Have fun - poem:

I don’t even know what I’m writing about half the time.

But it’s fun.

It’s fun to try things.

To do things where you’re set up for failure from the beginning.

No one reads anything you do once you start.

But you started.

You made the first step

You decided to do something.

For Yourself.

To prove to yourself you could do something in public.

Show the world who you are.

Sometimes you doubt yourself.

Why are you doing it?

Who are you trying to impress?

What are you trying to accomplish?

It’s not for social media.

It’s not for recognition.

It’s for me.

It’s to do something my future self would be proud of.

That’s the reason.

Most people don’t try other things because they’re trapped.

They’re trapped in thinking that they can’t do anything.

That they don’t have any choice.

That’s all they know.

But once you make the step,

And you put in the work,

And you bet on yourself,

You’ll show yourself how much you can do.

How much you can accomplish.

How you have the ability to do anything.

All the world’s information is available to everyone with a smart phone.

Yet people don’t spend time learning about the world outside of their world.

We’re caught up in the mundane

In the same thing.

Where’s the rush?

Where’s the looking forward to going to work?

I didn’t once feel that rush when I was in medical school.

I never looked forward to going to the hospital.

I sometimes dreaded it.

But that was the job.

That was the commitment you made to your parents.

Who gave you everything.

You told them I’m going to become a doctor.

You can’t go back on your word.

So you persist.

You keep going.

You learn the rules, have a lot of fun and pass finals with flying colours.

A year before you graduate, you found out you can’t make it back to Canada to do residency.

A dream you always had.

But did you really have that dream?

Or was it just your parent’s dream? 

I don’t know.

I think it was mine at the beginning.

But as I went through it all, I didn’t like the environment.

I didn’t like going into work.

Yet my first month in Amsterdam,

I woke up one day

And thought this was it.

This was what I was missing.

I was looking forward to working.

I was looking forward to learning.

I was looking forward to the environment

And being around people

Who are all brilliant

Who push you to be better

Who bring out the best in you

Who challenge you

Who inspire you

Then moving back home

Working with the best team

In the country

In my industry

That’s a dream

Every day feels like a dream

How did I get this lucky

How did this kid

Skip a grade

Go to public school

Did pre-IB

Cried himself to sleep every night in grade 10

Hating what he was doing

Go against his parent’s wishes

Leave IB

Told by his dad he would never get into an international school

Busted his butt

Applied everywhere

Did every admissions test under the sun

Studied his ass off

Get in

To one of the best universities in the world.

Then go and have a blast

The best time of his life

Where he learned who he was

He learned about the world

Through his friends

And through experiences he would have never considered as a kid.

Who tried things.

Who saw that the world is an exciting place to be

Who got a 1st class honours degree in medicine at the 2nd ranked medical school in the UK.

Who did all the exams to get into residency.

Who thought he was going to be a dermatologist.

Or a family doctor.

Then fail.

Fail badly.

Get completely stuck.

In the unknown.

In not knowing where to go.

In asking himself

What do you want to do with your life?

Is this it?

Do you really want to be in a clinic or hospital your whole life?

Or would you rather see the world?

It was an easy choice.

Yet it was crazy.

To everyone around him.

How could you just leave everything you’ve known for 6 years?

Bet on yourself.

That’s how.

Believing.

Doing the work.

Putting in the hours.

Putting yourself in positions to get lucky.

In understanding the game.

In learning the rules.

In leveraging your knowledge and network.

In understanding the opportunity ahead of you.

It was tough.

That summer getting asked by your parents what you’re doing with your life?

Then you get lucky.

You get an email.

From one of the best corporate healthcare VC funds in Europe.

You jump.

All the way into it.

Amsterdam for 7 months.

Then halfway through.

Finding out you don’t have a job.

You have to do it all over again.

Reach out.

Email.

Cold email.

Network.

Putting yourself in a position to get lucky.

Again.

And you did it.

You got lucky.

Yes you put in the work.

Yes your background proves your capability.

Yes you’ve accomplished a lot.

And yet you haven’t.

You’re at the beginning.

You just started.

That’s exciting.

The world’s your oyster.

You decide who you want to be.

What do you want to be known for?

What do you want your legacy to be?

Helping.

Teaching.

Writing.

Caring.

Impacting.

Living.

Having Fun.

Being Happy.

Loved his family.

You want to do all of that while achieving a crazy goal.

Really?

Can you be all of that?

Yes.

If I get a full life, that’s how you should be known.

For doing something.

For being different.

For being unique.

For walking your own path.

Maybe you’ll get there.

Maybe you won’t.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter.

It’s about you.

It’s about what matters to you.

You have to prove to yourself every day who you want to be.

Your actions will dictate that.

How you treat people is how you’re going to be remembered for.

When you’re on your deathbed,

No one cares how much money you made

They care about how you made them feel

How you touched them as a person

How you made a difference to their life

Or if you made a difference to their life

They care about the memories.

The moments.

Sharing in each other’s company.

Listening.

Learning.

Having fun.

Together.

That’s what they care about.

We’re all gonna go.

That’s a fact.

Everyone dies.

You don’t know when that’ll happen.

It could be tomorrow.

It could be 60 years from now.

No one knows the future.

Everyone’s guessing in their own heads.

What does the future look like?

Either that, or living in their past.

They’re forgetting to look at what’s in front of them.

What staring at them in the face.

In the everyday.

In the moment.

People get comfortable.

They like where they are.

But do they?

They do when it’s new.

But will they still love it 30 years from now?

Doing the same thing every day?

Some of them will.

Those that really love their jobs do.

They’ll enjoy the ride.

But there are a lot of people stuck.

In things they don’t want.

Working with people they don’t like.

With bosses who suck.

Who see no other option.

Who don’t know where to look.

Who don’t know what else to do.

They don’t know what they don’t know.

They don’t understand the rules.

They don’t understand the game.

How life is played.

How people think.

Why people act the way they do.

How the world works.

They get caught up in the every day.

But the every day turns into every month.

Turns into every year.

And then what?

Then you have kids

And a family

And responsibilities

And people you need to support.

So you get stuck where you are.

It’s a privilege to have freedom.

To not have responsibilities tying you down.

To not have sick parents.

Or parents who weren’t working.

Where you were the sole breadwinner of the family

Where the family relied on your income.

I was never in that situation.

My parents gave me everything.

They pushed me.

They showed me the value of work.

Of being a good person.

Of caring.

Of studying.

Of getting a quality education.

I would not have these opportunities without them.

I would not be as educated as I was.

I would not have seen 55 countries.

I would not have lived in 2 continents.

I got lucky.

Yet you did the work.

You got here.

You did that.

No one else did.

If someone else was given the same environment you had and same experiences, would they have gotten here?

There’s a universe where they do, but it’s not very likely.

It’s a pretty unique path.

With moments along the way that shifted everything.

Failures.

That opened new doors.

Exposed you to a different part of the world.

But you did the work.

You invested in yourself.

You put in the time.

If you want to be different,

You have to not only think different

You have to act different.

You have to understand the value of time.

The power of consistency.

The power of doing little things over long periods of time.

Those things compound.

Compounding is not a linear concept.

It’s exponential.

Most people aren’t doing that.

They don’t have the time.

They don’t have the luxury.

Of thinking for themselves.

They don’t make the time.

They give up.

Because they won’t see results for a long time.

Everyone wants everything now.

We’re too caught up in now.

If you want to develop a skill

You do a little bit every day for long periods of time

Eventually, through the failure

Through the constant practice,

You eventually get good at it.

That’s how you be different.

You put in the time working on different things at different times.

Just for yourself.

Have fun through it all dude.

Don’t forget that.

Don’t take it too seriously.

Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Enjoy the ride.

Have fun.