What's My Why?

It seems adults always ask children, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”  I never had a great answer for this.  I knew I needed one for this endless question that would suffocate me throughout my childhood and teenage years.  So, I made one up.

A fashion photographer sounded like a super cool job and that’s what I went with.  This is quite amusing now as fashion would not be on a list of my top 50 priorities in life.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to and appreciate looking nice.  However, I hate shopping.  Seriously, I will do anything possible to avoid it.  The arrival of personal styling services that arrive at your door, like Stitch Fix, changed my life!

During my time as an aspiring fashion photographer, I was plagued with debilitating migraine headaches that started at the age of 10.  When they started, I was familiar with them as my mom had suffered from them my whole life.  She would be stuck in bed for days at a time, always in a dark room with no noise allowed. This became my life.

They would arrive with no notice keeping me from every activity a 10-year-old enjoys.  Instead of playing outside, I would be stuck inside in the quiet, the dark, with a green plastic bowl in front of me in case I couldn’t make it to the bathroom to vomit.  This would last for days.  It was miserable.  Now, 30 years later, I could identify that plastic green bowl in a lineup.

I was a slave to my migraines.  They controlled my life, my childhood, my happiness.  There was no cure.  Doctors prescribed me pills with codeine to ease the pain.  They provided minimal relief, and the more frequently I took them, the more I needed.  I remember taking two or three at a time, without my parents knowing, craving one minute of relief.

After years of experience suffering, I decided to change my dream job from a fashion photographer to a doctor.  I signed up for a Biology major at Baylor University.  No one was ever able to help me or my mom, so maybe I could be the person to change that for others.

Heat has always triggered my migraines.  Therefore, growing up in Texas was always a challenge.  After an intense mountain bike ride with my friends, the pain struck again.  I visited the campus doctor where a miracle happened.  There was a new pharmaceutical intervention call Imitrex formulated as a cure for the symptoms caused by migraines.

The doctor gave me the injection.  Within five minutes, all pain was gone.  The only side effect was a slight tightening of my jaw.  Totally doable.  After 10 years of agony, I finally had a non-narcotic solution.  It was one of the best days of my life.

The doctor gave me a prescription for Imitrex.  I now had the ability to treat myself without going to the doctor.  I needed to learn more.  

I studied the box that injection came in as if I was going to be tested on it the following day. The medication was made by a magical company called Smithkline Beecham, now known as GlaxoSmithKline  This company was based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.  This was a place that would forever be known as the greatest city on earth, at least in my eyes.

When I shared with friends that I gave myself injections for headaches, they would squirm and state that they could never do something that drastic.  For those out there in perfect health, you cannot judge.  There are so many diseases and illnesses that cause such severe pain that death seems like a reasonable solution.  A tiny needle with a cure is such a welcome relief for unbearable suffering.

Let’s get back to this biology degree.  They should have really made it clear that Calculus I and Calculus II were required for this major.  It should be in BIG BOLD LETTERS everywhere when someone makes this selection.  I barely got through those classes, but I was extremely proud of the B- and C+ I received.  

If these were requirements, that must mean that doctors had to use Calculus all the time, right?  I wanted no part of that game.  As I was approaching my senior year, my dad was a businessman and mentioned the possibility of me getting my MBA.  After some soul searching, I realized I never really wanted to be a doctor.  I simply wanted to help people who suffered like me.

Great news!  I didn’t have to be a doctor and attend four more years of schooling, two more years of residency, and two more of fellowship.  I could work for a magical company like Glaxo Smithkline, live in a mystical place like Research Triangle Park, NC, and bring smiles to sufferers across the world.

That may seem grandiose, but I believed it could happen, and it did.

I didn’t end up working for Glaxo, but I did start working for a pharmaceutical company.  It was the #1 company in the eye care space.  We made products for contact lens solutions, pink eye, glaucoma, and LASIK surgery.

After that, is where my eyes were truly opened.  I started working for a company that treated patients suffering from life threatening illnesses like HIV, Hepatitis C, Cystic Fibrosis and many more.  We were curing people.  We were giving people relief, happiness, and more time with their loved ones. 

That is, after all, what the life science industry is all about.  Although I hung up my hat in the corporate world to start SOURCE EXPLORER, I still get to play a role in the patient’s journey.  I am now able to create greater efficiency for those individuals working in life science organizations who need to find partners for their next project.  Every hour someone spends trying to find a new agency or vendor, that is an hour taken away from figuring out how to get great products in the hands of the right patients.  I am here to give them that time back.

Some people may not know what they want to do from an early age, and that’s okay.  Many times, our journey will guide us in the exact direction we need to be on.  Today, I am thankful for my migraines, my green plastic bowl, and GlaxoSmithkline for pioneering the first great treatment in migraine therapy.

To follow along our journey, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn on SOURCE EXPLORER.