Nearly two decades of building businesses teaches lessons no textbook captures. Philosophy provides frameworks for understanding those lessons and principles for applying them wisely. Values emerge from the intersection of reflection and experience.
Core Principles
Build for Genuine Need
Technology should solve real problems for real people. In healthcare, this principle becomes especially important. Every feature, every algorithm, every design decision ultimately affects patients and providers. The question isn't "Can we build this?" but "Should we build this, and will it genuinely help?"
Integrity Over Convenience
Short-term compromises create long-term problems. Whether in code, contracts, or conversations, taking shortcuts that sacrifice integrity eventually costs more than they save. This applies to technical debt in software as much as to ethical debt in business relationships.
Sustainable Growth
Growth that destroys the foundation it stands on isn't growth. Building lasting companies requires patience, discipline, and the willingness to forgo quick wins that undermine long-term viability. This philosophy informed my skepticism of certain growth-at-all-costs approaches that dominated tech for years.
Lessons from Literature and Film
Stories encode wisdom that pure analysis misses. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest illustrates how institutions can suppress the very humanity they claim to serve. The Godfather explores the weight of responsibility and the costs of power. There Will Be Blood warns against ambition untethered from purpose.
Literature offers similar gifts. Reading broadly, across genres and eras, provides patterns for understanding human nature. Historical accounts reveal how previous generations navigated challenges remarkably similar to our own.
On Leadership
Leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about creating conditions where talented people can find answers together. The best leaders build environments of psychological safety where honest feedback flows freely and mistakes become learning opportunities rather than career risks.
Decisive action matters. Analysis paralysis kills more ventures than bold mistakes. But decisiveness without reflection leads to repeated errors. The balance lies in making decisions promptly with available information while remaining genuinely open to evidence that suggests course correction.
Technology Ethics
Working in healthcare AI confronts ethical questions daily. When algorithms influence treatment decisions, who bears responsibility for errors? How do we ensure AI systems don't perpetuate biases present in historical data? Where does automation enhance human judgment, and where does it undermine it?
These questions have no easy answers. But they must be asked continuously. Building technology without ethical reflection is like constructing buildings without considering who will live in them.
On Failure and Resilience
Twenty years of entrepreneurship includes more failures than successes. Each failure taught something success couldn't. The ability to persist through setbacks, to learn from mistakes without being defined by them, separates those who eventually succeed from those who give up.
Rocky's training montages resonate because they visualize the unsexy reality of progress: endless repetition, small improvements, days when everything feels impossible. The fight isn't won in the ring. It's won in the preparation nobody sees.
Balance and Perspective
Work matters, but it isn't everything. Family, friendships, health, creative pursuits. These aren't distractions from "real" work. They're essential components of a meaningful life. The entrepreneurs who burn brightest often flame out fastest. Sustainable contribution requires sustainable living.
Living in Los Angeles reinforces this perspective. The city offers constant reminders that success takes many forms, that today's celebrity becomes tomorrow's footnote, that the human stories behind the headlines matter more than the headlines themselves.
A Working Philosophy
Philosophy isn't an academic exercise. It's a practical toolkit for navigating complexity. Stoicism's emphasis on focusing energy on what we control while accepting what we can't provides sanity in chaotic circumstances.
The examined life, as Socrates insisted, is worth living. But examination without action becomes navel-gazing. The goal is philosophy that informs better decisions, builds stronger relationships, and contributes to meaningful work.
These principles continue evolving. New experiences reveal limitations in old frameworks. The commitment isn't to any particular philosophy but to the ongoing process of reflection, learning, and growth.