In the midst of one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced with my business so far, an entrepreneur friend said to me: “you are one of the best thinkers and strategists I’ve ever met but smaller things have ended bigger businesses.” This was exactly what I needed to hear. She was recognizing my power and also giving me permission not to use it. It was still up to me where I went next. It felt as if I had been running a marathon and someone decided the finish line was at 50 miles instead of 26. I had the choice of finishing or stopping, gulping some water, being congratulated by my family and feeling proud that I had run the 26.  

After remembering that I had the talent, skill, knowledge, and experience to continue I had to figure out if I wanted to do so. So I went back to the source. I talked to more doctors, prescribing clinicians, physician assistants, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners.

The 18 months prior I had spent all my time with my former partners and others who were outside of the immediate problem I was trying to solve. I needed a major check-in.

Was there still a problem in the healthcare system?  

Could I solve it?

Would fixing this problem make people’s lives better?

Help them live healthier lives?

Reduce doctor burnout?

If the solution was still there, was it actually worth doing?

What if I could only make it 80% better? Or 50%?

Did I even still care?

In that time and energy consuming partnership that burned me, I didn’t poke at the pain or the problems. Once that relationship ended I had to take charge. I took all of the pushings I should have done before and did it. I reflected on the reasons I started my business in the first place.

I found that the problem was still there. Bigger even! Yes, in the past 18 months companies had made attempts to solve the problem but hadn’t. And yes, my team and I could make clinicians’ lives better, make the doctor to patient relationship better, improve doctor workflow and bring disconnected parts of the healthcare system together to cooperate in a way where everyone would win.

While I did make mistakes along the way in this first partnership, our strategy remained sound. My mistakes may have been fatal for the partnership but not the business. And if my partners were different, maybe my mistakes wouldn’t have been fatal.

Going in, looking hard at reality allowed me to not wallow. It gave me a chance to say “That sucked, some of it was on me, but a some wasn’t. This is where we were strong, this is where we’re weak and here is how we can move forward.”

Going directly to the source and the problem took a lot of ego out of the situation. It also made me stay in the marathon. I don’t feel reinvigorated yet. It wasn’t like talking to more doctors and clinicians about the problems they faced was a magic button to suddenly inspire me. I’m not totally recovered from the loss we experienced. But I know we’ve got to keep moving forward. So, I decided that even though smaller things have ended bigger businesses, there is still a really solid business here. We still have a great team, a solid platform, and a problem that needs to be solved.