Ingemar Pongratz

This is the Official Homepage of Ingemar Pongratz

Why Medical School Can Prepare You for Entrepreneurship

November 21, 2013 by Ingemar Pongratz

Medical School

A recent Entrepreneur.com article argues that medical school provides a good background for entrepreneurship.

The majority of medical students who dedicate years and years of their lives to becoming a practicing physician generally stick to the path laid out before them.  Who wouldn’t?  If you take what is essentially a decade of your life and relentlessly pursue the goal of becoming a doctor, what could deter you from that path?

A recent article on Entrepreneur.com suggests that the only thing that could divert a promising medical student is the siren’s song of the start-up.  While most medical school student’s parents probably would shudder upon hearing this, the article suggests that some medical students may be uniquely equipped to enter that world.

The author, Shiv Gaglani has extra incentive to believe his thesis since he is among those medical students venturing into the world of, well, ventures.  He recently took a hiatus from Johns Hopkins Medical School (you may have heard of it) to work on an education technology startup.

He believes that there are certain qualities med school students possess which help them excel in the dog-eat-dog world of starting a company from scratch.  The first is the ability to keep a singular focus on one thing for a very long time.  This one might be the most important since in both medical school and the startup scene, the amount of effort you put forth plays a major role in whether or not you succeed.  Whether it’s pulling an all-nighter in the library, or spending all of your waking hours coding to launch an app on time, the same skillset applies.  This kind of mental discipline is possessed by any med student worth his salt, probably at a higher rate than those in the startup space.

For more qualities that Gaglani believes equip med students for the startup world, feel free to check out the full article.  He makes a valid argument about the skills required, but also slips in an interesting caveat.  While most medical students have the work ethic for entrepreneurship, many don’t possess the risk-taking nature it requires to make a leap like leaving med school for an unknown future.

Filed Under: Ingemar Pongratz Tagged With: Entrepreneurship, Ingemar Pongratz, Medical School, Stockholm

RSS NYT News from Sweden

  • Turkey Shows What NATO Really Is
    This should be a moment of clarity.
  • On Ukraine, McConnell Tries to Show the World This Isn’t Trump’s G.O.P.
    The top Senate Republican traveled to Europe in a bid to show that isolationism hasn’t taken over his party. He has privately lobbied his colleagues to vote that way, and so far, most are.
  • Biden Vows to Back Sweden and Finland’s NATO Membership
    President Biden said that Sweden and Finland met “every NATO requirement and then some” during a White House ceremony with the leaders of the two Nordic nations.
  • Biden Seeks Swift Effort to Bring Finland and Sweden Into NATO
    Speedy approval seems likely among most members of the alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey’s objections remain a sticking point.
  • Watch Live: Biden Hosts Swedish and Finnish Leaders at White House
    President Biden speaks alongside Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinisto of Finland after endorsing their countries’ bids to join NATO.

Ingemar Pongratz

  • Ingemar Pongratz EU Funding
  • Ingemar Pongratz Research
  • Ingemar Pongratz Website
  • More Ingemar Pongratz Research
Tweets by @IngemarPongratz

Return to top of page

Copyright © Ingemar Pongratz ·