outside of my life, you will see my story as maybe something that is unattainable. I played in the NFL, then Rhodes scholar, now neurosurgery. But feeling doubts and uncertainty really permeated throughout my life. Feeling like an outcast. Handling issues with violence. Dealing with work-life balance issues or challenges in the workplace. And I just found ways to overcome or motivate these challenges through the 2 percent process.”
CAREER SATISFACTION
“I am motivated to be the best I can be, by so many people who sacrificed for me – names that I know, names that I don’t know – to be where I am right now. That have given up their lives for me to be able to vote, to have an education, to attend certain schools, to have certain jobs, to be able to immigrate to America. It’s our job now to repay that debt by being the best we can be in everything that we do. I take that very, very seriously.”
“My long-term goal is to practice neurosurgery in America for the majority of the year and then spend a portion of the year back home in the Caribbean, developing neurosurgical services in the Bahamas and in all the member states of CARICOM, an organization of Caribbean countries.”
“I don’t think success looks like any particular person. I do believe that every individual has something brilliant in them and has a responsibility and a purpose that they were placed here on this earth for such a time as this time.”
This story is based upon a news article about (Dr.) Myron Rolle, written by Elena Bergeron, published 10/12/22 within The New York Times. Dr. Rolle’s actual name is divulged here, contrary to the usual practice of this Career Stories Project which maintains the confidentiality of all storytellers, since Dr. Rolle agreed to be interviewed for the newspaper story.
