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• What I’ve Learned

What I Learned:

You are an 8-year-old boy in Pakistan in 1979. You know little to nothing about braces, orthodontics, or that straightening teeth is a very profitable business in America.

You decide to listen to your mom and get good grades.

You’re now an 18-year-old in Pakistan.  You’re getting good grades. You have no idea what you want to be when you grow up. You know little to nothing about orthodontics, or that the US market in the late 1980’s is primarily children and teenagers.

You decide to leave your family and friends and move to America for college.

You’re in your early twenties working at Morgan Stanley. You’re making great money and making frequent business trips to London. Life is good, but want to learn more.

You decide to attend Stanford’s MBA program.

You’re now in your late twenties. Your teeth bother you. You get your first introduction to orthodontics. You ask the orthodontist, "Why can’t we use that plastic retainer tray ..the entire time?" —Remember, you know little to nothing about orthodontics.

He says no.

You decide to spend nights in your apartment working on a project to manufacture a series of plastic trays at scale.

You’re a now the CEO of a startup in California. You’re scaling plastic. Your company is valued at millions, if not, billions.  You want a bigger market.

You decide to spend a sizable budget on advertising orthodontics

—to adults.

Whatever you know about orthodontics, in the early 21st century, you helped revolutionized the industry and practically doubled the market.

I’ve always been impressed with the business story behind one of the most well-known brands in orthodontics.

Who would have guessed a Pakistani-American, with little orthdontic background, would co-found a company that disrupted how every practice practices today? 

But that’s how the world works.

Ideas that are laughed at, deemed unreasonable, and start off as questions of “What if..” can end up impacting millions.

You’ve likely been impacted, in someway, by this story.

So keep going with whatever “What if..” idea you have.

Who knows….

You might just change an industry.

“Its always the little things that make the biggest impact.”