Business
Physician entrepreneur does a little of everything
■ A New Jersey plastic surgeon takes up an array of side businesses.
By Katherine Vogt — Posted Sept. 5, 2005
Ira Trocki, MD, has his fingers in so many different pies he might as well be a baker.
Instead, Dr. Trocki, a plastic surgeon, busies himself as yacht company owner, real estate developer, hotel owner, kosher steakhouse owner, travel agency owner, marina owner, and personal physician to boxer Mike Tyson, sitting ringside at his fights. Many of the profits he makes, he gives to charity.
Entrepreneurship runs in his family. His father, a Holocaust survivor (as was his mother), started in business as a street peddler in New York and later worked in real estate, passing the interest on to his son. Dr. Trocki, 55, acquired his first properties while in his 30s and now has some apartment complexes, land and other holdings.
As a water-loving teen, he once proclaimed that he would some day own the famed Egg Harbor Yachts.
He made that declaration come true in 1999 when he was at the Egg Harbor, N.J., boat maker and a friend successfully convinced him to buy the financially strapped company on the spot.
"As a surgeon, we make spot decisions all the time, so it's really not any different. You take the best information you have and then make the best decision," said Dr. Trocki, who grew up in the Atlantic City, N.J., area, and still lives, practices and runs his businesses from there.
Dr. Trocki said he maintains a passion for medicine and has been able to use his side ventures to improve his medical practice. AMNews asked him about his different roles and how he balances them.
Question: What prompted you to pursue side business interests?
Answer: I've always loved medicine but I didn't want to have to make my living on it. [My businesses] gave me the opportunity to practice medicine because I wanted to. I built my own surgical center years ago, and I was able to do it because of my side business.
Q: What drives you as an entrepreneur? And as a physician?
A: As a physician you want to do something that you enjoy and love and you want to do it to the best of your ability and make a difference. You want each surgery to be the best. It's the same in business. I wanted to build the best yachts I could build, or make the best steak.
Q: How do those roles complement each other?
A: As a doctor, we're always fine-tuned to detail. As a builder of fine yachts, you're fine-tuned to detail ... you want to make sure everything is correct. Also, [there are] a lot of things you do as a team player as a doctor, and a lot of things you do as a team player in business.
Q: What are the greatest challenges of balancing all these demands?
A: Spending time with the grandchildren. I make sure I do. ... I'm very lucky; I do a lot of business over the phone and over e-mail. And my offices are very close together."
Q: Any words of wisdom for other physicians considering entrepreneurial pursuits?
A: Whatever you do, make sure you love it. And don't do it just for the money. And that's also good advice for medicine.