Pharmpreneur of the week Tom Sun: "I encourage all pharmacists to be curious and strive for change."

Snapshot:

Education

PharmD. RPh, University of British Columbia

Current role

• Co-Founder of Confocal Platform Inc.
• Market Access Pharmacy Resident at AbbVie Canada

What excites you about being an entrepreneur?

As a young entrepreneur, I love the freedom to turn your visions and dreams into reality. Most importantly, I enjoy the connections that you can make along the way. You are allowed to think outside the box and express your ideas without being judged. I really appreciate the collaborative environment that enables you to communicate with functions that you might have zero experience in. All of this combined really pushed me to continue to strive for my dream and more importantly, to enjoy the process with my team.

How has your entrepreneurial career evolved since your graduation?

During pharmacy school, I was inspired by many other pharmacist entrepreneurs in various fields. I was lucky enough to shadow and learn from them to further expand my own vision and seek what I truly wanted to change. After graduating, I was able to pivot from a previous to-do list idea to a project management software that was tailored to wet-lab researchers in the R&D space. Furthermore, as I stepped away from being a student, I was able to learn more about the start-up world and gain experiences that I still reflect to this day.  

What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur?

I am a firm believer that there are multiple solutions to solve a single problem. Like any other careers in life, you have to be passionate about what you do and finding the “why.” “Why is this relevant,” “is it important to solve,” and “do we need a change” are some of the questions I ask myself whenever a new idea comes to mind. After answering all of these questions, what drives me to continue to advocate for change is the need to see what the end result would be. I encourage all pharmacists to be curious and strive for change that would further benefit our profession and our patients.

As a successful entrepreneur, what continues to drive you?

For me, it is the opportunity to pursue something that you are passionate about and something that you think will be a great benefit to the world. Most of the time, ideas are only talked about or discussed but it takes the right opportunity to validate that idea. Therefore, when I am truly confident about a certain idea, I am 100% committed. This is what drives me to push through the hardship, the uncertainty, and the anxiety to one day providing a solution that would truly be meaningful.

What are the biggest challenges to being an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship can be challenging for multiple reasons. Personally, the biggest challenge is dealing with uncertainty. Uncertainty comes in multiple different shapes and forms as starting a business involves taking risks and navigating an unknown future. From validating your idea to scaling up your company, uncertainty is definitely a tremendous obstacle that I have to deal with every day. However, uncertainty can also bring in new opportunities for innovation and growth. This is why it is good to have good work/life balance to walk away from these uncertainties to allow yourself to recharge and recollect yourself.

How do you manage work/life balance?

Having a good work/life balance is critical to prevent you from burning out. Some things that I do to improve work/life balance include setting clear boundaries, prioritizing self-care, saying no when you are at capacity, and staying organized. However, sometimes I do also have poor work/life balance and it is something that I am constantly working on as well.