The Conventional Wisdom is Fake News

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA 22/03/2018 3

If anything else, the role of innovators is to challenge the conventional wisdom. But, blowing things up, poking your fingers in the eyes of vested interests and ignoring conventional wisdom often come with serious consequences.

Here are some words of wisdom you might want to ignore:

Go for the moon shots. Go big or go home.:Instead, start small. Start where you are. Ship what you’ve got. Sell something today. Then improve. Focus on just getting better every day, rather than on some imagined, lofty goal. There is nothing wrong with thinking big. Just start small.
Following your passion. There are many things that motivate entrepreneurs: Don't mistake anger and revenge for passion.
Fall in love with your product: Love your spouse or children, not your idea.
Entrepreneurial pathology is productive so don't seek treatment: It's better to fix the bad behavior.
You can have it all: No you can't. You need to focus and avoid the distraction of traction.
Ask for forgiveness and not permission: It depends.
Don't be afraid to get fired: Nice idea, but who will pay those orthodontist bills? Instead, when the timing is right, get yourself fired.
Tell truth to authority: Come with solutions, not problems
Adding more features to your product is a good idea: It's about the benefits, stupid.
Luck has nothing to due with success. It's about grit. People make their own luck: Really? Tell that to your next Uber driver who is a refugee from a war torn country who has a PhD in chemical engineering.

Entrepreneurs are constantly waging war on the status quotidiens. They preach the status quo. It's your job to never believe their fake news.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs.

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Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA

Former Contributor

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is a professor emeritus of otolaryngology, dentistry, and engineering at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Colorado School of Public Health and President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs at www.sopenet.org. He has created several medical device and digital health companies. His primary research centers around biomedical and health innovation and entrepreneurship and life science technology commercialization. He consults for and speaks to companies, governments, colleges and universities around the world who need his expertise and contacts in the areas of bio entrepreneurship, bioscience, healthcare, healthcare IT, medical tourism -- nationally and internationally, new product development, product design, and financing new ventures. He is a former Harvard-Macy fellow and In 2010, he completed a Fulbright at Kings Business, the commercialization office of technology transfer at Kings College in London. He recently published "Building the Case for Biotechnology." "Optical Detection of Cancer", and " The Life Science Innovation Roadmap". He is also an associate editor of the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology and Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship and Editor-in-Chief of Medscape. In addition, He is a faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver Graduate School where he teaches Biomedical Entrepreneurship and is an iCorps participant, trainer and industry mentor. He is the Chief Medical Officer at www.bridgehealth.com and www.cliexa.com and Chairman of the Board at GlobalMindED at www.globalminded.org, a non-profit at risk student success network. He is honored to be named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives of 2011 and nominated in 2012 and Best Doctors 2013.

The Conventional Wisdom is Fake News