Joshua Liu

We are always asking kids:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Engineer, basketball player, sports broadcaster, doctor – we hear a wide range of answers. In fact, those were some of my own answers over the years.

As we get older, our answers to this question changes. And as we develop our interests and skills, we begin to zone in on answers that appear to be a better fit for us.

While all of these answers are jobs/careers, in essence, they are also titles. We grow up striving to achieve these titles; we want to identify with these titles, and we want others to identify us with them too. Sometimes we become more obsessed with achieving the title than actually doing the job that comes with it.

What I find interesting is not that our answers change, but that whether we are 5 years old or 20 years old, we keep asking ourselves essentially the same question: “What title do I want to achieve?”

The problem with “titles”

As I write this, it’s been one day since I completed my gruelling 7 and a half hour medical licensing exam. In early June, I will graduate from medical school and receive my medical degree – I will be a “doctor”. Patients will actually call me “Dr. Liu”. It’s pretty surreal.

I wanted to be a doctor since I was in high school. Truth be told, despite shadowing some doctors, I didn’t really know what they did, and honestly, no one really does until they experience medical school. (Logically that sounds ridiculous, but frankly, that’s how many of us end up taking the education and career paths we do. Surely, that’s a problem in our education system, but I will open that can of worms another day)

The point is, after 3 years of undergrad and 4 years of medical school, I finally achieved that title I sought for so long: doctor.

So what now?

And therein lies the first problem of pursuing titles: once you achieve them, where do you go from there?

If you have nothing driving you forward in your career path besides achieving a title, you are going to be sorely disappointed when you get there.

Titles are not goals, they are opportunities.

Most people who want to be a doctor can’t. Of those who will be doctors, not everyone will be a great one. Achieving the title of doctor is one thing, but it takes a whole lot more vision, drive and hard work to be a great one. Being a doctor is an invitation and opportunity to be a great one.

The same goes for any other career. Anyone can start a business and call themselves an entrepreneur. It’s not hard to be an entrepreneur, but it’s one of the hardest things in the world to be successful at.

Titles are enablers; they are opportunities to use those skills for something greater than the title itself.

Don’t let titles define you

It’s natural for us to identify with our titles. When people ask us who we are or what we do, we fall back on our titles: “Hi, I’m Josh, I’m a medical student at the University of Toronto”.

The problem isn’t whether other people identify you with that title; the problem happens when you define yourself with that title and put up boundaries that stunt your growth.

As I went through medical school, I realized I really wasn’t fascinated by clinical medicine. Instead, what got my brain churning was thinking about all of the problems in the way we fund, organize and coordinate our health care system. The bureaucratic barriers and completely misaligned incentives among stakeholders makes health care one of the most ridiculous, frustrating but beautifully complex systems in the world. But being able to improve this complex system is a provocative challenge I just could’t ignore.

I firmly believe that digital and mobile health is a critical component of health care transformation, and I knew that simply continuing on my path would not get me any closer to making that belief a reality. I realized that in order to do this, I need to build my capacity beyond my medical training.

This is why I’m participating in The Next 36 technology accelerator and building Seamless Mobile Health, a company that is transforming the way we discharge patients home from hospital. You might say this makes me an entrepreneur now, but I didn’t join The Next 36 to be an entrepreneur – I joined because I believe entrepreneurship is one of the best ways to transform health care with technology. Entrepreneurship, to me, is a tool to help me achieve something much greater than the title.

Already, I’m learning a lot that I never learned in medical school. Project management and team effectiveness – skills that I thought I had, but have tremendously grown in the past few months. Having to pitch and defend our products/ideas to industry leaders, the very same people who make decisions about whether our technological solutions will be funded and implemented in hospitals. This is real life – we are actually working to have our solutions used by real hospitals, health care providers and patients. It’s an extremely challenging but extraordinary experience.

But if I had let the title of “doctor” completely define me, I would have missed out on a great opportunity to build my capacity and get me closer to creating an impact that is meaningful to me.

Pursue purpose, not titles

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying every doctor should go out and start a company. But I am encouraging you to seek out a motivation greater than your title and greater than yourself.

If you are a teacher and you love science, make it your mission to give your students the best science education possible. If you are running for political office, don’t just run to win – make it your mission to make your region the best place in the world to live in. And never stop seeking opportunities that enable you to pursue your purpose.

When you have purpose, you will always be motivated, because no great purpose can ever truly be fulfilled. But purpose is this beautiful compass that gives you direction and will help you make decisions that matter. Just ask yourself: does making this decision help me get closer to fulfilling my purpose?

Step back for a second and ask yourself: who are the greatest entrepreneurs of our time? Many would mention names like Steve Jobs, Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg.

But if you asked them who they were or what they did, what do you think they would say? My hunch is that they wouldn’t call themselves entrepreneurs. Instead, I bet they would identify themselves with their purpose or mission. I bet Larry Page would say he is working to organize the world’s information or Mark Zuckerberg would say he’s trying to make the world more connected. There’s an important lesson to be taken from that.

Finding purpose isn’t easy. It’s not something that you just pick out of the blue or wake up one day with. It’s something that comes with experiences and time, and of course, it evolves.

But as hard as it is to find, I encourage you to keep searching and follow it. Titles will get you jobs, but purpose will lead you to impact.

What kind of impact do you want to have?