Written In Partnership With Luke Lintz
Success doesn’t come overnight, and it surely doesn’t come easy. Many have tried, and despite their burning passion for turning their dreams into reality, many have failed. Their hearts and minds may have been in the right place, but as Dr. Cameron Lewis points out, they had an incomplete success recipe.
“Talking about achieving success is easy. Everyone can have an idea or dream. But the hard part is putting your words into action,” he says. “Even when you do, life can turn against you when you least expect it; throw a tribulation right in your face and make you fumble. And when things get hard, people like to give up because that’s the easy way out.”
Dr. Cameron Lewis is a renowned traveling oral maxillofacial surgeon bringing happiness back to people’s lives across the northeastern United States. He is a hero in a white coat, an entrepreneur by day, and a family man 24/7. Dr. Lewis travels around the states of Connecticut and New York from city to city and community to community, bringing his invaluable skills to those in need for eight years.
Dr. Lewis started his successful journey in 1999 as a pre-med student at Xavier University in New Orleans. Then Dental School at Howard University in 2003. Four years later, he was a licensed dentist who wanted to become an oral surgeon. His dream was within reach, but God had a different plan for him.
“I immediately applied for an oral surgery residency, but they rejected me. And then they rejected me next year, and even the year after that,” says Dr. Cameron Lewis. “The first time they rejected me, I didn’t give it much thought. I believed that that was God’s plan for me. But the next time I got rejected, doubts slowly crept inside my mind.”
Until then, Dr. Lewis did everything he was supposed to do; he chose the right schools, had average grades, and did all mandatory and optional internships. Still, they wouldn’t admit him into the program. The vile seed of doubt started flowering inside his mind, and soon enough, Dr. Lewis was battling depression.
As Dr. Lewis explains, those were some of the darkest moments of his life. “You start to question every decision you’ve ever made,” he says. “Trying to find a logical reason why things are not going your way; trying to find if you made a mistake somewhere in the hope that you can fix it and resume your journey. There would be no happier person than me if I found any mistake, but realizing that I did everything right almost broke me.”
Still, despite all tribulations, Dr. Lewis had faith in God and himself. He knew better days were coming; the failure streak would end one day, so he started working on himself and his mind. Every day was a challenge, but Dr. Lewis still got up from bed every morning, did his internship, and prayed to God every night to give him the patience to endure.
And God fulfilled the promise; “Ask, and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” The fourth time Dr. Lewis applied, he got in; the rest is history. His dream was complete, and all that was left for him to do was travel around and help people.
As Dr. Cameron Lewis points out, he would never have gotten to where he is today without patience and persistence. “You can’t just have a dream of a better life and better tomorrow. You must hold on to it and commit yourself completely to bring it to life, “he says. “Success comes only to those who can persist throughout all challenges that life and God present.”
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