I have to take pills or change my lifestyle? A startup challenge!
I don’t usually do medical exams in a regular time period. Actually, I’m afraid to hear bad news (I prefer no news much more than a bad one). Last month I did a blood test and I found some dramatic results in some indexes.
Today, I had an appointment with a specialist to show my blood test results while I have been smiling and showing my most optimistic face. The doctor started to talk with me about everything, every aspect of my daily routines, diet, and social life. Frankly, it was very helpful and I felt like someone wants to help me. I talked a lot (I usually don’t) and I tried to tell the truth because it was all related to my health. Then she started to give me some prescriptions. “The problem I see is something born with you,’’ she said. She added: “you ignored a big problem for many years and now its kind of stuck to your body”. Then she gave me three options: To change my life attitude, take pills, or to do both.
Now, in both options that I have, I must accept my problem and change my lifestyle. But, is this easy?! I have been thinking quietly and suddenly doctor cut my thoughts and said: “I’m afraid if I give you some pills and you avoid changing your situation or take it less serious”. She was right! I was about to think if I take the pill, it solves the problem and I can eat what I want and don’t need to do exercises, etc. Anyway, she gave me the pills because I needed them.
In the startup life, we have more or less the same story. Most of the time we do not review the path we take for some months. As a product developer, some of us just think as engineers and we are very biased to the best possible thing to present while there is no test and almost no idea about users feedback on the features that we are creating. We must learn that users are the main specialists of our product and our budget (especially public funding) can act like the pills. It is our choice, to take the pills (funds) and keep going to the death valley or listen to specialists (users) and upgrade our body (product).
