Why things feel heavy at first

Ever watch a rocket take off?

At first, it looks like the rocket is barely moving. It ignites in a thunderous roar and begins to inch up really, really slowly from the launch pad. Even though there’s a massive thrust, the rocket is too heavy to move fast.

If you took a snapshot of a rocket right after ignition, you might assume it’s going to fail. Progress becomes visible only if you watch the rocket over a longer time period.

Life works the same way.

When you first start a new project or launch a new business, it often feels like you’re pushing, pushing, and pushing—and nothing much is happening.

The founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann, says it took him 4 years to build a successful company after leaving Google. “That’s a four-year period where things weren’t going awesome,” he says. “But I thought: That’s not that long. That’s like medical school before you go into residency.”

Especially in your work, innovation is in life sciences, biotech, or Medtech. Creating a change in an industry is like launching a rocket, the enormous difficulties and regulations seem to be unchangeable. But if you are timing it right and the circumstances are aligned with the technology that you have been working on, then the rocket lifts off and you are free to discover new horizons and new worlds.

As healthcare costs climb, more and more people are demanding access to not just the in-hospital experience but also the in-home experience.

To give you a picture of the future, let's compare the field of ultrasound imaging to that of another popular diagnostic tool. The MRI was first introduced in 1977, but it wasn't until 1993 that the first MRI-compatible pacemaker was approved by the FDA. And it took another five years before an MRI-compatible noninvasive blood pressure cuff was approved.

So what does all this have to do with ultrasound imaging? Well, approximately sixty years after its first introduction into the professional medical domain, ultrasound imaging is now ready to enter the consumer market space so that ultrasound can be used at home, in pharmacies, and in mobile Medicare teams.