Powerful post. As a freshman at MIT, the first thing I heard (at the freshman picnic on the first day) was "50% of you will be in the bottom half of the class." That set the tone at MIT. About a month into things I had my first Physics test. Every freshman takes Physics - at the time it was 8.01 or 8.02 (if you placed out of Physics on the AP Physics test, which I didn't - I think you needed a 5 to place out and I got a 3 or a 4). I thought I was pretty good at Physics and I liked it a lot. I got a 20 on that first test. When I took the test, I knew I wasn't doing very well, but when I got my grade (a 20 - seriously - a 20 out of 100) I didn't know what to do. I went back to my room, locked my door, and cried for an hour. Once I got that out of my system I went for a long run. I remember the run well - I just kept playing over and over in my mind that I had just gotten a 20 on my first Physics test. It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't the smartest person in the room anymore and I needed to figure out my special magic. It turned out that class average was a 32 (I remember this like it was yesterday) so I didn't actually do that horrible relative to everyone else (probably a "C"). But it shook me to my core, and had a profound impact on everything from that moment forward.

Outstanding blog post dad. And I think your punchline is completely correct - the healthcare software innovators should focus 100% of their energy on the patient and the physician (their customer). That would quickly transform everything in the healthcare supply chain. Can you imagine what would happen if the government subsidized Borders and Barnes & Noble? Yup - pretty easy to see that they'd be doing fine and "bookstores would be classified as a public good." What nonsense.

Added another one to my book list. I'm going to get this for my dad also - he'll love it.

Chewy. Just grabbed it on my kindle.

Your comment about other VCs reactions to you when you started blogging rings very true. You were treated nicely (or you were just being nice) - I would have said something like "when I first started blogging, I was mocked by a bunch of other VCs - both to my face and behind my back (the harshest of which got to me.) I was amused by this, and even more amused when some of these folks subsequently started blogging several years later. And then I got another chance to be amused when they stopped after a few posts. Your four reasons for blogging are dynamite. I love your writing and am excited about both your short form work (e.g. the blog) and longer form work (your upcoming book). It's a great overall contribution to entrepreneurship in general and - well - keep it up!

Beautiful. That's all that needs to be said.

Fantastic story - Bradlina totally rocks - give her a giant hug for me. This is such a fantastic lesson to teach young and you've interpreted it brilliantly.