Gratitude: a Personal Note From Dr. Marc B. Cooper

Gratitude means “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return the kindness.” I have been in the dental “game” for over 40 years. I have triumphed, and I have failed; I have won, and I have lost; I have soared, and I have crashed. I have connected on “hail Mary” passes, and I have been trounced by double digits. When you have a vision and have taken a legitimate stand, when you are relentless in the realization of your vision, a moment occurs when you realize that all the work - all the pain of all the hours through all the years - has resulted in the fulfillment of your vision. And for me, this Thanksgiving is that moment. We now have a team on the field, with Jake Puhl as our incredible CEO, that can maximize our assets, our knowledge, and our experience to yield tremendous results. This year we named Darin Acopan our VP of business development. Jake and Darin have more than doubled the size of the Dental Entrepreneur Organization in less than a year. Thanks to Jake and Darin, there’s a waiting list to get into DEO programs. We are targeting DEO membership to reach 140 members, and for them as a group to generate $750 million in aggregated revenues in 2018. Both Jake and Darin have built the DEO Dental Group into a tremendous value center for our members - a value center where members can turn for their needs for counsel, consulting, materials or processes. Our team includes Damaris Perez, the “glue” that holds all our pieces together. We have Angela Ekstowicz, who manages my accountabilities and functions - the keeper of my integrity. We have Giselle Grant, the accountable party for our Summits, which have doubled in size - this year we welcomed more than 400 attendees to our Future of Dentistry Summit in June, and 300 guests to our Associate Summit in October. We expect to increase these numbers by 25 percent in 2018. We have Gabrielle Rivard, my linguistic partner in creating powerful content and appropriate grammar, syntax, and expression. We have Megan Anzisi, our controller, who keeps us very straight about our money. And, we have incredible clients in our DSO groups, who possess values and visions, courage and compassion, intention and commitment, of the highest order. I have much to be thankful for this year, and I want to acknowledge and thank my incredible team, our DEO members and coaching clients, and my relationships in the industry for enabling my vision to be realized.

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” - Albert Schweitzer

- Marc