Things They Do

The things that people do sometimes make us ponder over what we want for ourselves. The first is a doctor who is also the CEO of a company that created a device which uses the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) technology to help diagnose heart diseases and strokes in patients. So firm was his belief that the monitoring device will benefit patients, he used all his nest eggs (including the proceeds from the sale of 10 condos) to ride over the critical period during the SARs outbreak when seed money was not forthcoming. The final break through came about when the Chinese health authorities In Chengdu set up booths in rural villages equipped with the devices and which are connected by internet to the hospitals in the cities. The company is now worth about US$800m and is a target for acquisition or IPO. The inspiring part of the story is when this doctor decided to place his shares in a trust. The mission of the trust is to promote education, intellectual property and provide disaster relief. He looks forward to becoming a doctor again without the hassle of being a CEO.He wants to do things which he is good at which is being a doctor and inventing things.

Yet another story is about an English couple in their 50s who sold all their assets and purchased a yacht to sail round the world. Unfortunately they were kidnapped by Somali pirates and were detained for a year whilst the pirates demanded a huge ransom of 4m pounds which is well beyond the means of their family. During the one year they lived through fear and despair at the fringe of death whilst the British government advised their relatives against engaging in ransom talks with the pirates. In the end it was a Somali British subject who raised a sum of 600,000 pounds amongst the somali community in UK and through contacts and connections in Somali managed to secure the couple's freedom. The inspiring part of the story is when asked what they would be doing, the couple said they would return to sailing soonest possible. The frightening experience did not hold back their pursuit of their dream.

Most of us are conditioned to feel secure only when we deem ourselves to have sufficient reserves in the bank and when we are living in a familiar environment. Hence we hold back our dreams, or perhaps never dare ourselves to dream or perhaps even worse don't know how to dream.