A Jab for Motivation
There are few people in the world that truly want to face its problems head on. First responders, healthcare workers and volunteers are the first groups that come to mind but when you take the entire world population, they amount to a dismally small fraction. Sprinkled throughout this wonderfully generous slice of the world’s pie chart are genuinely good individuals who just want to make the world better. My friend Adam was one of those people.
A titanic force for sustainability, Adam was set on changing the world. What he accomplished in his life is nothing short of amazing and the impression he left on my life is testament to the depth of his love as a friend and his wisdom as an individual who chose to see the glass as half full.
It was these traits that drove Adam to sign he and I up for a 24 hour design challenge at McMaster University back in 2019. The challenge gave teams 24 hours to come up with an answer to one of three problems. Each problem required the teams to design a product or systems which needed to be conceptualized, designed and mocked up in the form of a 3D printed model. Once completed, the product would be presented to a panel of industry judges.
If I’m totally honest, the idea of spending a night at the university after having graduated 2 years prior was not one that excited me in the least. Sleeping bags, university catering, and group activities were the last things I wanted to do on my weekend off. When I first read Adam’s text, I was leaning towards declining his offer but all it took was one phone call from him to convince me that this would be a challenge worth attempting. He was convinced that we were the two minds that could collaborate to take the win. Off we went.
We gathered in a lecture hall at 8am on a Saturday morning and the two of us were placed on a team of 4. Adam was the only face I recognized and as we sat listening to the challenge rules, I quickly realized that I would be providing the technical support to our team. Adam was a concept man, he had the ideas, the reasoning and the selling ability. My role would be to take his hurricane of ideas and turn them into something we could present to the Judges the next morning.
The problem we chose to work on was one that required us to optimize the EpiPen. In its most common form, the EpiPen is a relatively bulky, unsightly and awkward item to carry around. These facts are often looked over as it is quite literally a life saving device. Our challenge was to turn this into something that was more pleasant to have on your person and possibly turn the EpiPen into a reusable device.
The bell sounded and we immediately headed to a conference room to start working on our idea. Adam immediately grabbed a marker and started writing ideas on the board. Before I knew it, the entire thing was filled. “Big Picture”, “Safety”, “Aesthetically Pleasing” and “Sustainable” were just some of the words on the board. We planned to model the device after a pen so that it might look like something people would carry on a regular day.
Adam was absolutely electric through the entire process. He threw every idea at the wall just to see what stuck. He took part in the design process and asked me questions about the design software we were using. Although his background wasn’t in mechanical design, he understood that these steps were necessary to create our vision. His encouragement, anecdotes and light hearted stories helped the hours pass and before I knew it night had fallen.
Even though it was a 24 hour challenge, our other two teammates decided they were going to go home and sleep while Adam and I continued on into the night. By this point, I had taken the liberty of making most of the decisions as there just wasn’t enough time to consult the others and Adam had fallen asleep under the conference table. At 4am I called it quits and settled into my sleeping bag. We had created an EpiPen that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a fine pen collection.
Our idea used compressed air to propel the needle out of the pen. Turning the body of the pen into an air tank would mean that the unit could be recharged easily at home and the medication/needle cartridge could be interchanged allowing for reuse of a majority of the unit. Looking back, this design would need ALOT of trial and error before it was even remotely safe to use… looking back it would have made a better weapon than anything but it was in the right ballpark.
Adam carried our group through the presentation with incredible finesse. By the time he was finished speaking, I was almost convinced we had created a real product. I don’t remember where we placed in the competition but it wasn’t in the top five. After heading home and taking a much needed nap, I took a minute to reflect on what had just happened and I found myself thankful for the experience and the memories it gave me. Now, as I sit here 5 years later, I’m so happy that I shared that experience with him and I got to see him in his element. It’s rare to get the chance to see someone work with such passion and motivation. Even if he didn’t have a clue what we were talking about, he was still the leader of the team, pitching ideas and if nothing else, providing much needed motivation. Take time to take stock of your friendships. Surround yourself with people that make you better or make you want to be better. Cherish each adventure because I can assure you it will make you smile long after it’s over.