Inspiring Journey Video with Tom van Haarlem

Video Transcription:

Life is always a combination of what you’re looking for and what comes across your path. For every problem there is a solution and if you’re confident that you yourself have the experience to address it. And if you’re fortunate to have people around you that have the expertise and the experience to help with that as well then there’s nothing that you cannot overcome as long as you’re confident and plan and work hard. In life you have to sometimes embark on new journeys to remain energized, to remain ambitious and get out of bed in the morning to do something with all you have. So that was the reason for me to embark on a new direction professionally.

You know, I worked in a company that did discovery research, searching for new molecules that could become important new drugs in the future and continue to develop those in preclinical and later in clinical development. Everyday there’s another challenge in terms of two steps forward, one step back and sometimes two steps back. So your ability to deal with that is tested every day. And if you can’t manage that for yourself then you’re definitely in the wrong industry and you have to change jobs.

So I think my frustration tolerance has been tested regularly and I think I can manage that because as I said before, for every problem there’s a solution and you know as long as you work with the right people there’s always a possibility to do that. We all live these days in a fast changing environment and if you don’t change with that environment as quickly as that changes you may lose. Charles Darwin said it, you know in terms survival. It is not the strongest that survives, it’s not the most intelligent that survives, it’s the one that’s most adaptive to change. And that goes for an individual as well. Consider yourself to be a product and if that product can’t be sold to your customers out there then you know nobody will buy you. So have to be attractive, be differentiated and change when change around you occurs as well. If you stay the same you may not be successful.

Tom van Haarlem is a highly experienced founder of new biopharmaceutical companies and is Chief Executive Officer of VISUfarma – the eye health company.

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