I spent the summer of 1997 in Rochester, Minnesota as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow at Mayo Clinic Graduate School doing molecular immunology research in the laboratory of Dr. Larry Pease. One afternoon when I was working on an end-of-summer presentation, I was struggling to comprehend the results of an experiment regarding a protein fold. One of the graduate students in the lab told me is was okay that I didn’t understand the concept because it was complicated. When I reviewed my presentation with Dr. Pease and explained that I skipped over the part that I didn’t understand, he immediately looked me in the eyes and said very sternly—almost angrily, “Jeff, that is unacceptable. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean you are incapable of learning it.” He proceeded to tutor me until I understood the concepts well enough to stand in front of a room of scientists and present my summer resarch.
The following summer I graduated Carleton College with a degree in Biology, and was accepted to a handful of Ph.D. programs in Molecular and Cell Biology at a number of institutions including Stanford, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, and Mayo Graduate School. I had great opportunities in front of me to become a scientist, but I decided to turn down all the offers in exchange for a job as a junior software developer.
Fast forward to today and I am now the CEO of a thirteen-year-old web and mobile applications development company, Bust Out Solutions. I’ve worked hard to get where I am today in my career, and every now and then when I’m struggling with something — whether it be a computer science problem, a business relationship issue, or any other challenge — I often think back to the encouragement Dr. Pease gave me. It’s UNACCEPTABLE to just give in, give up, or leave an issue unsolved. There’s always a solution, a thought process, and an opportunity to learn.
