For the bulk of the last 13 years, I've been collecting/distilling the Chinese Medicine wisdom of a handful of Chinese Medicine masterpiece books written in English. They are a tough read, as they are deep. I created a spreadsheet to hold this information. During my schooling from 1994-1997, I thought it would only be of use to myself. Then I used it to teach from at a Chinese Medicine school from 2002-2003. After I was history there, one of my students graduated and ended up teaching these same classes reformatting my years of work and calling it his own. I was not pleased, as I begged my students to not spread this stuff around as it is my life work. By then, I envisioned it as a product to make my living from.
I kept this spreadsheet close to my vest ever since. And since 2003, a couple of incredibly great Chinese Medicine books came out that are as easy to read as James Joyce's Ulysses. I never read more than a few pages of Ulysses. But I did read about a hundred pages of another James Joyce book, and that nut I couldn't crack. Nor was I motivated to try cracking it any more.
These Chinese Medicine books are a tough nut to crack. I've spent the bulk of the last 13 years cracking them open and distilling what is inside to be used as an introduction to Chinese Medicine beginners. Also, to be used as a clinical tool for Chinese Medicine doctors as a bridge into these masterpiece books. To get these hands on doctors into the ball game of what to do with a patient, and then link them to the related pages in the real book.
Since 2003, my spreadsheet has drastically changed.It no longer bothers me that someone else might be using it to teach others. I did learn to keep it closer to my vest.
For years, I had no idea how to take this spreadsheet, (that is now on Apple's spreadsheet program called Numbers), and make it usable to others and make it a money making item for me. I loved reading these books and updating the spreadsheet. At times, I did let it get to me, how to turn the corner into making it a useful tool to others. But most of the time, I felt grateful to be able to do what I love doing everyday.
I guess I had faith to keep on going. I was sure of its usefulness. I knew I had a 13 plus year head start on anyone else creating a similar product. This is not something 100 Chinese Medicine doctors can create in one month. They can try, but it needs to be from a certain point of view to be really useful. Some can create a e-reader, and Apple can create an iPad. Quality matters. It's in my bones.
About two months, we had a party our our house. The master chef, who lives there and owns the place, had a dinner party of family-style food. People brought over wine or beer. He made the food, as usual.
It's funny how the day before, it's usually just 6 people. Then others get wind of it and call him up to invite themselves over and in the span of a day it becomes a 30 person party. It happens all the time. Well, this one guest guy, who I love talking too, has his iPhone out and bar-scans a wine bottle brought over by someone. I'm all over him, like a curious kid. I say, "What's this (iPhone) App"?. He always has a new one.
He explained how it had user reviews on wine based on the scanned bottle and he shows me. I then pester him with questions, which is one of my greatest gifts and one of my greatest annoyances. I'm just curious. Then a light goes on, and I start to see if this is a viable option for my spreadsheet. I tell him. He teases me about my 'spreadsheet'. He knows I've been working on it for years making some really questionable socially acceptable personal decisions to keep that ball in the air. I take the teasing and keep on going. I see a glimmer of hope. I then let him go.
A few days later, I tell my good friend Muley about the discussion and the possibilities. We discuss. The light bulb wattage increases in my pea brain, about the the possibilities of making this happen as a database on a website with a subscription model like Pandora. Muley's input was invaluable, and I told him so.
A couple days later, Muley offers to help me figure out how to do it, as he does this stuff for a living. As we became good friends over 20 years ago, when we both worked at the same company doing computer stuff. We sorted out some high level design and I'm now learning to use Apple's Filemaker Database program. Muley is a PC guy, but he's still willing to help me with the design, which I am grateful for.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been watching these Filemaker videos on Youtube. This guy created 22 videos which are incredibly helpful. The number of views for each video are only in the hundreds. The last one posted was a few months ago. I wonder if he got discouraged by the relatively few number of views on his videos and threw in the towel thinking it was a waste of time. On one of his videos, he was responding to one viewer's comments, who racked him over the coals for his stuff. You could tell he was hurt.
I've been in his shoes, reading reviews of a few perpetually disgruntled students at the Chinese Medicine school I taught at. I hope he didn't fold up shop, because of that speed bump. I wondered what I'd do without his videos. How would I get into the Filemaker ballgame without his help? It reminded me to keep on going what I'm doing with my spreadsheets and now the database to get people into the Chinese Medicine ballgame.
My sister Carol tells me frequently to be Coke not Pepsi, meaning to me to be the first into a new market and not a 'me too' someone later on entry. This blogging business might have been easier to use as a tool to put Chinese Medicine into the masses consciousness's mind, before everyone and his brother had a Pepsi blog. I'm reassessing it as a tool to achieve my objectives.
So here's a card flipped over. This is my next major step. It will take months to create a prototype of the Filemaker Database for a small subset of my Chinese Medicine Formula and Herb spreadsheet content. It will take another year or so to digest and update the spreadsheet for the formulas masterpiece book I've been reading. It will take at least a year to convert my spreadsheet content into the Filemaker database. Then there's the time to post this database to a website and create a front-end user interface.
Oh yeah, I need to keep on surviving during this time period. And what good is it all, if no one still knows about Chinese Medicine Guys?
I'll fry those last two fish later.
Back to my painting. I love to paint Chinese Medicine stuff.
