Meet Leslie Gallagher

 

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leslie Gallagher. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Leslie, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My mother. She married a man that on paper seemed to be her dream husband. Handsome. Hardworking. Very smart. Charming. On his way to becoming financially very successful. Probably nuts about her. She thought they would have the American dream raising a family and building a life together. But within a week of getting married (at age 23) she went to the library to look up schizophrenia. She realized that there was something very wrong with him emotionally. What on earth was she going to do? Her parents were living abroad and she had no one to turn to. She wanted to return to her parents home but couldn’t as they were thousands of miles away. She felt completely stuck and decided that she was just going to have to make the best of it. Maybe he would change??? Fast forward 18 years and she had gone through an insanely difficult marriage. Three kids that she adored. That she wanted the best for. But her husband and their father was a violent, bi-polar, aggressive philanderer who really only cared about himself. She wanted to leave him probably hundreds of times. But who would put her kids through school? She knew she couldn’t financially do it on her own. So she suffered and suffered and suffered to be able to give her children the education she wanted them to have. And the day her youngest went off to college she literally packed her bags and called a moving van. She had found a place to live, away from that angry, mentally ill man and she was finally going to have the life she wanted. That to me is resilience. And I got it in spades from her!

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Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I started the field of animal physical therapy in California, as when I began my journey there was absolutely no one in the state doing rehabilitation on animals. It started in my backyard to be precise. I now run an organization that employs veterinarians, registered veterinary technicians and physical therapists all of whom I put through school to become certified in animal rehab. We treat anywhere from 30-50 animals a day in our facility. One day an RVT at another hospital called me about a 12 wk old Golden Retriever puppy that was relinquished to their hospital to be euthanized after he suffered a vaccine reaction and became paralyzed in all four legs! He could only move his head! I took him in and spent the better part of a year teaching him to learn to stand and then walk again. This was the genesis of my next venture, starting a Foundation to help disabled dogs. We know that animals who are badly injured or disabled are the first animals to be euthanized in every shelter in the US. No one wants them. Too much work. Too expensive. Who wants a disabled anything??? But what most people don’t know is that 80% of all paralyzed animals will walk again. Some need surgery. Some just need PT. And what all of them need is a champion. A person who will do whatever it takes to fix their injury and find them a loving home with someone who likes them just the way they are! That’s where I come in. I currently have a building full of not only the regular paying clients but six dogs who suffered severe injuries (mostly being hit by cars), who are in varying stages of recovery. All of them will be fine. And all will get that loving home that they so desperately need. I’m fortunate enough to have partnered with the Animal Rescue Mission who helps place each and every one of them (Rehab and rescue are my skill sets. Placing? Not so much!!!)

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Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I never take no for an answer. You can always apologize afterwards!!! My previous career was as the assistant to one of the wealthiest men in the world. I learned a lot from him. He didn’t suffer fools and he didn’t mince words. He surrounded himself with incredibly smart people to do his bidding and never second guessed anyone. He told us what he wanted and it was never spoken of again because it got done no matter what. I try to always hire people that are smarter than me as I love being surrounded by big thinkers.
Don’t be afraid to take risks because you might fail. That’s ok! Everyone successful has failed and most of us, multiple times. Those are the best opportunities for growth.

I also believe strongly in following your passion as you can never go wrong. Taking a career for the money I think inevitably leads to unhappiness. A big bank account will not bring you joy. Doing something that you absolutely love will. I was surrounded for a decade by some of the wealthiest people in the world and I felt that most of them were absolutely unhappy. It was a huge lesson for me as we are raised to believe that the more money you have the easier your life will be. To a certain extent that is true as you can buy things that others maybe cannot. But it also brings a tremendous amount of stress, having to work hard at something you don’t enjoy to maintain that big bank account. Meditate daily to focus on what is really important.

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Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Right now the veterinary world is in crisis. Veterinary professionals are leaving the profession in droves due to burnout. It has been heartbreaking to see how many highly qualified, loving, empathic and incredibly well educated people are leaving a career that they trained their whole lives for. There are currently more than 30,000 open veterinarian positions in the US. Every hospital is operating at crisis levels and having to close down entire departments when staff leave or don’t show up. Clients have to wait weeks and weeks for an appointment. Emergency rooms often have wait times of 6-8 hours. We don’t have enough vet schools in this country and the laws make it virtually impossible to hire foreign vets, thousands of whom would like to work in the US. The good news for vets is that this desperation has driven up salaries to record levels and huge signing bonuses are very common. The bad news is that all small, non-corporate owned hospitals are unable to compete and the owners either end up retiring or selling to the big corporations. This then drives up the cost of veterinary care for everyone, making it almost unaffordable. Pre-pandemic, we had multiple full-time veterinarians and several part-timers. Now we are lucky to have relief vets but no one wants to work full-time anymore and the salaries for the smaller businesses who use relief vets are sky high. I spend a tremendous amount of time trying to network and recruit. This is where the resilience from my mother kicks in. In this environment you really have to be tough to survive and seeing what she put up with for two decades reminds me that I too can do this! I have tremendous hope for the future and finding vets that absolutely support and love what we do. I know things will work out as they always do but thank god I am as strong and committed as I am!!

Contact Info:

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Image Credits

Bryan McMahon

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