Gene's Joint

Some excellent independent artists in SF, SD

http://gohnakamura.com/
– My friend Aya’s bro

http://www.jturtlemusic.com/

memorias de viaje

Its so easy to get caught up in the “doing” that we forget sometimes about just “being”. Tonight I watched a couple of guys in their element, playing music simply because they love it. There is something special about that.

As I was driving home, I thought of a moment from my own life where I felt a brief respite from DOING and just WAS.

I was in Ecuador, on a bus with some friends bound for Banos (a little town in La Sierra where tourists go to take mineral baths, drink and dance). We were excited, it was our first weekend in Ecuador and everyone felt adventurous. Upon leaving the bus station in Quito, the bus made several stops to fill up with passengers. By the time we left the city limits, people were standing in the aisles. About halfway to our destination, we picked up an old indigena couple. They silently made their way to the back of the bus and not having anywhere to stand, the two of them squeezed into a small luggage compartment at the very back of the bus, adjacent to where I was sitting.

I had brought my dinner onboard, a chicken sandwich from KFC of all places. The meal cost about $1.50. A few minutes after the couple situated themselves next to me, I felt a pang of hunger and took out my sandwich to eat it. As I was about to take the first bite, I saw out of the corner of my eye the old indigena looking at the sandwich. I turned towards her and asked her if she was hungry. She nodded without speaking. I asked if she wanted half of my sandwich. Another nod. Without hesitation, I tore my sandwich in two and gave the larger half to her. She then split her half with her husband (pressed in the corner next to her). I ate slowly, taking notice of how quickly the indigenas wolfed down what little I had to offer. They really were hungry.

About an hour later (some rural area north of Banos), the indigenas got up to leave. As they began making their way forward, the old woman put her hand on my shoulder and smiled at me.

I felt . . . I WAS great.

Happy Bday to Me!

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!!