MINDSET
‘I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.’ – Albert Einstein
‘Focus is the art of knowing what to ignore.‘ – James Clear
‘What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?’‘ – Robert Schuller
‘Learn the rules like a pro to break them like an artist.‘ – Pablo Picasso
‘If everyone thinks the same way, then someone is not thinking‘ – General George Patton
‘Discipline is doing what has to be done for the required time.’ – Francisco Alcaide
‘The greatest value in life is not what you get, but what you become.’ – Jim Rohn
‘The world and everything in it are states of consciousness’ – Neville Goddard
‘Talent is educated in the calm and character in the storm’ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethes
‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why’ – Mark Twain
‘Only when the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realized we cannot eat money’ – Cree Indian Proverb
BACKGROUND:
I grew up in a very small mountain village in northern Spain:
Those were years stuck on a bike, building cabins with my sisters and cousins and enjoying the biggest snowfalls I’ve ever known.
Back then, toys that did things didn’t last long. I disassembled them to see where the secret was, and I could hardly leave them as they were. Years later, curiosity led me to study engineering and focus on technology.
My first professional experiences were automating manufacturing processes and making prototypes for new products. The first served to strengthen an approach towards the systematization and automation of everything that is repetitive, and the second to discover how to turn ideas into reality: prototyping, validating and improving.
The latter led me get closer to the world of marketing. The challenge went from creating the most advanced technology to matching what the user needed, which does not always coincide. I discovered that simplicity works best and that the most advanced technology is the one that is easy to use.
From marketing I moved on to quality management, an exciting and intense stage in which I enjoyed the opportunity to audit the management models of more than 400 companies. I was certified as an EFQM assessor and IRCA lead auditor of quality management systems.
As time went by, I began to feel the need to get involved in my own projects where I could put everything I had learned into practice. My entrepreneurial spirit was asking for a way.
The first dive into the world of entrepreneurship was managing a pioneering project in the pharmaceutical distribution sector in Spain. Today, they continue to be a reference at a national level.
With the next project, however, I experienced the pain of defeat. The objective was exciting: to improve the outcomes of companies by managing the health of their workers. We made a very good debut and the expectations were very good, but the 2008 financial crisis affected us a lot. We survived the first tsunami but the wounds did not heal well and finally it could not be. I learned that context and timing are very important.
The day-to-day hustle and bustle gave way to calmer days, with slow time to think, and once again the curious child emerged to demand a new dive into technology.
I was comfortable in the health sector, and biomedical engineering sounded very attractive to me, so I decided to devote my time to it and train myself.
I went back to college as a 40-year-old. It was tough. I remember the headaches. They were different, like sores in places where you haven’t exercised in a while.
I spent a year with the theoretical training and another with the practical one. I went through different health services, such as nephrology, genetics, ophthalmology, neurophysiology, radiology, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine or trauma surgery (by the way, very proud to leave the operating room on my own feet), absorbing all I could from the specialists with whom I coincided.
As soon as I finished my master’s degree in biomedical engineering, I had the opportunity to participate in digital health projects, which, over time, have been pioneering. My versatile profile with technical, medical, marketing and management expertise was very valuable in projects where collaboration between different professionals (clinicians, engineers, analysts, financiers, …) is a key factor for success.
In 2016 I was involved in the creation of a very bold project: Xana Innovation. The challenge was huge: to create, from scratch, a non-invasive neurostimulation technology to modulate brain activity with applicability in performance enhancement and treatment of a wide range of medical disorders. I collected a large amount of expertise about neurophysiology, medical technology development, clinical validation, intellectual property management, strategic thinking, team building, business modelling and fundraising, among others domains.
I also confirmed that my nature is creative. I have a natural ability to envision new concepts, which are often disruptive. This is a very valuable talent at a time like the present, when there is so much to re-imagine. It is no coincidence that my intellekten project aims to encourage inventive talent by improving the rewards for inventors.
I also learned that the formula for effective innovation is very simple: good ingredients (ideas), well cooked. This is the recipe for my empathivithy project.
I am passionate about blues and rock music. My next degree will be in a music school. At the moment, I am self-taught and meet every Thursday with four childhood friends to play music. I enjoy it as much as the snowfalls in the village.
These are the places I’ve passed through. Some have been through me more than others.
