Recently, I had a tooth infection in my front tooth which cracked.
I visited dentists in Beijing and started to read about different options for treatment and to really understand what was happening. It looked like I needed my front tooth to be taken out and replaced.
The quality of dentists in Beijing does vary a lot. One dentist I visited seemed rushed and didn’t explain what they planned to do and what my options were “I’m too busy” he told me, so I decided to try somewhere else.
While it is never a good idea to choose the cheapest dentist, “you get what you pay for”, and there is a saying of choosing someone “reassuringly expensive”, but in another, I got the impression it was more of a business than a care provider with vague and constantly increasing prices. Another felt too young and inexperienced and I preferred to choose someone who has done this kind of operation many times.
Luckily I found two good options for extractions and implants in Beijing:
– Peking University School of Stomatology
– United Family Hospital
As my infection got worse, unable to sleep, and with a smell coming from my mouth, I felt I had quite limited time to sort it, I chose United Family hospital which provided quality care and transparent prices.
I needed to get my front tooth extracted and an implant.
Fortunately, no pain, and it is not a big deal with modern medicine, this is quite a routine procedure. Anyway, I did get some great lessons from it.
I appreciate what I have – It is amazing to be able to eat. I have taken this for granted my whole life. If I would pay thousands of dollars for a tooth, how much must I value my body. I have a full working body and health. Many people would give everything they have for this. By realising that I am already rich.
The reality of ageing.
Missing a front tooth for two weeks, was made less uncomfortable during the pandemic when everyone is wearing masks, but being unable to eat, I got the feeling that I am starting to age.
I researched teeth, and biology throughout the process because I wanted to understand what was happening so I could choose a good dentist and be able to evaluate them.
I had so many questions and found the subject fascinating:
Well, if you can grow a tooth when you are a child, why can’t we grow a tooth back now? (It looks like this might not be far off.) What are teeth? Why do we need them? How do they grow from a child to adult.
Are teeth designed to fall out? Are lips shock absorbers? How does it all work so amazing well?
A great book is The Code Breaker which talks about genetics.
I was amazed to really understand how every cell contains our DNA which contains the entire code to create a human. While I knew it but I didn’t really think about it. There is still so much we don’t understand about our genetic code and its amazing that we are in the middle of huge change in genetic engineering.
The human body is really fascinating. I am very interested in doing something in healthcare and genetics in the future.
We are so similar to computers, and each cell contains our source code. This can be accessed at any time in many ways for instructions to create new proteins and cells.
We are designed to decay. It is written in our code that our processes will start to break down. When we die it leaves space for the next generation to grow and flourish. Each successive generation is able to adapt better to the environment and continue to evolve.
I felt the inevitability of death and decay. Time we have left is running out. That makes each day more and more precious.
“mementos mori” is the saying of the inevetibility of death. Stoics used Memento Mori to invigorate life, and to create priority and meaning. They treated each day as a gift, and reminded themselves constantly to not waste any time in the day on the trivial and vain.
This is a chart below which shows how short our life is in weeks.
While I hope to live longer than 90, it is more important to live fully in the time that we do have. If you live long but stay within your comfort zones, retreat into fear, and don’t take your chances and risks, then are you really living?
I have the feeling that I need to make the most of my health, opportunities and my life. I have spent a long time working hard to build a company, but I know that I am capable of so much more. I know that there are many ways that I can grow more quickly, and expand and develop myself. I need to make full use of the time I have.
I love this passage about the shortness of lie by Lucius Seneca
“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested….” read more
So how will I develop myself and make use of the gift of life that I have?
- To build my company up to $1 billion USD valuation because I know that I’m capable of it. To have a huge impact on students worldwide, employees, and partners.
- I will do this by attracting top talent into my company (for too long I have been doing too much myself), I will leverage capital from investors, and by providing excellent service.
- Right now I am the biggest bottleneck in my company, I am doing too many things. By building a top leadership team we will be able to grow faster.
- By building an excellent leadership team I will have some distance and be able to focus on my strengths which are in marketing, strategy, ideation, the vision, and relationships.
- There are also many areas of myself to improve. Writing, speaking, and looking for more ways.
- I also plan to do more things that scares me. By finding things I am afraid of and attacking them. I grow and become stronger and better.
- It is also the first time I have said that I want a family.
- While putting myself in the position to build an amazing life for myself, family, and those around me.
I will not waste a moment.
Thank you!
