The celebration of the GohA Awards (www.gohealthawards.com), now also in LatAm, in concrete in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, got me reminiscing about when we launched the I Edition in Spain, Madrid. Everyone said we couldn’t do it. We asked: Why?
The common logic was that getting together all healthcare stakeholders wouldn’t work, because the various health segments wouldn’t work together. In the years since we had launched, this Awards to Entrepreneurship and Innovation had become a big label in Iberoamerica. We created a new forum, we created a new label.
Other major global organizations will never go for it, they naysayers reckoned. Why? We initially tried with some of them and explained how it could be a great deal for them as well as us. If it failed, they wouldn’t lose much. If it succeeded, who knows where it would lead. But nobody agreed.
First, we had to come up with a name. The inspiration came from a wellness slogan (Go Fit). People thought we couldn’t launch a new transversal healthcare brand based on a name from a recognized Spanish fitness group. Why? We did it, and people loved the name.
Finally, we had to race to get our already successful awards to the rest of Iberoamerican countries. There were all sorts of seemingly insurmountable logistics. We me tup ANDI (www.andi.com.co), explained our idea and said we needed to introduce the idea to the entire Colombia healthcare community in a few weeks. Whilst they initially thought it was impossible, Why Not? The executive directors for both the healtcare chamber and the Health Forum in Cartagena de Indias got convinced instead.
From those few inquisitive questions, and refusing to stop when we met with obstacles, we got the second major country in a row. And now we also plan for Miami to celebrate the biggest ever encounter of entrepreneurship and Innovation in life sciences soon. So next time somebody shuts your good idea down, ask first, why?
