As the first half of 2022 closes, a new page in Changing the Game starts as I share a table with a guest for the first time, a moment I had the pleasure of sharing with the amazing Esther Oh.

Describing her background is a little hard since there seems to be very little she hasn’t done.

Esther has several qualifications in fields from IT to law, having worked in the boards and committees of several universities, and having received a ministerial appointment for reforming the TAIFF.

However, what brings Esther to this episode of changing the game is less her extensive list of titles and achievements, and more the story of how she came to add “entrepreneur” to her already prolific resume.

This story, unfortunately, starts with her having to go through a rather traumatic event:

Agile 8

Esther describes herself as a mother who’s had her vision transformed by a series of traumatic experiences, and came to find an answer in technology for the issues that contributed to her tribulations.

Agile 8, is the result of this broadening of vision, a company that combines AI with enhanced virtual reality to empower health professionals with something akin to x-ray vision, allowing them to work smarter, faster, and safer.

Her story is the perfect example of how the hardest blows life deals us often prepare us with the strength to change the game.

“How?” you may ask? By making the commitment of not allowing what happened to us to happen to others.

Empathy can make an innovator out of anyone.

Sight Lost

So, what was the traumatic experience that lead to the founding of Agile 8?

Well, let us begin by saying that Esther’s son was a perfectly healthy boy who began to develop some sight issues.

As any mother would, Esther took him to a doctor, the first doctor, who was not aware of the gravity of the illness affecting her son’s eyes, a mistake shared by the second doctor, a mistake which the third doctor affirmed could have been corrected had it been identified earlier.

This was how, while still a child, Esther’s otherwise perfectly healthy son lost his sight permanently.

Vision Gained

Esther went through what might be a mother’s worst nightmare, to see her son suffer for the rest of his life due to an issue that could have been avoided were it not for a series of problems that impeded the ability of health professionals to operate at their best capacity.

Firstly there was the knowledge gap that existed between doctors, as neither of the first two specialists, Esther visited had the same knowledge as the last one, which inevitably lead to the delay in treatment that cost her son’s sight.

This is when she realised that the ability of frontline doctors to accurately diagnose an issue as soon as possible not only could have helped her son but could effectively be the difference between life and death for thousands of people.

But where this kind of suffering can enclose many of us in our own struggles, her background as a health professional and entrepreneur allowed Esther to see herself as part of a much larger problem. A problem she could give her best to solve.

What is Innovation?

And this is exactly how she defined innovation: problem-solving.

To be more specific, Esther defined innovation as problem-solving using through tackling it from different perspectives, that is, to find and try all possible solutions for solving that problem in the most efficient way.

This process starts with a deeper renewal and transformation of your mind. Where other parents could be “wallowing in sorrow and blaming the doctors who didn’t get it right”, Esther took a completely different route.

She saw the severe pressure frontline doctors endured and decided that instead of adding to that the weight of her sorrow, she was going to make their jobs and lives easier through the implementation of technology.

Conclusion

At the end of our talk, the single most important lesson Esther Oh had taught was this: that suffering can enable you to make the world a better place. At the center of our life’s most traumatic experiences are problems that we could help to solve.

When Esther had to watch her son become gradually blind due to a misdiagnosis, she was able to identify the core issues that lead to this tragic turn of events and decided that she could do something about it. And then, she went and did it.

I want you to think about the worst day of your life. I know that is a very uncomfortable request, maybe even an offensive one. But! At the core of that experience may lie the secret to a better world.

The strength to turn the worst experience in your life into a source of good is within you, and today, I invite you to find it.