Five Questions with Dr. Fischer: Volume II

What would be your ideal way to spend a weekend?

It would probably be going to a nice movie and going out to dinner, then maybe staying overnight in a nice hotel with my bride.

Dr. Fischer and his wife, Leenie

What do you do when you need to recharge your batteries and decompress?

The best thing for me to do is to get on my backhoe and start digging. It requires full focus and you just have to push everything out of your brain in order to operate that big hydraulic machine! I love working in my yard!

Dr. Fischer’s favorite form of relaxation: driving a backhoe

If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport—one that you would have the best chance at winning—what would it be? Would it be backhoeing?

You know, if I look at the people that operate backhoes as part of their professions, they would beat me hands-down. So, no! I consider myself more of a generalist. I tell a lot of people that I’m not going to be the absolute best at machining or injection molding or at carpentry or at dentistry, but I know just enough about a lot of subjects to be dangerous. I’m being facetious, of course. I like to know just enough about multiple subjects that I can have discussions with different specialists within our company and different types of people. I like to think I’m a specialist at being a generalist, if you will.

On that note, is there a skill that you do not have that you would love to master?

Yes. I always wished that I could master one or two other languages. That would be delightful. I admire the many people throughout our company who can speak multiple languages. Ultradent’s president, Dirk Jeffs, can speak Spanish like it’s his mother tongue. Speaking another language gives insight into a culture, including subtleties like humor, that only comes when you can speak with people in their own language. I think to be able to do that would be spectacular.

Dirk Jeffs, President of Ultradent

If you could pick any age to be forever, which age would you choose?

If it meant that grandkids didn’t go away and that they kept coming, I’d probably choose sixty. At sixty, you’re still healthy, you’ve got some life wisdom under your belt, and you’ve got your family. That’s the best!