Dr John Mesa: 5 Things You Need To Create A Successful Career As A Plastic Surgeon
An Interview With Luke Kervin
Success in my career has allowed me to create new job opportunities for very rewarding employees. I feel very encouraged knowing that long hours and hard work allow my employees to support their families, while the pressure is very intimidating. We live in an economy where work is essential for growth and success. Helping others in the world to have an enjoyable and well-paid workplace is very rewarding. Also, with my professional success, I can provide pro-bono surgeries to those who would not otherwise be able to afford them for economic reasons.
As part of my series about healthcare leaders, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. John Mesa.
Dr. John Mesa is a Harvard-trained, triple fellowship-trained plastic surgeon who is known for his extraordinary surgical techniques and stunning results. His specialty is cosmetic plastic surgery for mostly neck up procedures but he also does procedures for breasts and body. He is known for delivering premier, individualized care and for achieving consistently beautiful, natural-looking results. He is most famous for Buccal Fat Removal– a procedure that is becoming increasingly popular. All of Dr. Mesa’s ‘neck up’ procedures are done with local versus general anesthesia, making the risk and healing process much easier for patients.
Dr. Mesa has had extensive fellowship training at top educational institutions, including Harvard. His strong credentials have given him a unique set of skills for cosmetic plastic surgery. Born and raised in Colombia, he brings the warmth and care of the Latin culture to his practice, and he is known for providing personalized care in custom plastic surgery. He is dedicated to ensuring his patients look and feel their best, and with newfound confidence, are better able to achieve their personal, social, and professional goals. He is bi-lingual and serves his clientele in his NY and Miami offices.
Instagram: @dr.mesa
Facebook: @dr.mesa1
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”? What led you to this very interesting career?
I am an immigrant from South America who wanted the American Dream. In high school, I wanted to be an architect. However, due to my country’s economic situation at that time, I could not choose that pathway in college. And so, I decided to do the next thing I liked the most: biology and helping people, and what better way to do both than to become a doctor? While in medical school, I discovered that being a plastic surgeon was like being an architect of the body, and it all clicked right then for me.
Unlike in the US, in my country, one doesn’t get paid when training, neither as an intern nor a resident. One must rely on their family’s support before becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, my family could not support me, so becoming a plastic surgeon in my country wasn’t an option for me. Once I discovered that in the US, you get paid while in training, I decided to become a plastic surgeon in the US.
Nearly everyone told me I was out of my mind to dream that “impossible dream”. They told me entering a plastic surgery program is extremely difficult, even for Americans. On top of that, I’d need either a green card or US citizenship to learn English. Private English classes were extremely expensive (way before the internet was available). Nothing is more invigorating than telling me I can’t do something I am fully intent on achieving. “Challenge accepted!” I thought.
Long story short, I learned English, I was able to train at Harvard, I became a US citizen, and I became a board-certified plastic surgeon in the US with offices in New York, New Jersey, and Florida. This is my “backstory,” and I hope it could inspire others to be unafraid to dream big.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting?
One of the most interesting stories in my business career since I started was that one employee that I hired quit on the first day of the job, even though he moved from out of state. I was looking for a social media manager to help me to post pictures and videos of my surgeries online. The busier I got with surgeries, the less time I had to post on social media myself. Therefore, I decided to hire someone to help me. After an extensive search, I hired a person from out of state. Since he did not live close by, we did all the interviews via zoom, and I showed him my surgery videos posted on either Instagram or YouTube. Even though the online job application asked, “Are you able to film and edit graphic bloody surgical footage” and I asked him multiple times when reviewing my videos via zoom call, “Are you ok with this kind of video?” to which he always responded, “Yes.” I hired him, and he moved to town a few weeks later.
On the first day of his job, I told him to shadow me in surgery so he could see what I do and what angles I would need the camera to film the surgery. After the first surgery, he asked me to talk privately in my office. He told me, “I am so sorry, but I can’t take this job. I thought I could, but I can’t.” And so, he left. It was bizarre and sad at the same time. This person moved from out of state and quit in less than 3 hours of working.
Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I learned that even though videos and pictures can be graphic, real-life surgery is on another level. Therefore, I learned that to hire a social media manager, the applicant needed to interview in person while I was doing surgery to ensure that he/she/they could take air and make it for the job. Get their boots on the ground, so to speak.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?
Yes, I am working on taking my practice to new levels. The key to growing practice is to grow the team that comprises it. Therefore, I have taken the lead in spending a lot of time performing extensive interviews and hand-picking selected candidates to join my team. A book I read recently said that a successful CEO’s most important job is building a team. And that is exactly what I am doing.
Before, I used to delegate the hiring process to consultants that did not necessarily have the best interest in finding employees that aligned with my vision and needs (they just wanted to hire someone to say they did their job). Now, fully hands-on, I am hiring and building up a strong team that aligns with the pathway I have in mind for my private practice business. My hiring process is rigorous, and I end up with great fits on my team that are happy and willing to be with the practice.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Yes, there is a particular person to whom I am extremely grateful and who helped me get to where I am right now: my nurse Cristina Laverde, RN. She is the heart of my success.
Very early in my career, I worked as a junior plastic surgeon at a well-stabilized plastic surgery practice in the Northeast. As I got busier, I needed more help with my patients from a nursing standpoint. I asked my boss at the time to hire a second nurse to help me with the patient flow. I ended up hiring Cristina as my nurse. Cristina had a lot of experience since she worked for over five years in plastic surgery and cosmetics before.
After more than a year of working together, I decided to branch out and open my own private practice. Cristina decided to follow me on my new adventure even though I told her I could only pay her a small fraction of what she was getting paid at the practice. She told me, “I love working with you, and I know you will go far in your career. Therefore, I know that having a low salary will be only temporary as you grow your new solo practice.” Now, 7 years later, I have a practice with office locations in different states and more than 10 full-time employees. Cristina, my nurse, is now one of the most highly paid nurses in the area. She is my fellow visionary.
Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?
Definitely. The book title is, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It, by Kamal Ravikant. It is a book about self-development that allowed me to be truly happy in my life. My cultural background told me to always first please others (like family members, friends, and even coworkers) even if, by doing so, I’d be left feeling resentful. Because of that, I always felt like my life was an act: I always reflected back to others what they wanted to see in me — all just to keep everyone happy. That caused some ongoing dysthymia and growing discontent in my life. Reading that book was such an eye-opener and a liberating experience for me. Basically, I learned that to achieve a truly happy life, one must always do things that make one happy first, even though those things may not please others. That simple change in life had a huge positive influence on my personal and professional life.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Success in my career has allowed me to create new job opportunities for very rewarding employees. I feel very encouraged knowing that long hours and hard work allow my employees to support their families, while the pressure is very intimidating. We live in an economy where work is essential for growth and success. Helping others in the world to have an enjoyable and well-paid workplace is very rewarding. Also, with my professional success, I can provide pro-bono surgeries to those who would not otherwise be able to afford them for economic reasons.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?
One of my life lessons quotes is, “Always see the positive side of negative things that happen in your life; they happen for a reason.”
When I was graduating from my last plastic surgery fellowship, I applied for a very competitive job position in academic craniofacial surgery. At that time, there were only 2 jobs available in the entire US for more than 30 applicants. Therefore, the competition was fierce. I was lucky to be one of the two top finalists for both positions. Jumping ahead, I got neither despite being told that I had been chosen. I felt completely devastated when I received the rejection letters. I felt that my extremely hard work was essentially useless and worthless.
Even though it felt apocalyptical at the time, I decided to move on and create my own path. I decided to go into private practice even though I actively avoided this pathway (since I wanted to be an academic plastic surgeon working for a university). Looking back, getting rejected from those highly competitive academic jobs is the best thing that could have happened to me. Because of that initial rejection, I have been able to build up my career and practice how I want without restrictions since I am my own boss. I feel extremely happy doing what I do, and I think I would not have been as happy as I am now if I had been chosen for those jobs back then. Challenges do forge steel will.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Please follow me on all my social media handles, included below! You can also learn more on my website: https://www.drmesa.com/.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctor.mesa1/
Instagram Lifestyle: https://www.instagram.com/doctor.mesa
Instagram for Women: https://www.instagram.com/doctor.mesa2
Instagram for Men: https://www.instagram.com/doctor.mesa4men/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/doctormesa
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doctor.mesa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doctormesa/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/doctormesa
RealSelf: https://www.realself.com/dr/john-mesa-new-york-ny
Thank you so much for these wonderful insights! We wish you continued success.
