When I am at home my elder daughter Alyssa always asks me to go for swimming. At the pool she pushes me to jump into water, always, every single time. The only reason my daughter wants me to go swimming is to make me comfortable in water especially in deep water. I tried swimming couple of times, but I failed miserably. I was sinking all the time, not floating on the water. And, at the same time my daughter was going like fish in water. I failed completely in my practice many times, but I became better and better gradually. I felt it, I was improving little bit at a time.
In the beginning, I didn’t realize how big psychological impact that my daughter has put in my mind because I was struggling to breathe while swimming.
Now I go swimming multiple times in a week. Not only that I am good at it, but I never realized that I could swim this well in sixteen feet deep swimming pool. After evaluating my success in swimming, I asked myself.
Is it essential to fail before to succeed in anything?
Jack ma had thirty different job rejections including KFC where twenty-three were accepted except him.
I have read the story of Milton Hershey who failed in three candy companies before he got a Hershey company.
Another person that comes in my mind is the most renowned and respected television personality Oprah Winfrey. She was fired from broadcast journalist saying that she is not appropriate for the television industry.
Stephen King failed multiple times before he became renowned author.
Walt Disney failed to secure the funding multiple times before he pioneered Disney World. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton both had signs of Asperger’s as a young child (a disorder on the autism) but nothing stopped them from becoming the most brilliant scientists in history.
From these stories, the learning lesson I gathered is how to change, adapt and grow to defeat failures. If we want to overcome our failure and learn from it, we have to leverage the strength of the person next to us when we go up and down. The prime factor is family and people we associate as my daughter Alyssa showed me the ray of courage that I could be a good swimmer.
When I was kid, i failed multiple times in different sectors, and it didn’t affect me deeply to follow my dreams. But when I started to become little older; my rent, mortgage and responsibilities suppressed me, and I postponed my dreams for someday. In reality, that someday never came. After certain years, my inner desire and enthusiasm about my dreams became so thinner and thinner until it completely disappeared. Exactly the same thing happened in my singing dream. I used to sing songs in my high school and as an undergrad. Dream of becoming an aspiring singer vanished.
If I would have started that dream, I wouldn’t regret it now. The worst-case scenario I would get failure from that dream project. To be honest, regret is permanent, but failure is temporary. We just don’t spend our time searching successes, we have to spend time looking at ways to keep studying to the failures we already have.
Success and failure both are measurable in life. There are three components to measure success: health, wealth and progress. The importance of these three we realize only in later stages of life, after passing the actual time. And we start living the life of regret. If we are feeling healthy in each passing day, then it is a first sign of success. If we are feeling wealthy in each passing day, then it is a second sign of success. Wealth is different than rich. Rich is accumulation of money, but wealth is accumulation of positive mindset to create quality life for ourself as well as for the society. The third sign of success is to grow, each passing day by learning something new.
If we don’t fail, we don’t invest on us, therefore failure is inevitable because it teaches us to invest on us. I invested one hour each day for ninety days in my swimming to become ordinary swimmer.
Investment on us is far more powerful than investment on product or service.
Majority of failed people don’t differentiate between a job and a career. They do the job throughout their life, but they hate it every day.
They don’t do anything about it. If we really hate the job, then we should escape it as soon as possible.
A job is a simple way to pay our bills and obligations, but a career is a deeper system to move into quality life by creating value.
Failure forces us to seek competency and mutual relationship among the coworkers in the work field. Rare and valuable skills are result of deep focus, deliberate study and practice. These are tools for building any skills like swimming for me by ruthlessly devoting myself beyond my comfort zone.
The more I try to force to study failure, the more I learn how to succeed. The only requirement is patience.
By origin, human needs each other’s back to succeed, mostly not to repeat the same failure.
Alyssa, my daughter, needs me in her science experiment, and I need her for my swimming tips.
-Yam Timsina
Where do you spend more: education or healthcare?
How healthy are you?
Are you really living with your full potential, or you are just pretending to be healthy? By giving answer to this question, we clearly express our strength and limitation in life. Remember, the struggle behind the discovery of one normal drug for a disease still costs one billion dollar and 10 years of time.
Similarly, how educated are you?
I am not talking about Ivy League’s diploma and certificate. I am talking about the understanding of life. How well do you keep yourself aware about your profession, your health and new innovation in society? Education is not only knowing; it is understanding of the world and adding a new layer on top of your understanding to facilitate your life.
If our education system forces our kids to memorize the capital cities of Asia and Africa, then it doesn’t take long to be sidelined in today’s technologically sophisticated society. Education is to create value to other people to improve their lives; not to memorize capital cities unless to participate in quiz competition.
Clearly, education and healthcare business would be the fastest growing businesses. If we are not careful then majority of our money will go in these two sectors in coming days. Education and healthcare require more urgency and importance than we actually realize. Both areas heavily involve teaching, training and instructing people around us.
How well do we persuade, or influence others is the key in these areas? Probably far more important than technical knowledge or skills. Teachers and doctors both should convince others, both should care and support others.
One skill is far more important than ever for both teachers and doctors.
How to open both ears and close a single mouth. By opening mouth, nobody learns.
Listen more from your students, patients and family members. I have had experiences of doctor interrupting me as a patient in the first round of talk where I was detailing the cause of my visit.
Few years ago, I was teaching chemistry to sophomores. I was telling students to write about the topic I assigned. Almost ninety nine percent obeyed my topic, but two students did not. They choose their topic but not mine. During grading what I realized is the student who wrote his own topic exceled far well then those who wrote my assigned topic. To improve the understanding, only key is making the student centerpiece. The power of choice enhances the optimism, which is required in today’s education especially in digital age.
Another effective tool to get student’s inherent drive is teach to ask questions. Mostly ask uncommon and open-ended questions which force anybody to think. The skill of asking better questions is way productive and useful than finding the correct answers. This is in direct conflict with current teaching and learning technique. Most of us learned from our school, college and parent how to answer but not how to question. Questing is still considered unethical in many circumstances. This is equally important for doctors too. Encourage and teach students and patients how to ask questions especially open-ended questions which avoids yes or no answers.
My cousin was not studying even before the day of chemistry test. Rather than to ask direct command question like “study for chemistry test tomorrow”, I asked her some indirect questions.
“How much do you score in chemistry test tomorrow?”
She told me, “4 out of 10.”
I again said, “Why you are not picking 2?”
She said, “I deserve better than 2.”
This will amplify my cousin’s personal positive intrinsic motivation for study.
Imagine the consequences if doctors apply this strategy to their chronic patients.
Now a days, a sophomore student with internet excess can have more information on the mechanism of Diels-Alder reaction with 3D simulation model than his or her 1980’s PhD professor.
Doctors are really busy people; they have to see assigned number of patients in a day. Don’t instruct the patient what to do and not to do. Listen their details, habits, behaviors, and patterns then act accordingly. Now a day’s patients arrive in clinic and hospital after doing intense research and reading about their disease and problem. In conclusion, teaching and treating patient are same old concepts but we have to deal in a new way or a new approach. I would like to reinforce the idea that there are no new teachings or treatments, only new approaches to execute old and existing ideas. Teach every kid like you are teaching your own kid and treat every patient like you are treating your own dad. How does it feel?
-Yam Timsina
How do you use simulation in everyday life?
My daughter Aryanna was studying the physics principle regarding the change of state from rest to flying. She was working on the complex mathematical derivations.
Once she said, “I gave up becoming an aeronautical engineer.”
I said, Why?
“It’s too complicated and I’m not absorbing the information”, she replied annoyingly.
I told her, “Do you know what simulation is?”
She said, “it’s a computer program to make a model.”
“What about you become a model of aeronautical engineer, be yourself in this position at the moment. Think of your life in this position. Make emotional connection to it and pretend you’ve achieved it. How does it feel? Would you feel undefeatable? What would your mom say? What would your friends say? What would be the taste of that life?” I told her.
She sat down on the floor and closed her both eyes and started to visualize it.
At the present moment she was aeronautical engineer.
In reality, the term simulation is very complex. It generally represents approximate imitation of the activity or process. Its application is diverse depending on situations like technology, computer and natural phenomenon. The most critical aspect is its use when the real does not exist and the valid source of information is not available.
The less explorable part is it is an unstoppable source of inspiration when the road of life becomes tough.
I am a practitioner of science and technology. I have experienced that when we say or do some new activity, we seek scientific evidence to support. The common question we ask: is there scientific evidence for that or this? Simulation is that power which bring us momentum to try out something new. It teaches us to be the evidence ourselves. So, the next generation will use us as a scientific evidence.
At its core simulation does not indicate future. After realization of the moment, it brings joy in our mind. We become more attached to the activity. We enjoy the activity or process and produce the result.
If the present task doesn’t produce any result, or if it is cumbersome then drop it for a moment, close your eyes and simulate the work, process, as well as final outcome.
Present activity happens in pure consciousness. When we simulate the circumstance, we make connection to the point from where consciousness starts. Simulation is feeling that will bring you closer to the truth of who you really are. And who you really want to be? Complete attention through simulation brings full acceptance of the present reality. This is a catalyst to act.
Aryanna opened her eyes and said, “Dad, I let my future clarify the present, I was creating time and space for my present task. I was honoring the present moment by allowing simulation to come by.” “I also found total equality between my present state of trying and perfect aeronautical engineer. There is a flow of life which I am experiencing now. Until I achieve the desire goal, I continue to practice simulation.”
“There is no doubt that I am going to be a very successful aeronautical engineer.”
-Yam Timsina
What is the science behind story-telling?
My niece is a sixteen years old girl and one day she asked me a very difficult question.
What do you recommend me to study in college?
I paused for a moment and said, “This is a very complicated and difficult question to answer.”
She said, “I am so confused from the suggestions of my friends and family members, so I need your help to make the decision.”
“I have read about some prominent successful figures across the globe and found that their study and work align to their core values in life, and a lot of time they go against society, family or friends.” She added.
She expressed very powerful statement that we experience ourselves in everyday life. It’s true that very few people’s opinions matter in our life. Rest is just noise and interferes with real life signal all the time.
She continuously added, “I not only want to be successful in future but also want to be authentic.”
Silence. A confused smile of desperation.
As I was observing her expression especially with her question, I was fascinated experiencing her assessment to measure success in her life.
I didn’t say anything to her that particular day.
Next morning, I asked her, “What do you read more, fiction or non-fiction books?”
She said, “I do read more fiction books.”
And I added, “Why do you read more fiction books?”
She said, “Stories are touching, and they bind me closely while reading.” “Sometimes, I feel like I should fake the story until I really make it.”
I said, “That’s wonderful.”
“Now, you have the answer of your question that you had asked me before.”
“Life is the understanding of few things rather than knowing many things. Understand the disciplines or subjects, by which you can make many stories throughout your existence.”
“These are your real-life stories, and should bind your listeners and audiences like what you experience when you read fiction books,” I added.
“If you are able to do that in your life, you will be successful and authentic. Remember, if nobody interests your life story, then you should seriously rethink what you wish to do with your life.”
“You would be more valuable person in life, if you make a very large pool of people paying very close attention to hear your stories. While you are telling your story, but if listeners mind wanders, then you aren’t successful. Bind and captivate them and create the flow of inspiration. Plain, unemotional stories do not influence the sub-conscious mind. Sub-conscious mind works twenty-four hours.”
Remember, if a middle school science teacher starts class about moon as, “Once upon a time there was a child in the moon……..” All the students will remain calm, relaxed, and quiet to take all the information about moon. This is powerful and would be therapeutic especially in learning. Miscellaneous information about moon gives miscellaneous results.
Study whatever and wherever you want, but get your story ready as you continue your legacy.
There is another worth remembering part in the story telling.
“Do you know? When is the best time to tell your story?”
If there are many other story tellers in the room, “Tell your story in the end, if possible.”
Try to absorb the information as much you can from all other story tellers, and you tell your story in the end.
I learned this technique from the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, who was wrongfully imprisoned for twenty-seven years but evolved as one of the best story tellers of the world to influence billions of people on the planet. He learned this skill of storytelling from his dad early in his childhood. Sometimes, despite spending months and years working in our own story, there is zero progress. But by using one simple idea of somebody else’s story line could spark the whole new series of results.
Listening another person’s story before our own story is a skill and doesn’t come overnight but we can build it slowly. This skill is hard to learn but will pay off forever.
-Yam Timsina
How does the science of extinction begin?
Albert Einstein said, try not to become a person of success, but a person of value. Our value starts with how many lives we have touched or impacted. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both impacted billions of people so that we say them billionaires. If iPhone and computer systems code is changed, our complete office and business system including even our non-web related affairs need to be reshuffled to adapt that code change.
There are two ways of getting success and create value, either we alter the circumstances, or we alter ourselves to adapt the change. It does not matter where we came from yesterday or who we are today. Success is the constant battle of adaptation for what we do tomorrow. I am a firm believer that the only way to succeed tomorrow is to create value for tomorrow, and it lies in our ability to adapt. Success comes when opportunity and adaptation meet.
I asked Durga, “Could you come to cheerlead 5K Run participants next Sunday?”
She replied, “Don’t you think I’m so busy”.
I said, “I know”.
We all are busy, but sometimes we’re busy for being busy.
I’m not judging Durga, I’m just reporting.
She is twenty-seven-year-old two hundred thirty-pound lady in my office.
She visits McDonald’s fastfood pretty regularly via drive through because she doesn’t have time to cook at home. But she never visits in fastlane gym to workout. She is getting out of shape because she isn’t congruent with eating and workout. She says obesity runs in her family.
I respect her genuine excuse of non-action.
More than one-third of Americans are obese costing billions of dollars in medical expenses. Very few of us do minimum aerobic activities because we are not adapted to regular exercises. Not doing it creates stress and slows down the production of new brain cells. It also brings reduction in serotonin and dopamine making us poor memory person.
Tomorrow’s work stations should adapt free massages and free yoga class for their employees, if we want high performance and productivity. Workspace should not be cubicled, but open, and pets should be allowed so that everyone could feel like home. Very few people are aware of the relationship between productivity and pets. This is the future of office culture so that everybody enjoys going there. This new practice will make normal office hours obsolete.
Most of us know that meditation significantly lowers stress and anxiety, and elevates attention and creativity. Ray Dalio’s company, Bridgewater Associates, offers free meditation service to its employees. This is another example why we need to adapt new tool in office culture. This exotic vision and willpower come from sheer leadership to adapt new tomorrow. This not only brings sustainability and profit to the organization but also maintains work life healthy balance to employee.
In today’s world, specialized skill in any area is required, but it has both good and bad ramifications. The good aspect is we become expert in the area with keen understanding and knowledge, but the bad part is, there is also high possibility of becoming a trivial market value that has high chance to become obsolete. For example, the specialized expert in automobile industry never thought about the robotics when they were in peak of their career. Now their job is gone. The person who can envision the future spends time to study the forthcoming. The specialized automobile engineering skill could be diverted to the robotic skill. This is called adaptation to change.
My dad used typewriter and also used to repair it when I was kid, but now our typewriter is once upon a time story.
Specialized skills in stock brokerage now, is not far from extinction due to Robinhood and Vanguard.
Priceline dot com already engulfed my friends travel agency office located in King’s way.
Uber and Lyft have now transformed the travel industry, they own nothing except one app, but that single app has put thousands of taxi drivers’ career in jeopardy. Today, dependence on one skill specialization has high risk of obsolescence. When we become experienced in one skill set, our activities revolve around repetition over and over again every day. Daily job becomes monotonous rat race. Our mind goes to autopilot and acquiring new knowledge with hours of learning commitment becomes a distant goal.
The real personal growth in life comes from everyday new life experiences, not from everyday job. New uncomfortable conversation with someone whom you never talk before gives competitive advantage. Single visiting card of a medical science liaison officer who was next to you in your Dubai flight last month can open plethora of avenues. New thoughts, ideas, and experiences don’t come from regular job but from seemingly unrelated dots we experience in five hundred miles away in Florida beach. Growth happens outside of our comfort zone if we are open to adapt it.
Success in career, business, and life is built with time. Time is asset only if we are able to convert one skill set to another with required adjustment and modification. Otherwise, time becomes liability for us. The more we work with people environment, the more we learn about ourselves. This is the key to develop new ways of thinking, new skills, and new ways of serving for tomorrow. Obsession in one area of skill without open mindset to change hurts. And it hurts another skill set. Insanely good at one skill may also take us to obsolescence, if we don’t listen to others.
If we are resistant in adapting to change, we may go out of business. Many of us know that, in 1952, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa both conquered the peak of Mount Everest and also returned safely on the ground. But very few of us know that George Mallory had also reached the peak of the Mount Everest before Edmund and Tenzing, in 1924, but died while returning. It’s not the strong that survives the best, but the one who adapts the quickest.
Many of us have a vivid memory of renting DVDs from Blockbuster Video, an iconic original VHS and DVD rental industry. But now, Blockbuster became the history. At one time, Netflix wanted to sell its company to blockbuster. Blockbuster ignored to adapt to change assuming that live-streaming Netflix is transient. The result is with us, failing to adapt to change is extinction.
Finally, I am coming to conclusion with one alarming note of our current teaching system inside the class room, it is still a teacher centric unidirectional. Holding iPhone and sitting inside the class means we have unlimited accessibility of information. I am curious how long do we attend boring and tedious history and English literature lectures from one-person knowledge bank, the instructor? These teaching practices are endangered to be extinct in coming years. Adaptation to online information tool with advanced curriculum is indispensable now, even in elementary schools. Those who absorb the changes and assimilate to take advantages of it will remain forever. If anybody is not willing to adapt to change, extinction is the inevitable outcome.
-Yam Timsina
Why do we need smart tattoos and slingshot machines?
Only one who commits wholeheartedly to a cause with whole strength and soul can create a true technology. Therefore, new technology demands all from a person. New technology and devices are becoming everyday tools to enrich our existence. These attractive devices are a reflection of creativity, products of focus, and tools to add value in the society. Our brain craves novelty, therefore, many technologies are growing and impacting our lives exponentially. We wouldn’t discover new things if existing things captivated and attracted us for longer periods. Only completely new devices or technology activate our brain and increase our level of dopamine.
Faster and safer technologies are today’s need to cope with ever-growing population. The question is why we need exponential growth of technology? There is a very clear answer by Peter Diamandis in book “Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think.” If we look back at the history, it took 123 years to double 1 billion population to around 2 billion. But it took only 33 years to add another one billion, and surprisingly only 14 years to add 4th billion. Today, in the middle of 2019, we have around 7.8 billion people on the planet and it is projected that it would be around 10 billion by 2050. Can we sustain this growth considering our resources in perspective?
Thinking innovation is only half of the game and it is pretty much old schooling because its usefulness is the new school of technology. One way to see this challenge is how can we maximize human’s superpower brain for more useful technologies. There is a huge difference between unique innovation and useful innovation. We definitely need more of useful innovation to prosper. And, more importantly, how to connect this brain to more useful technology so that unseen resources and potentials could be target. Our brain can conceive and believe anything. It is actually two million years old and is so vital that it is the source of keen specialized knowledge economy. The key question is are we ready to invest in superhuman brain who specialize unthinkable and unimaginable.
As Stephen Covey said, the best way to predict our future is to create it. We have to make our planet livable. UN’s climate study panel has concluded that the world has to remove at least 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere this century and Harvard climate scientist David Keith is developing direct air capture technique (carbon dioxide catcher) to pull carbon dioxide off the atmosphere. Needless to say, Ray Kurzweil from Google gave us Siri in our iPhone, and Craig Venter, a human genome pioneer, gave us artificial life. Breakthrough in technology happens when great minds change impossible to possible.
Very soon, mobile phone would be outdated, and we will be moving to wearables and implantables as seen in Hollywood movies. Smart monitoring treats diseases in real time and we can use cyber-implants that are directly connected to smartphone apps. Smart tattoos bring microparticles that can be infused under the skin like tattoo and track body’s chemistry. Cyber-pills work with microprocessors which directly communicate with doctors from inside your body. The expansion of this kind of technology will become normal in near future.
Slingshot machine is a small refrigerator that vaporizes dirty water and provides safe and clean drinking water. Its inventor Dean Kamen, an engineer, inventor, and businessman explained that this machine needs no overhaul or maintenance for five years of operation and uses less than a kilowatt of power to generate 1000 liters of pure water per day. This power is lower than the power consumption of a microwave oven. Thousand liters water is enough for 100 people for hygiene and cooking.
Furthermore, vertical farming is another technology where we can grow plants vertically, and also grow meat without killing animals. It is the practice of producing food and medicine in vertically stacked layers, vertically inclined surfaces and integrated in other structures like skyscraper and shipping container. In-vitro cloning of muscle tissue in computerized factories brings lower costs and high nutritional values. There is no environmental impact because there is no insecticides and pollution.
We have to nurture these technological explosions as tools to cope the growing population on the planet. If the population explosion continues like this, we need deliberate great minds to try something new that has never been done before to direct against existing saturation. Any new jump into the unknown is called reckless science but that’s where the human progress lies.
-Yam Timsina
Why is the discovery of new medicines so slow?
The world is changing faster than ever. Nanotechnology, 3-D printing, BioPen, robotics, and tissue regeneration will revolutionize the world soon. Science and technology are emerging in such a way that we will see the underwater cities and apartment buildings in space very soon. The cost per watt of solar energy will be less than oil and coal in near future. There is a weird way how science evolves, when Hitler was waging World War II every attention was diverted to it but at the same time some scientists were monomaniacally focused to humanity, as a result we have antibiotics and vitamins now. Could you imagine a drug which can safely eliminate the need for sleep or food? or what about a drug that makes you younger?
Relatively speaking, the discovery of new drugs to cure disease is very slow process. Why is the discovery of drug takes so long in reality? I am trying to give some insights so that people will have sense of complexity how painstaking the drug discovery process is. We always compare the growth and advancement of information technology with the slow progress of drug development. I am a fan of Peter Thiel, entrepreneur and author, and burrowing his words “we created computers ourselves and designed them to reliably obey our commands, but biotechnology is difficult because we didn’t design our body”. The discovery of medicine is very difficult process because our body’s complexity is designed by nature. We have to find out and study many small pieces of complex body and its alignment with synthesized drugs. The rise of digital health is encouraging because giant companies like Google, Apple and Samsung are showing immense interest in the drug discovery and life science industry. The one drawback we have found now is many pharmaceutical companies are focused more on patent protection of existing drugs than on the invention of new drugs.
At present, the R& D process in finding a drug takes around 13 years from the initial idea to commercialization. Drug discovery begins with product concept and ends with consumers in market. Initially, research target and synthesis of active substance (possible drug) takes about 1-2 years. These synthesized compounds are taken for pharmacological and biochemical screening before preclinical trial. The first phase of preclinical trial is for toxicity and stability of active substances. The second stage of preclinical trial devotes to pharmacokinetics, sub chronic toxicity, reproduction toxicological study and mutagenicity tests. After preclinical study, these active substances, potential drug candidates, should be non-toxic, no effects in genes, no cause in cancer or birth defects through animal study. After 1 to 2 years of research and synthesis, the complete preclinical study might take up to 2 to 4 years. After preclinical trial, clinical trial consists of three phases: phase I, Phase II and phase III. Phase I includes tolerability and pharmacokinetic study in human and also compatibility study when extended from animal to human. Phase II includes efficacy, toxicity and carcinogenicity study in human. Phase III consist of therapeutic large-scale trial, efficacy and safety proof, therapeutic advantage and study of interaction with other medications. After preclinical trial, the complete process of clinical trial may take up to 6 to 7 years depending on the situation. The interesting fact is that approximately 90 percent substances fail the clinical trial after passing animal studies, there are huge number of substances whose effects on the human body are unknown. The final part would be commercialization that includes registration with health authorities to launch and sales. After the clinical trial, the total process of commercialization up to sales may take 2 to 4 years. In reality, one active compound out of 10,000 synthesized has a chance to become a real market drug after approximately 13 years of investment.
This is timing factor, if we consider money, it costs around $1-4 billion per drug for the major pharmaceutical companies. The more integrated approach and connection among basic research, screening stage and clinical trials will help to speed up the drug discovery process. Recent discovery of new tool like surrogate organs as a realistic, cost-effective testing of various chemical compounds could also reduce the cost and drug discovery time period.
– Yam Timsina