Dr. Lee Friedman on how a non-traditional path led him to his love for veterinary medicine

Listen in as we talk with Dr. Lee Friedman as he shares his non-traditional path to veterinary medicine. From selling encyclopedias to training as a Navy fighter jet pilot, heart-touching and fascinating, this story is a great reminder of how life brings us profound learning and through it we find our way.

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GUEST BIO:

Stuart Lee Friedman, DVM

Woody Allen once said that Parker Brothers offered to buy his memoirs so that they could make it into a board game. If Lee's story was a board game, it would most certainly be more chutes than ladders.

"I'm more proud of my struggles with failure than my actual successes in life. What I achieved doesn't define me as much as the failures I prevailed over."

At first, failure came easily. By the time he hit college, Lee was well-practiced in the art of underachievement. He managed to drop out of college on academic probation after two and a half years for more aimless pursuits. Lee found work as a movie theater usher. Then as a busboy. Then a school janitor. Driving a taxicab lasted all of two weeks before being fired for a minor fender bender. He then sold encyclopedias door-to-door, where he once had his pants torn off by an angry dog. Selling stereo equipment was more lucrative, fun, and promised greater wardrobe integrity. And he helped introduce the idea that bicycle couriers - already popular in the condensed city of San Francisco - could actually work in the sprawling freeway metropolis of Los Angeles. He established himself as the only bike messenger with a city-wide courier agency of automobile messengers – and made it work.

Despite little successes, however, most of his jobs could well be classified as failures - both the way they ended (often at the insistence of management) and the way they failed to measure up to his existing potential. The gift of treading upon failure's floor was not knowing any ceiling of success. That naivety stood in the stead of accepting less lofty "realistic" goals. Most everything he achieved was launched from the simple question, "Why not?" Friends who offered ready answers to that question soon found themselves outside the small circle of friends who did not.

From nothing, he turned daydreams into goals, and goals into realities. Coming out of life's starting blocks late, he achieved most of the targets he set for himself while being nothing extraordinary in terms of talent or intelligence. He managed to gain admission to UCLA despite a miserable academic record at SUNY Buffalo (a success which he attributed to turning the required essay on his application into a written treatise on why someone like him could make UCLA proud). He obtained an appointment to the highly selective US Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) at NAS Pensacola with the help of a good citizenship letter written by the San Francisco Police Department after he tackled a suspect running from an officer. At AOCS, he endured a 16-week "pressure cooker" program designed to cull candidates who failed to meet stringent medical requirements, physical training goals, academic performance, and standards of character. Class attrition rates were typically over 30%.

Orders to primary flight training were received at the officer commissioning ceremony (AOCS graduation). Lee's orders sent him immediately to VT-2 at NAS Whiting Field, where he met performance standards for selection to the strike (jet) training pipeline at VT-19 at NAS Meridian. A failed vision test ended his training, but not his love of aviation. He continued in the civilian sector. earning instrument and multi-engine ratings and is a commercially-rated pilot and instrument flight instructor.

With the airlines in furlough mode, he restructured his goals along a new set of impossible dreams, dusted off his undergraduate studies, and gained acceptance to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, having been wait-listed on his second attempt and outrightly accepted on his third. He graduated with his VMD degree in 2003.

From a perfectly average underachiever, he shares his recipe of realizing his goals: one part focus and one part attitude, all mixed together with a willingness to suspend disbelief and an embrace of impossible things. From flying military jets to writing published articles to becoming a doctor in his mid 40's, each of those goals meant pushing past gate keepers who explained all the ways it could never be possible - while maintaining an optimism that capitalized on the opportunities that made them happen. That same recipe has helped him perform both as a pilot and as a doctor.

Lee also explains how attitude played a role in carrying the debt from his education - a debt assumed in the middle of life that he expected to pay to the grave - and how a positive perspective on a negative burden allowed him to redefine what it was - and carry it with grace.

LINKS AND INFORMATION:

• VIN Foundation Student Debt Education program: https://vinfoundation.org/resources/veterinary-student-debt/
• VIN Foundation Student Debt Series podcast episodes: https://vinfoundation.org/category/veterinary-student-debt-podcast/
• VIN Foundation Vets4Vets®: https://vinfoundation.org/v4v
• US Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2025/july/reestablish-aocs-nas-pensacola
• University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine: https://www.vet.upenn.edu/
• If you enjoy these podcast episodes, please support this podcast with a gift: https://vinfoundation.org/give

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