Hi, my name is Charles Payet, but when not in my professional life, I usually go by Chip, and this blog is definitely NOT intended to be a professional one; I already have 2 of those (more on them later). This blog is going to serve a few purposes, and to be quite honest, they’re entirely personal ones, nothing more:
- To be a place for me to write about topics that interest me and that may be of interest to others, and
- To serve as a place for my daughters to know about me as they grow up, and eventually after I’m gone.
So Who Am I, and Why Am I Writing This Blog?
At a fundamental level, this blog is driven by the fact that I have/am ADD (Attention-Deficit Disorder) The blog is not specifically about ADD (there are plenty of those), but given its powerful effects, both good and bad, in my life, that will be an underlying theme throughout.
Like all people, I am a complex being of ideas, emotions, beliefs, likes and dislikes. As a person with ADD, I tend to bounce around a lot, which has benefits and drawbacks. The primary benefit is one of rapid learning and intense curiosity; the primary drawback is the difficulty staying focused on an idea or activity long enough to thoroughly explore it. Hence the blog’s Subtitle: Thoughts on Life, Excellence, Success, & ADD.
A Short Biography
Born in San Antonio, Tx, I mostly grew up in Wilmington, DE, as my Dad was a long-time employee with Dupont. I do have one younger sister, and my family is very close-knit. I majored in Biology and German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (GO HEELS!), and continued in Chapel Hill to earn my Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) in 1998, after which I moved to Charlotte, NC, where I reside today.
My high school friends will remember me as the painfully shy and socially awkward bando nerd, and remarkably, the only date I ever had in high school was the senior prom. Definitely a slow bloomer! And while it took until my early 30’s to meet the true woman of my dreams, I was blessed to marry a woman of intelligence, silliness, strong work ethic, organization, and beauty. She brought her pre-teen daughter along, and within a year of our wedding, we were blessed with our own daughter. I couldn’t be happier with these 3 amazing women in my life.
When I started my dental practice in 1999, I was young, naive, and ridiculously idealistic. In addition, I didn’t know that I was ADD, believed myself to be no good at math, and had NO CLUE about leadership, management, or anything related to running a small business. With all those strikes against me, it’s no surprise that I was soon in a financial hole deeper than one of those abysses in the Pacific Ocean. Truly, it’s a miracle my business survived until my wife, who has earned MBA degrees at 2 different universities (one in Pakistan, the second at William & Mary), got involved and knocking some sense into my head. Bless her, I will probably never truly make up to her the stress and worry that I caused in our marriage. With her help, though, we’ve not only pulled out of the hole, but catapulted ourselves to financial security and stability in a mere 4 years.
Learning & Sharing
For most of my life, I have had a passion for learning, and for whatever reason, I learn extremely rapidly, whether it be a new physical activity or sport, or a new philosophical concept, or many other things. And that’s where this blog comes in: it will be in some way a place to explore a wide range of ideas to which I’ve been exposed and which have impacted my life. In addition, it will be a place for me to push and challenge myself and to chronicle my personal journey towards greater Mindfulness, Discipline, and Excellence. Perhaps those ideas will be of benefit to you, perhaps not. So what are some of the many interests that I’ve pursued and mastered (at least to some degree) over the last 40 years?
- Tennis
- Swimming
- Ballroom dance, especially West Coast Swing
- Music – piano, clarinet, trumpet, and singing, including singing with the Charlotte Symphony Oratorio for a couple years. In 2017, I started piano lessons again and have progressed rapidly.
- 1st Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo (earned during dental school); from 2013 to 2020, I trained in Shaolin Kung Fu with Master Eric Sbarge at The Peaceful Dragon, Charlotte’s premier Chinese martial arts school. I still practice on my own.
- Building multiple websites in both Adobe Dreamweaver and WordPress
- Learning Search Engine Optimization to get my websites well-ranked
- Cosmetic dentistry, cosmetic orthodontics, laser dentistry, microscope-enhanced dentistry, CAD/CAM dentistry
- Building a highly successful dental office
- Photography
- Fluency in German
- And more….
On yet another level, I do hope that my journey will help others. Having struggled for many years financially and professionally, I had to learn many hard lessons to drag myself up and out of the deep whole into which I’d plunged myself and my family. So many people took the time and energy to help me grow, and I owe them a great debt that can never be repaid. The best way to repay it seems to be rather to Pay it Forward, and to share what I’ve learned so that others may grow, too.
And lastly, for my daughters, Natalie and Elizabeth. As their father, there is so much I’d like to share with them, but it is often difficult to discuss certain topics, and there’s never enough time to talk about everything. One day I will be gone (hopefully not for a very long time!!!!), and this will be a place you can come and remember me, and tell your children and grandchildren about their Granddad, Great-granddad…etc etc etc.