In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO -- who goes by "Dr. Mike" on social media -- asks 20 physicians what their alternate career path would be. Let us know what yours would be in the comments!
Following is a partial transcript of the video (note that errors are possible):
Varshavski: I asked 20 doctors to tell me what they would do for work if they weren't a doctor. I'll go first. Obviously a detective. Right now, instead of solving crimes, I'm solving complex medical cases. I'm no Dr. House, but I may be a Sherlock Holmes in my past life.
Alok Patel, MD: How's it going? I'm Dr. Alok Patel. I'm a pediatric hospitalist, so if a child is hospitalized, count on me to coordinate care. I like action, mystery, suspense, believing that my work is making a difference. Put that together, I think I'd be working with the FBI or the CIA. Maybe forensic science, global anti-terrorism, or missing and endangered children. I'm not really sure, but in general fighting crime.
Siobhan Deshauer, MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Siobhan Deshauer, also known as Violin MD. I'm an internal medicine and rheumatology specialist. In medicine, I really love digging into mystery cases and looking at problems from different angles. If I wasn't a doctor or a violinist, then I'd probably be an investigative journalist.
Jake Goodman, MD: What's up everyone? My name is Jake Goodman and I'm a psychiatry resident doctor in my third year of residency training. Fun fact, I actually graduated from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia, which means that I took classes in botany, horticulture, herbs, and medicinal plants, and I'm a huge plant dad. This is one of my favorite plants right now. Her name is Ava. I found her as an avocado seed in a trash can and grew her into this beautiful plant right here. One man's trash is another man's avocado seed that they turn into a friend. If I wasn't a doctor, I'd probably be a botanist.
Alok Kanojia, MD: My name is Alok Kanojia, but the internet knows me as Dr. K. I'm a psychiatrist, which means that I'm a medical doctor that focuses on the mind. If I wasn't a medical doctor, chances are I would have become a monk, and that's actually what I ended up doing for a long time. I spent 7 years studying to become a monk and then decided to go to medical school. I was fascinated with the mind to begin with and I think that the Eastern monks, like yogis and Buddhist monks, have a really, really interesting perspective on the mind which medical science could learn a lot from.
Anthony Youn, MD: My name is Dr. Anthony Youn and I'm a board-certified plastic surgeon. If I weren't a doctor, I would be an unemployed rock star. Back when I was younger and going through my residency training, I was in a band and we kind of toured locally. We played a lot of gigs and we made a little bit of money. But the problem is that we were really not that good. I was a three-chord warrior and we pretty much maxed out what we could do in this field of rock and roll. You'd probably see me performing at the bar at the Holiday Inn Express outside the Boise Airport.
Ed Hope, MBBS: Hello, my name is Ed Hope. I'm a doctor working in the emergency department over in the U.K. If I wasn't a doctor, I would want to be a musician. I actually paid a lot of my way through medical school by busking on the weekends. On the surface, you might think the two are pretty different, but they are not a million miles away. You have to study the theory, there is a big practical element involved, and ultimately you can have a huge positive impact on people's lives. ♪ Lying heavy in the sky, woo. ♪
Benjamin Winters, DDS: Hi, my name is Dr. Winters a.k.a. The Bentist online, and I am an orthodontist. Dentistry and orthodontics has a lot of art-related things. In fact, dentistry is a lot like being a sculptor, painter, and artist. That being said, as much as I love art, I would probably rather use these hands to play video games actually. I've played video games my entire life, and if I could, I'd probably be a professional video game player or a streamer.
Dana Brems, DPM: I'm Dr. Dana Brems and I'm a podiatrist, which is a foot and ankle specialist and surgeon. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be an artist because I love putting things together and being creative.
Karan Rajan, MBBS: If I wasn't a doctor, I have always thought I'd probably be a chef because I like eating food and I like traveling, so maybe a food critic maybe. But if I was a chef, I can see lots of parallels between surgery and cooking. I mean, for starters you need to know the recipe, the steps of the operation. You can't burn your meat. You need to please people and you can't pick things up after being dropped on the floor.
John W. Patton III, MD: What up? My name is Dr. John Patton, Doc JP3, and I'm a board-certified anesthesiologist and a regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine specialist. A lot of people don't know this about me, but I love to cook. I think it's the alpha personality inside me that makes me believe I could be a Michelin chef. I just love the experience and the artistic nature, and to be able to take people on a culinary journey every single night would be a lot of fun. Anesthesiologist by day, chef by night. Doc JP3 chef day cuisine. Love it.
Danielle Jones, MD: I'm Dr. Danielle Jones -- some of you may know me as MDJ -- and I am an ob/gyn. That means I take care of anything having to do with periods, pregnancy, and the female reproductive tract. Honestly, I am so glad I get to do this job because I love being an obstetrician and gynecologist, but if I wasn't, I think I could see myself as a politician or maybe a public health professional. Maybe in another life, even a professional skier would have been fun.
Benjamin Schmidt, MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Benjamin Schmidt, also known as Doc Schmidt, and I'm a GI doctor, which means that I specialize in gastroenterology. Now, I'm not sure if this is even an entire job by itself, but if I wasn't a doctor, I would love to edit movie trailers. I love the idea of trying to synthesize down a whole movie into a couple of minutes and finding cool new songs to get people excited about the movie. Plus, you get to see most of the footage from movies way in advance, so that would be pretty cool too.
Brian Boxer Wachler, MD: Hi, I am Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler and I'm an eye surgeon a.k.a. ophthalmologist. If I wasn't a doctor, I would probably be a film director because I loved making movies when I was in high school and college. As a matter of fact, I made a feature-length Batman movie, an hour-long one, that we screened on campus at UCLA [University of California Los Angeles]. And yes, I was running around in tights.
Ricky Brown, MD: My name is Ricky Brown and I'm a board-certified plastic surgeon in Scottsdale, Arizona. What would I be if I wasn't a plastic surgeon? I think I'd be a voice actor. I'd probably crush that.
Rena Malik, MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Rena Malik, urologist and pelvic surgeon, and a urologist is essentially a surgical and medical doctor of the genitourinary tract. If I wasn't a medical doctor, I'd probably be the CEO of a company. My superpower is being organized. It's what helps me take care of patients and do everything else I do. If I wasn't a medical doctor, I'd probably be organizing a whole bunch of people in a company somewhere.
Sanjay Juneja, MD: My name is Dr. Sanjay Juneja. I'm a hematologist and medical oncologist basically specializing in blood disorders as well as cancers and how to treat them. If I wasn't a doctor, I'd be a teacher. It's not just because doctor stands for teacher in Latin, but I really enjoy being able to make sense of something or make someone appreciate how something works. It would probably be physics or chemistry.
Antonio Webb, MD: Hi, my name is Dr. Antonio Webb. I'm an orthopedic spine surgeon here in San Antonio, Texas. I would probably do something in real estate. I have a passion for real estate and buying residential properties, and hopefully commercial properties in the future, buying a property and renting it out or rehabbing it and reselling it. If I wasn't a spine surgeon, I would be a real estate investor.
Varshavski: You know, I'm not only a doctor, but also professional boxer and Air Force pilot. Click here to see me fly an F16 with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. And as always, stay happy and healthy.
, is a board-certified family physician and social media influencer with more than 11 million subscribers.