Start-Up Challenge

So I just signed up for the Duke Start-Up Challenge Elevator Pitch Competition. I have 4 business ideas that I will head up over the next few years but I've picked my favorite one to do for this competition. The Elevator Pitch Competition is only the first event in a competition between student-led start-ups that goes until the Finals in April. The prize for the Elevator Pitch winner is $5,000 and for the Finals winner is $25,000 in investment. I'm going for broke; my idea is good enough to win. I'll not reveal it yet, but all the feedback I've gotten has been overwhelmingly positive, and I have talked to some very influential people regarding this project, they love it. It's also an incredibly feasible project, compared to some of the other start-ups, biotech companies and such. These things will take a lot more than $25,000 to get off the ground. That amount is perfect for me; I could build an incredible business with that much.

Regardless of whether I win the money through this competition or not, I figure all the exposure my ideas will get will be great. I'll probably gain investor interest regardless when they see how driven I am and how my mind works. The wheels are always turning. I will be a CEO within a year or two regardless of how this competition pans out. And with four ideas, I'll be busy for some years. They are all so cool that it's difficult for me not to talk about them now. But to do so on an open internet forum before I legally "own" the ideas would be stupid, and I'm not stupid.

My little bro and I share one of the ideas and I would absolutely love to get it going within the next few years so he can be a co-CEO before he graduates high school. He can put that on his college applications. Haha, I love the idea. Trust me, you will see this particular idea in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and stores like Spencer's Gifts within the next 5 years as well. I'm thinking about making a blanket corporation to head all of my projects; that would probably be the best idea, the easiest way to keep track of everything.

Right now in my decision-making process I am very serious about all of this. Instead of focusing on getting into med school right now I'm going to apply for Duke's MMS Master's Degree program through Fuqua School of Business so I can have a professional degree before taking off out of here. I also want to get a good overview of business school and make some meaningful connections here in that world. Coming from a hard sciences background, I have not taken any business oriented classes, heck Duke doesn't even offer a Business Degree, it's too generic, but I think the Neuroscience/Pre-Med background will only serve to help me in the end. It will set me apart from everyone else trying to get into this program, but more than that it will tell potential investors that I know how to work my ass off and I am no dummy. Graduating from Duke in three years of coursework as a Pre-Med Neuroscience major is no small feat. But I can tell you, I am very glad that I am almost done with school.

The academic world stifles me. I don't fit into this whole system; my mind is always coming up with new ideas and I need an environment and the support to make them a reality. Academics is a world full of individuals, many of whom are scared of the real world. They prefer to sit back and watch, to analyze and criticize. I can tell you, through my experience at a world class research institution I have learned that 90% of the stuff I learn here will have nothing to do with my life in a year or two and millions in tax dollars are being wasted every day around the country funding some of this research. Much of it is garbage; it doesn't tell anyone anything. It quantifies common sense. The only real value I can find in it is that it puts bread on the table of the researcher's families and validates their quest for letters behind their names, be it Ph.D., J.D., M.D., whatever.

Now don't get me wrong, there is some extremely interesting research going on here that is also incredibly helpful to societal ailments and medical phenomena. And I've had some spectacular professors who have taught me so much more than course material. But for every great professor/researcher, there are multiple not-so-great ones. A ton of good is done here however, and all around the country at other research institutions. I'm just saying that much of the research here is not applicable to anything other than the field that it is conducted in. That can be fine, but most of the time it is not. I'm a big picture guy. And I see micro-level phenomena as pieces to a macro-level puzzle. Society and its needs are kind of like the human body to me. You cannot sit and focus on one area of the body, remaining in a cyclical analysis and never stepping out and applying it to the big picture, to the body as a whole. In fact, I see the way that the medical community is currently organized as a microcosm for how research institutions fit into society.

In medicine, students become doctors and go into a specialty, where they focus on one area or system of the human body. They know everything about it, backwards and forwards. And while they receive limited education on the other systems during medical school, this information is quickly forgotten or brushed aside. Nothing is more important than their specialty. However, they commonly miss rather simple diagnoses due to the fact that they discount the body's ability to function as a whole, the fact that it will ONLY function as a whole. For example, a femoral stress fracture is caused by running too much, it has nothing to do with the fact that the runner is malnourished and not receiving enough vitamins and minerals through their diet. Or in psychology, you are depressed because you have a Prozac deficiency, not because you eat fast food for 2 meals a day, don't exercise, and have an unstable family life. Or for the guys out there, you can't get it up? That's normal, what would we ever do without Viagra? Just pop this pill, line some fatcats' pockets, and continue with your lifestyle the way it has been, there can't be anything wrong with the way you live and treat your body that could be causing your problems. Hell, you could have a tumor sitting in your pituitary gland or hypothalamus and you'd never know it unless you forcibly demand extensive testing and MRI. This is another topic I'll rant on later. Gotta stay on track.

Well, the academic world functions in a similar way. Just focus on your field, put your head down and work in your lab til it's time to retire. It's comfortable, pretty mundane, but yeah, comfortable. You get respect, decent pay, and if you get to the head of your field you can even travel around and tell people all about the one thing you know everything about. You've made it yours. However, when it comes to the multitude of things you don't actually know anything about, you are just useless as the rest of us. And trust me, most problems in the world require an integrated approach to solve. Whatever happened to the Renaissance Man???

I will wrap up with one last thought: the dichotomy I am describing here is simply the difference between mediocre people and great people. Mediocre people are content with the comfortable. Why take a risk and potentially fail big when you can walk this way to a stable life with benefits. Sure you have to work 9 to 5 in a cubicle or a lab every day for someone else, but what's wrong with that. You flushed your dreams away years ago; they are a long forgotten memory of the naiivete of your youth. Dreams are for fools.

But great people are a different story. They are the ones who took the big risks and succeeded, but not without failing a thousand times first. I'm utterly convinced that adversity is the prerequisite to greatness. Without struggle no one can do anything worthwhile. Great people are the ones who took a step out of line; they checked out of the rat race. They did their own thing, followed their dreams. Do we not have these passions within us for a reason?