Keep going, you’re doing great:

Everyone needs a reminder. I wrote ‘keep going, you’re doing great’ on my desk a few months ago and thought it was the perfect reminder. Don’t hate yourself. Don’t be too self-critical. Sure, it’s important to check yourself and not get too egotistical, but you also need to give yourself credit. You got here. Through all the crap, through all the ups and downs, you got here. You did it, no one else did. So pat yourself on the back sometimes.

I’ve been one of the most self-critical people ever. A lot of it comes from my parents, particularly growing up in a household where educational success was expected. Not only expected but mandated. Classic brown household. “Don’t walk into a house without straight As” type of household.

I felt this pressure at such a young age as I was the first grandkid in the family on my dad’s side, and his siblings are a doctor, lawyer and banker. Talk about trying to live up to family excellence. Then when I was younger, my kindergarten teacher changed my life. (Shout out to Sushi Ravishankar, a true GOAT. Thank you for seeing potential in me that no one else saw.)

She used to tutor me between classes and teach me advanced math. I was doing multiplication and division tables when I was 4. Most kids weren’t learning this until they were 8, and yet she was teaching me these concepts so early. Because I was such a quick learner, when I transferred to public school for grade one, my parents asked the guidance department if I could skip a grade.

I remember being in a grade 1 class for all of 2 weeks, doing some test, and then moving to a grade 2/3 split class. I heard after that my parents had tough conversations with the guidance department because they weren’t sure if I could handle myself socially.

I was a tiny kid. Like “smallest kid in my class till 16 years old” tiny. You know when you go back to look at class pictures and they rank people by height? I was always the shortest and last one on the bench until I got to high school.

But the guidance department let me skip a grade. That changed my life forever. All of a sudden I was in an environment with people older than me. I was hanging out and playing with 7 year olds when I was 5. Although this doesn’t seem like much today, everyone remembers how big the age gap was in grade school. When you were in grade 4 and looked at grade 8s, you thought they were giants that were so smart. Meanwhile there was only a 4 year age difference, which once you’re an adult is nothing.

Because I was thrown into an environment where I was the smallest and youngest, I had to adapt quickly. And I did. I slowly became one of the smartest kids in the class. I remember doing spelling tests, getting perfect and having other kids trying to cheat off me. There was also a competition between me and this one kid, who’s still a friend to this day. Thankfully it was healthy but we always tried to compete to see who could be the best. He was always smarter than me, but I contended. I always put up a fight, usually only a few percentage points behind him.

The thing that differentiated me though is I always finished quickly. I use to rush through homework and tests just to be the first one to finish. At the beginning, it usually worked but eventually I started making stupid mistakes. Had I taken a bit more time I would’ve done better, but it was about finishing quickly.

That likely came from my mom because she used to make my siblings and I finish our homework as soon as we walked in the door. We never were allowed to watch TV or play video games or anything until our homework was done. I’m really thankful she instilled that in me but at the time it could’ve turned out differently.

So as I went through elementary school, I was always considered one of the smartest kids in my year. I finished tests super early, read faster than most kids and picked up concepts much quicker than others. I remember reading adult books when I probably should’ve been reading YA novels. Like reading Da Vinci Code or Shutter Island at 10 years old. Let’s be honest, 10 year olds shouldn’t be reading those books.

I look back at though and think that’s not normal. So what was it that got me here? It’s a combination of a lot of things. My mom has always been a quick reader so I think I got that skill from her. I was a first grandkid in a family that highly valued education. I had a kindergarten teacher who saw potential in me that no one else did, and fostered it by pushing me to learn new concepts. I skipped a grade when I was 5 so I had to mature much quicker. And I had a dad who loved to travel more than anyone else I know and took our entire family around the world.

Going to parts of the world you didn’t even know existed and doing that with your family is super fortunate. I’m so lucky to have lived that. Did I deserve that or work for that? No. I got lucky to be born into this family.

All of this is part of why I’m here today. Picking up concepts quickly, working fast, reading across multiple disciplines. I was trained like that. It’s also more than that. I had people around me that pushed me and opened up doors for me I could never have asked for. My parents put me in so many after school programs I was busy every single night of the week. Tennis, basketball, soccer, swimming, music, after school clubs, everything. I was a busy kid.

I know why they did it. As my parents like to say, “we wanted to make you an all-rounder.” But it was definitely to build my resume so I could get into good schools. I’m so grateful they did that because it’s made me into the multi-faceted person I am today. I have so many interests because of that curiousity that they developed when I was younger. But I always ask myself what if I didn’t have that? What if I was just another kid, or born to my next-door neighbours? I would’ve definitely not become the person I am today.

I always find it interesting to hear people’s perspectives on their own journeys. How much do they consider how much of their life is luck vs. skill/work? I remember Buffet and Jay Z in particular talking about how much luck played a huge part in their life. Even someone like Chamath, who it seems like recently, has really reflected on his own history. They’re not the successful people we see in newspapers and on Forbes list if they didn’t get lucky. Of course their work and results speak for themselves, but luck is half that story.

This is always a concept I struggle with in my own head because how much of my life is due to luck vs. work? When I first got my job in Amsterdam, I thought it was 75% luck, 25% work. Then when I got my job in Canada, I shifted more to 30% luck, 70% hard work. But these days I think it’s an equal 50/50. Luck gave you the opportunity early in life, but you worked for where you are.

You got a first class honours degree from one of the best medical schools in the UK. That’s not luck. I mean it’s because I had a lot of help (thanks Sof and Ala), but I had to work for that. I used to write notes every single day no matter what, and that’s not luck. That’s consistency. That’s grinding day in day out. So I do have to give myself credit.

Then I did email all those people when I was looking to leave medicine. No one else did it for me. So even though I got super fortunate someone responded and had a fellowship opportunity open for me, I still had to send the email and do the interviews. Then after my internship, I still had to reach out to all the VC investors I did and have those conversations. No one else did that.

So sometimes you have to sit back and relax. Remember, you got yourself here. A lot of people helped you along the way, and you had to get lucky. But you still got here. You put in the work. No one else did. So keep creating your own luck. Keep pushing the boundary. Use your situation to make an impact on the world.

Keep going, you’re doing great.