By Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA

Goodbye David Letterman. Your "top ten" lists will last for a very long time now that you are gone. So, in your honor, here's my Top 10 Physician Entrepreneurs Mistakes list:

10. Thinking that what got you to where you are now will be good enough to get you where you want to go as a physician entrepreneur.

9. Thinking that what you think and recommend is representative of what everyone else thinks.

8. Believing that the value of what you have invented has any relevance at all.

7. Not knowing when it's time to resign from an advisory board or SAB when you are no longer creating value.

6. Thinking that your money is greener than everyone else's.

5. Not taking time to connect to people outside of medicine.

4. Looking for innovation at medical meetings.

3. Not listening.

2. Acting like you can just hand off your idea to "the business people" and expect them to send you big certified checks via electronic funds transfer to your account.

1. Acting like starting and scaling a business is much easier than practicing medicine. Most docs lack an entrepreneurial mindset and, instead, are physician wannapreneurs.

We won't be seeing much of Dave from the Ed Sullivan Theater, but that's certainly no reason to not learn from your Top Ten mistakes list.