“People say you need to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing and it’s totally true. And the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up.” – Steve Jobs
It’s 7 am in Hong Kong, and I’m sitting in an airport coffee shop on layover after a 14 hour flight.
On most flights, I secretly hate everyone.
Every armrest-stealing, knee-knocking, mouth-breathing one of them.
I don’t talk to them.
I don’t look at them.
When they cough, I hold my breath and pretend I’m not inhaling the mystery viruses they’re off-gassing into the recycled air.
But yesterday’s flight was different.
As I walked to the gate, I felt my animosity rising and said a silent prayer for my neighbor not to be fat.
Then I stepped on board, mentally bitch slapped myself for not getting business class (an extra 5 grand? whatever I’ll just suffer), and braced myself as I walked to my seat in premium economy.
Then I saw her.
Already in the seat next to mine was a not-fat 70 year old French Canadian woman, sweet and innocent and totally unbothered about spending the next 14 hours inside this human pressure-cooker.
I exhaled, relieved.
Then, unthinkably, I actually talked to her.
And it took about three minutes to realize I was talking to someone much, much cooler than I am.
She told me she was heading to Hong Kong for a conference to raise support for a biotech startup she launched after discovering the first ever non-toxic treatment for Alzheimer’s.
(in case you think you misread something, that’s Nobel prize type shit)
In her previous career, she spent 38 years running two neuroscience labs before “retiring” to focus on bringing this new treatment to market.
She’s raised $20M so far, and needs to raise more as they enter human trials.
Stunned, I spent the next hour or two asking way too many questions before we drifted into our own activities.
But each time a meal was served, we’d stop whatever we were doing to continue our conversation.
She told me how concerned she is about the effects of AI on the human brain:
How our brain only grows when we challenge it with problems we don’t know how to solve — and that delegating our thinking to AI is literally shrinking our brain.
She told me how hard it is to command respect as a 70 year old retired woman in a field dominated by billionaires, almost all of them men.
And, how her board of directors wants her to step back and let them run the company, even though she’s the reason it exists.
Then she told me the truly shocking bit:
When her venture finally goes public, her shares will be so diluted that she will make less money from it than many of her employees.
And she doesn’t really care.
It’s all worth it, she said, because the treatment needs to exist, no matter the cost.
When we landed, I walked her to her taxi and wished her good luck at the conference, and with her venture.
I felt the weight of the words the moment I said them.
As I settled into my room at the airport hotel, I thought about her journey:
The 38 years it took to discover the treatment.
The 7 years it took to raise money and build a team.
And now, the 5+ years it will take to run human trials and bring it to market…
…If they even get that far.
At every turn, there will be roadblocks and red tape and dominant competitors with sharp teeth and deep pockets who will gladly spend millions to stop her.
It’s a long, hard, expensive road with no guarantees of success:
Full of lonely hours, silent doubts, and feeling like the mountain you’re climbing is impossibly high, but you can’t stop because dammit what you’re doing is just way too important. It simply must be done.
It’s not a road you choose for lifestyle or status or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
It’s not even a road you choose; it’s a road you’re chosen for.
And if she finally succeeds, she will have been on that road for roughly 50 years.
Falling asleep, I said a quiet prayer that she makes it.
And silently thanked her for reminding me that there are levels to the game.
- T
P.S. On the flight, I read an incredible book called Junglekeeper by Paul Rosolie:
A very different founder with a very different (and somehow way crazier) story, but the same spirit as my French Canadian friend.
Highly, highly recommended.
His first book, Mother of God, is also well worth reading.
“In the times when you need encouragement most, your efforts go unnoticed. It’s the all-nighters spent writing, the lonely miles running. It’s the unseen practice and the years of patient study. And that’s why you’d better truly love the thing you are chasing and be doing it for reasons with roots that lace deep into the bedrock of your heart. Because people only start cheering for you when they see you winning.” – Paul Rosolie
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