Doing what I love to do

Staying involved in business while being in medicine is not a bad thing. Its kind of like playing poker, you read people make moves, take risks and build a reputation as a certain kind of player.

Today, I realized how fascinating business can be and how vital it is to have a great reputation. Presented a deal to one of our existing investors today who proceeded to spend the meeting chastising us about how lousy a deal it was that we were bidding for, how we had botched our approach and how defocused we are to even pursue such a deal. He even threatened to report to his superiors that we were not doing our jobs. After the meeting, I had a serious conversation with our boss about abandoning this deal for these reasons.

Upon reporting this to our team members in Singapore, I found out that the investor we met with was not credible, tended to “panic” and that we should proceed with our current approach. They further reassured us of a very simple idea, pursuing a large business opportunity ($$$) should never be abandoned at the first sight of trouble.

I guess its true what they say, “it takes (at least) two to tell the truth”. In this case, I think I side with the viewpoint of our teammates whose incentives are aligned with ours and whose reputation is stronger. Anyway, I guess these kind of interesting arguments and counterarguments, the poker strategies and analyses are very interesting to me. Life would be pretty good if I could spend some of my time doing this while helping the sick or the poor. For instance specializing in some branch of medicine (ie Internal Med, Infectious disease) and being established in that field as a practitioner, then also sitting on the boards of some exciting life science technology companies (as a venture partner) which would allow me to travel between China, US, Japan and also managing a clinic/microfinance operation in Africa, Latin America or China.

Last sunny day in SF?

Perfect day today. Sunny, bright and breezy. Spent it at the ballpark with Dan, Jenny, Dave and Sophia. Got sick on garlic fries.

Dan told me today that he’s gonna wait to raise a fund with me when I graduate from med school. That meant a lot, I would love to work with friends whom I respect and admire.

I have great friends in San Francisco. I think that is what I will miss the most about leaving.

Two things to celebrate/think about

I got into Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland today. Good news but dunno what this means exactly. I like Dartmouth’s program, resources (lower tuition, more financial aid) and brand value but I will definitely feel more comfortable living on the west coast. Either way, its great to have such great choices.

In other news, it looks very likely that I will be going to Capetown, South Africa this summer with Child Family Health International, the group that organized my program in Ecuador this January, as an Alumni Fellow. This basically means that I will be paid to be a camp counselor for the students in the program. Not too much responsibility, lots of flexibility and the opportunity to work with poor, sick people. This is gonna be a great experience!!!

Either way, its been a great day!

My first entry: Microfinance and Medicine

I followed up Saturday’s marathon Microfinance with John Hatch workshop with another seminar at the Haas school. Basically, the idea of microfinance is to give out micro loans ($100-$200) to poor women in the developing world in hopes that they will invest and improve their productivity thus raising themselves out of poverty. I feel that there is definitely a very strong connection between medicine here. Those who are poor are often the most susceptible to disease and most incapable of getting adequate healthcare. Wouldn’t it be great to not only treat the sick and poor while also giving them the means to provide for themselves?

Ideally this summer I will get to work with some of these “villagers”. CFHI has asked me to apply for their alumni fellowship which would allow me to spend the summer in Capetown, South Africa assisting the program. If so, my personal goals are to talk to as many poor and sick people as I can to find out what they need. I also believe I will have easy access to MicroFinance Institutions there in addition to HIV/ARV focused clinics.

Sweet, my first entry into my own weblog.
THANKS PHIL!!