Dr. Michiaki Takahashi is Proof That Anything is Possible

Dr. Michiaki Takahashi

Before 1995, it’s estimated that chickenpox resulted in approximately 4 million cases, 10,000 hospitalizations, and up to 150 deaths per year. Now, because of the chickenpox vaccine, there are fewer than 150,000 cases, 1400 hospitalizations, and 30 deaths every year.

Dr. Michiaki Takashi is the inventor of the chicken pox vaccine, and probably the most amazing thing in the world is that he set off to find a cure because the illness had almost taken his 3-year-old son.

Imagine, someone you love is progressively showing severe symptoms for something that there is no cure for. When the only thing you think you can do is sit there and watch, and you think all hope is lost, something hits you…

“I realized then that I should use my knowledge of viruses to develop a chickenpox vaccine.”

The Best Place to Start is Where You Are

A lot of people have knowledge, and the need for knowledge is something that we hold very dearly.

But how many people understand the true power of the knowledge that they already have?

To want more of something is very human, but to understand the face value of what you already have can sometimes be very difficult; it may even be superhuman. This is because the future is potential that is yet to be revealed.

The fact is that Dr. Michiaki Takashi began creating a vaccine with what he already knew, and if you asked him whether he knew that he would save millions of children at the time, he probably wouldn’t have believed you.

The ability to save millions of people is, in fact, superhuman. It is the most “superhuman” thing anyone can do. But that is exactly what he did, and he did it as an ordinary man that we now call a hero…

All because he started from the place that he was in, and with what he already knew.

Hero’s Aren’t Born; They’re Made

Billy Butcher will tell you this firsthand, but then again, he probably won’t need to.

Dr. Michiaki Takahashi achieved his MD at Osaka University in 1954 when he was 26 years old. He moved to Texas in 1963 after spending five years as an assistant professor at the Research Institute for Microbial Disease at the same university.

Nearly a decade of medical school in Ozaka, five years of being an assistant professor, a 1-year fellowship in Houston Texas, and in 1964, his son developed varicella (chicken pox). This frightful situation became the inspiration for the vaccine that changed the entire world.

Hero’s aren’t born; they’re made. They are made of the experiences that come before the opportunity to make a real difference.

It is at that point where the hero arises.

Even Hero’s Need a Bit of Time

It wasn’t until 1972—nine years after his son developed varicella—that Dr. Michiaki Takahashi began the clinical trials to create a vaccine. For an entire seven years before that, he had to prove that:

• the vaccine would not lead to shingles later in life.

• The vaccine would not be carcinogenic.

These were both underlying worries of others that Michiaki Takahashi had to work with before he effectively changed the world. In fact, these fears are still alive and are partly attributed to the reason why chickenpox vaccination is not universally rolled out in many countries. That being said, people are much less likely to contract shingles after getting the vaccine than they are after getting chicken pox—which the vaccine prevents.

The drive to change the world was for the people who held the fears and worries that may have prevented the vaccine altogether.

This goes to show that things take time. There are no shortcuts to success, and if there were, can you be sure that the hero would grow into everything they can be?

The Real Reason That Dr. Michiaki Takahashi is a Hero

You may recall that the entire history of Takahashi’s life brought him to a moment where he decided to make a decision.

This decision has positively impacted the lives of billions of people, to a degree we can never truly comprehend. It is as if all the knowledge that he ever achieved was preparing him for something great.

It wasn’t what he knew that changed the world, it was what he did.

The reason that Dr. Michiaki Takahashi is a hero is that he chose to use that knowledge to make a positive difference.

IC Inspiration

It used to be that knowledge was power, but I’m not so sure now.

In this day and age, knowledge is knowledge, and power is what you do with knowledge.

Knowledge is currently accessible at the tip of your fingers, and what you know is what millions of others may know.

That is precisely why getting followers is such a big deal for many; because if people know what you know then they can understand you, and those likes reflect to some degree that you are being understood.

You can raise $2 million in 2 months without knowing everything; in fact, you may only need to know one thing really well, and sometimes, that might not even be necessary.

With good intentions, a good idea, and determination, you might just change the entire world.

That is why this man is a hero in my books.