Hello!
Just thought I'd post a progress thread. I feel indebted to MJ for writing such great books and really want to give something back (as if taking my money wasn't enough!
) !
The Millionaire Fastlane really changed my life when I read it one and a half years ago. Unscripted has just blown my mind once again! Although I'm not a millionaire yet, I've started to get some "orange gumballs" recently and I'm going to keep going until I reach my goals - i.e. the Fastlane.
Just a bit of background
I'm a 30 year old, second generation Indian living in England. My dad's a doctor and so am I! No, that doesn't mean I was forced into becoming a doctor - luckily I've never suffered with a victim mentality and have always taken responsibility for my life. I truly wanted to be an MD since I was a wee lad.
I think having immigrant parents gave me a really strong work ethic and seeing where they've come from and how far they've gone in life is actually super inspiring.
I didn't always have a strong work ethic though... When I was in school and college I was the one always messing around who still got good grades. Teachers hated me because of this and as a result, despite my grades I was given insanely bad references and got rejected from medical school 8 times! I was so determined to study medicine that I ended up going to a random Eastern European country for six years to get my MD.
That was and still is the hardest thing I've ever done. No one spoke English (I couldn't even buy friking uncarbonated water for the first two weeks!), I experienced a ton of racism and humiliation, and as the country used to be communist their education system is designed as a way to make you conform and suck up as much time as possible. When I first got there I thought the whole "medical school" was a scam! There was an >80% fail rate. I worked my face off for 6 years to get my MD. Talk about a slap of reality!
I promised myself that one day I would become successful after that experience!
The Beginning
Everyone knows that there's load of stuff broken in the world of medicine. I came across a problem that seemed so simple to solve that I just had to pursuit it. I figured out a solution in my head and realised that I would use it as a patient and as a doctor for my patients.
At this point I was just a junior doctor in a hospital setting. I tried to get in touch with anyone that could point me in the right direction to get started. I tried to get in touch with the hospital managers, the CEOs, the "Innovation Team" (which comprised of some old lady who hadn't heard of this newfangled thing called "The Internet"...).
I was persistent. I needed to figure out how to get started and although some of these top tier people at the hospital feigned interest from time to time, no one gave a damn.
I managed to find out about someone who is in charge of innovation for the whole of the NHS (National Health System). I started to research him and then one day he tweeted that he was going to give a talk on the other side of the country to a small number of people.
I finished a night shift, slept for two hours and drove to the other side of the country to try and meet him. I was so desperate at this point just to get started.
I'll never forget one specific moment. When I got to my hotel to freshen up and get dressed into my suit, I just stared at myself in the mirror. I honestly felt like such a loser at this point and nearly decided not to go! I figured that I came this far so I might as well just bite the bullet.
It's funny how our brain always stops us from putting ourselves out there, even if it will result in a much better life. What's the worst that could happen? He could tell me to scram, but that's already happened a countless number of times by countless other people!
After his talk, I finally managed to get in front of the man himself, who to my surprise was absolutely flattered that I had traveled so far just to meet him! Within one day he introduced me to all the contacts I needed to at least get started on my project and not be sued/put in prison.
MVP
Prior to getting the green light I already knew what my MVP would need to look like. I started to learn to code during my free time. I wasn't progressing quickly enough.....I realised that I couldn't trust my code to handle patient confidential and sensitive data. I want to help people, not harm them! Damn!
Side note: I was working in the ED when I was studying for my professional exams, working out five times a week, learning to code, reading books and it's also when I found the time to drive to the other side of the country to meet the Innovation lead. I laugh at people when they say they "don't have the time"! Your actions reveal what you really want in life, not the garbage that you may mutter from time to time; "one day I'll....".
I decided to go down the contracted developer root instead. Learning the basics of coding is very important and handy though! So just go ahead and learn as it's not that hard to be honest.
Codecademy are good. Udemy have some very good "full stack" tutorials which go on sale from time to time. So I spent £10 on a course which taught HTML, CSS, Java, PHP etc. Then just watch tons of YouTube videos which show people coding.
I put down most of my cash into my MVP. It was another leap of faith. I figured that I would need to pass all my exams from that point in the first attempt or I would have to take out a loan to finish my training. (Luckily I passed everything first attempt).
As we were approaching the end of the build for our MVP, I still hadn't found any hospital / healthcare setting that would use it! Literally the week we finished building I managed to find somewhere that wanted to use it as a trial! I felt so relieved at this point! We launched in Jan 17.
Over the next month we got some really impressive data which proved my assumptions. I kept on iterating the product with my developers.
Searching For Product Market Fit
At this point the developers were really bought into the idea and were very keen on joining me. We were getting a lot of attention and also were being approached by large health IT companies to integrate with them.
Unfortunately talks fell apart when we sat down to talk about joint venture contracts and shareholder agreements. I was going to split everything equally, so that I would retain 1/3. They were happy with this, but when I said that at some point we would all need to quit our jobs and go all in they said that they "couldn't".
I asked what metric they would need to achieve for them to go all in, but they said that they never would! Can you believe this? They make around 20K every year, but they didn't want to join even if we could get to a stage where they could have more money? I moved on at this point and found another developer who has been very good up to now who will likely join full time if we get to a certain level of revenue.
I think this is the best way to get a developer on board. Do something interesting, challenging, meaningful. Get traction, be convincing, be genuine, have tons of credibility and domain mastery, with tons of connections. You'll get a lot of interest from developers who want to join if you do this. As MJ always says in his books - people are always focused on "events" not process. Imagine going to a developer and saying; "I've built this, we're in this hospital, we've got this data, after a month we're already in major talks with these healthcare providers". Most developers I've met have leaped at the chance, because most people want to be "chosen" as it's an "event" from them. This way you can pick the best developers as well.
Soon after our initial launch we were approached by a specific type of healthcare provider who now wants to use our app in a bit of a different way. They've paid for us to build some more features and when we launch within the next 6 weeks, we will officially have a decent amount of revenue coming in. However, it's the data that I'm mainly after. The data at this point is worth more than than the revenue, because it will let me push this system into all the other providers who are struggling with the same problems.
We're also now in talks with some large government organisations now to integrate our services and be one of the official apps (meaning we'll be used nationally).
We're continuing to push ahead with our initial vision which could have a massive impact (magnitude) and also have be used by lots of patients throughout the country (scale). As I'm now a senior doctor, I can really push ahead with ideas that I couldn't before (barrier to entry is insanely high. Good luck trying to do what I'm doing if you're not an MD and have real domain experience to boot!)
This next year is going to really reveal if I have a chance of being really successful. I will keep posting updates! I am so driven to succeed. Either this works or I die, it's that simple.
Not sure if this was helpful for anyone, but I just want to stress that I was just like every other junior doctor when I started. No one would listen at all, but you can't ever give up. The market is what wins at the end of the day. The market shouldn't be confused with the incumbent industry that you're trying to change.
Just thought I'd post a progress thread. I feel indebted to MJ for writing such great books and really want to give something back (as if taking my money wasn't enough!
) !The Millionaire Fastlane really changed my life when I read it one and a half years ago. Unscripted has just blown my mind once again! Although I'm not a millionaire yet, I've started to get some "orange gumballs" recently and I'm going to keep going until I reach my goals - i.e. the Fastlane.
Just a bit of background
I'm a 30 year old, second generation Indian living in England. My dad's a doctor and so am I! No, that doesn't mean I was forced into becoming a doctor - luckily I've never suffered with a victim mentality and have always taken responsibility for my life. I truly wanted to be an MD since I was a wee lad.
I think having immigrant parents gave me a really strong work ethic and seeing where they've come from and how far they've gone in life is actually super inspiring.
I didn't always have a strong work ethic though... When I was in school and college I was the one always messing around who still got good grades. Teachers hated me because of this and as a result, despite my grades I was given insanely bad references and got rejected from medical school 8 times! I was so determined to study medicine that I ended up going to a random Eastern European country for six years to get my MD.
"The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions." - Noam Chomsky
That was and still is the hardest thing I've ever done. No one spoke English (I couldn't even buy friking uncarbonated water for the first two weeks!), I experienced a ton of racism and humiliation, and as the country used to be communist their education system is designed as a way to make you conform and suck up as much time as possible. When I first got there I thought the whole "medical school" was a scam! There was an >80% fail rate. I worked my face off for 6 years to get my MD. Talk about a slap of reality!
I promised myself that one day I would become successful after that experience!
The Beginning
Everyone knows that there's load of stuff broken in the world of medicine. I came across a problem that seemed so simple to solve that I just had to pursuit it. I figured out a solution in my head and realised that I would use it as a patient and as a doctor for my patients.
At this point I was just a junior doctor in a hospital setting. I tried to get in touch with anyone that could point me in the right direction to get started. I tried to get in touch with the hospital managers, the CEOs, the "Innovation Team" (which comprised of some old lady who hadn't heard of this newfangled thing called "The Internet"...).
I was persistent. I needed to figure out how to get started and although some of these top tier people at the hospital feigned interest from time to time, no one gave a damn.
"Be genuine, be remarkable, be worth connecting with." - Seth Godin
I managed to find out about someone who is in charge of innovation for the whole of the NHS (National Health System). I started to research him and then one day he tweeted that he was going to give a talk on the other side of the country to a small number of people.
I finished a night shift, slept for two hours and drove to the other side of the country to try and meet him. I was so desperate at this point just to get started.
I'll never forget one specific moment. When I got to my hotel to freshen up and get dressed into my suit, I just stared at myself in the mirror. I honestly felt like such a loser at this point and nearly decided not to go! I figured that I came this far so I might as well just bite the bullet.
It's funny how our brain always stops us from putting ourselves out there, even if it will result in a much better life. What's the worst that could happen? He could tell me to scram, but that's already happened a countless number of times by countless other people!
After his talk, I finally managed to get in front of the man himself, who to my surprise was absolutely flattered that I had traveled so far just to meet him! Within one day he introduced me to all the contacts I needed to at least get started on my project and not be sued/put in prison.
MVP
Prior to getting the green light I already knew what my MVP would need to look like. I started to learn to code during my free time. I wasn't progressing quickly enough.....I realised that I couldn't trust my code to handle patient confidential and sensitive data. I want to help people, not harm them! Damn!
Side note: I was working in the ED when I was studying for my professional exams, working out five times a week, learning to code, reading books and it's also when I found the time to drive to the other side of the country to meet the Innovation lead. I laugh at people when they say they "don't have the time"! Your actions reveal what you really want in life, not the garbage that you may mutter from time to time; "one day I'll....".
I decided to go down the contracted developer root instead. Learning the basics of coding is very important and handy though! So just go ahead and learn as it's not that hard to be honest.
Codecademy are good. Udemy have some very good "full stack" tutorials which go on sale from time to time. So I spent £10 on a course which taught HTML, CSS, Java, PHP etc. Then just watch tons of YouTube videos which show people coding.
I put down most of my cash into my MVP. It was another leap of faith. I figured that I would need to pass all my exams from that point in the first attempt or I would have to take out a loan to finish my training. (Luckily I passed everything first attempt).
As we were approaching the end of the build for our MVP, I still hadn't found any hospital / healthcare setting that would use it! Literally the week we finished building I managed to find somewhere that wanted to use it as a trial! I felt so relieved at this point! We launched in Jan 17.
Over the next month we got some really impressive data which proved my assumptions. I kept on iterating the product with my developers.
Searching For Product Market Fit
At this point the developers were really bought into the idea and were very keen on joining me. We were getting a lot of attention and also were being approached by large health IT companies to integrate with them.
Unfortunately talks fell apart when we sat down to talk about joint venture contracts and shareholder agreements. I was going to split everything equally, so that I would retain 1/3. They were happy with this, but when I said that at some point we would all need to quit our jobs and go all in they said that they "couldn't".
I asked what metric they would need to achieve for them to go all in, but they said that they never would! Can you believe this? They make around 20K every year, but they didn't want to join even if we could get to a stage where they could have more money? I moved on at this point and found another developer who has been very good up to now who will likely join full time if we get to a certain level of revenue.
I think this is the best way to get a developer on board. Do something interesting, challenging, meaningful. Get traction, be convincing, be genuine, have tons of credibility and domain mastery, with tons of connections. You'll get a lot of interest from developers who want to join if you do this. As MJ always says in his books - people are always focused on "events" not process. Imagine going to a developer and saying; "I've built this, we're in this hospital, we've got this data, after a month we're already in major talks with these healthcare providers". Most developers I've met have leaped at the chance, because most people want to be "chosen" as it's an "event" from them. This way you can pick the best developers as well.
Soon after our initial launch we were approached by a specific type of healthcare provider who now wants to use our app in a bit of a different way. They've paid for us to build some more features and when we launch within the next 6 weeks, we will officially have a decent amount of revenue coming in. However, it's the data that I'm mainly after. The data at this point is worth more than than the revenue, because it will let me push this system into all the other providers who are struggling with the same problems.
We're also now in talks with some large government organisations now to integrate our services and be one of the official apps (meaning we'll be used nationally).
We're continuing to push ahead with our initial vision which could have a massive impact (magnitude) and also have be used by lots of patients throughout the country (scale). As I'm now a senior doctor, I can really push ahead with ideas that I couldn't before (barrier to entry is insanely high. Good luck trying to do what I'm doing if you're not an MD and have real domain experience to boot!)
This next year is going to really reveal if I have a chance of being really successful. I will keep posting updates! I am so driven to succeed. Either this works or I die, it's that simple.
Not sure if this was helpful for anyone, but I just want to stress that I was just like every other junior doctor when I started. No one would listen at all, but you can't ever give up. The market is what wins at the end of the day. The market shouldn't be confused with the incumbent industry that you're trying to change.
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