There are many paths to success, and it’s no secret that most of the time, earning your first million takes years of hard work and determination. For budding entrepreneurs, though, that isn’t always the case – some will go from newbies to millionaires in a few years with relative ease. How does it happen? The secret lies in the simplicity of their approach, as demonstrated by this entrepreneur who makes up to $170,000 per month and shares two key lessons he’s learned along the way.

The Entrepreneur: Patrick Flynn

US businessman Patrick Flynn earns $170,000 a month, and he has sometimes been even more successful with his online ventures. However, as a 25-year-old, Flynn suffered mild depression after he lost his job at an architecture firm in 2008. Upon becoming unemployed, Flynn started a website to help people pass their architecture exams, which catapulted him to stardom. Next, he succeeded in selling study guides and classes to aspiring architects. Shortly after this, he generated more than $200,000 in sales and then built several other websites, including Smart Passive Income, a website with content aimed at entrepreneurs, which earned him a lot of money each month.

Tips to Learn

In his self-published book Will it Fly?, Flynn talks about two things he’s learned on his journey to be a successful entrepreneur. The first is that caring for people is always ̧important in any business. Putting money ahead of care always backfired for him; now, he understands that your earnings result from how well you serve your customers. His second lesson was learning how to pace it out. Flynn said he often rushed into things in an attempt to save time, but it often cost him more time and money in the end. He summed up by stating that a little time to validate ideas before jumping in can make all the difference!

If you saw Avery, a six-year-old girl, in her dance class today, you’d never guess she nearly passed away from a heart defect. She had her first open-heart surgery shortly after birth, and the procedure damaged a large portion of her heart. She was declared healthy enough to go home after two months in the hospital. Jess Blias, Avery’s mother, rushed her back a few weeks later because Avery had “turned blue.” Her heart was only pumping at half capacity, necessitating another surgery that might be the breakthrough of a game-changing transplant that can treat dying organs.

Can Mitochondrial Transplant Save Dying Organs?

Doctors began preparing her for a heart transplant, but they found that her heart functioned a little better than they’d expected during the brief seconds when they unplugged her from ECMO, the machine that pumped her blood, to clean the tubes, suggesting that organs might be salvageable. That’s when Sitaram Emani, a Boston Children’s Hospital cardiovascular surgeon and department head, met Blias and volunteered to undertake an experimental treatment to save her daughter’s life: a mitochondrial transplant.

This method entails taking a patient’s mitochondria (small oval structures that provide energy to cells) and inserting them into the damaged tissue of the organs. If everything goes according to plan, healthy mitochondria will be taken into damaged cells and will help them recover from the inside out. “It was kind of like a Hail Mary,” Blias shares because there were no other options for the infant Avery. It miraculously worked. Each day, Avery’s heart became stronger, and she was allowed to return home. She’s had six heart surgeries in as many years and still requires regular cardiology therapy, yet you’d never know anything was wrong if you saw her today.

A Mitochondrial Mayhem

In a manner that pharmaceuticals haven’t been able to define, scientists are now hoping that an infusion of mitochondria would jump-start the cellular processes required to restore damaged hearts, brains, and possibly other organs. So far, animal models and a few first-in-human studies, such as Avery’s, have yielded promising results. New biotech businesses have emerged in recent years to harness the power of mitochondria for uses ranging from wound healing to anti-aging.

There’s still a lot to learn, and government funding for this type of organs study is scarce at the moment. For example, the Boston Red Sox rely substantially on philanthropic donations. Michael Levitt, an associate professor of neurological surgery at the University of Washington, is aiming to transplant mitochondria into stroke patients’ brains, and he claims his team has “no external financing whatsoever.” “It’s all sweat, blood, and tears.”

Nonetheless, scientists that are following this road are optimistic that mitochondrial transplants will revolutionize the treatment of a variety of ailments, from wounds to strokes and heart attacks. Melanie Walker, a clinical professor of neurological surgery at the University of Washington and a colleague of Levitt’s, adds, “We’re very hopeful about what this could mean.”