Authored by Authority Magazine Editorial Staff via Authority Magazine
As a part of our series about “Optimal Performance Before High Pressure Moments”, I had the pleasure of interviewing JP Errico.
JP Errico is a highly accomplished scientist with a diverse range of expertise as an executive, entrepreneur, and inventor. He is the Founder of ElectroCore, a prominent company specializing in neuromodulation that has developed a pioneering non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator.
JP was instrumental in creating ElectroCore’s core intellectual property portfolio centered around vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of airway reactive disorders and neurological conditions.
Alongside Dr. Navaz Habib, JP co-hosts The Health Upgrade podcast and authored the recently released book, “The Vagus-Immune Connection,” on utilizing the innate immune system to promote optimal health.
JP has been credited as an inventor on over 250 issued US patents, and has founded and successfully sold or taken public numerous medical device and pharmaceutical companies in partnership with Dr. Thomas J. Errico, including Fastenetix, K2 Medical Systems, AD4-Pharma, E2, and SpineCore.
He earned an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked at the Air Force’s national laboratory, Lincoln Laboratories. Additionally, he holds graduate degrees in both law and mechanical/materials engineering from Duke University.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
JP: Childhood, it’s hard to believe that it’s half a century ago! It was a very different world back then. I tell my children that there was no ChatGPT, social media apps, internet, or even cell phones back then. During weekends and the Summer, you had to figure out how to entertain yourself, or your parents gave you some chores to do. If you still couldn’t figure it out, they handed you a book that you had to read by yourself because nobody had streaming audiobooks. The only thing that was streaming was the local river where you could go fishing.
I was fortunate enough to be born into a family that felt very strongly about education. My mother’s parents were both teachers, and they spent the time to figure out where my aptitudes lay, shaped my interests into those areas, and then encouraged and helped me excel. For me, that was largely math and science. I had a great high school experience, growing up in New Jersey, and absolutely enjoyed my years in Boston at M.I.T., studying aeronautical engineering, after which I enjoyed thawing for several years going to graduate school at Duke University, where I received simultaneous degrees in law as well as engineering. That may sound like a strange combination, and I was the first, and maybe still the only person, to complete a combined law and engineering graduate program at Duke, but it set me up nicely for working as a patent lawyer. In fact, some of the independent work I completed at Duke ended up published as a standalone book on the subject of international patent law.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career as an entrepreneur or business leader? We’d love to hear the story.
JP: Although my academic passions throughout high school and college were math and science, I was always interested in business, venture capital, and how the financial markets worked. Both were fairly far afield of what my father, who was an obstetrician-gynecologist did for a career. So, I can’t really say that my experiences at home gave me the tools to become a medical technology entrepreneur. Still, I have to say that my father demonstrated a lot of dedication and committed long hours, at all times of the day and night, to his career. He also took on the responsibilities, first as the managing partner of the practice he and his partners built from scratch, and then as the president of the medical and dental staff of the entire hospital where he practiced. So, I have to say that it was his dedication to a career based on making and keeping people healthy, coupled with a willingness to pick up the mantle of leadership were the inspiration that motivated me to believe that hard work, good ideas, and dedication would ultimately convert dreams into reality.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
JP: The number of people who helped me along the way is far beyond counting. I’ve already mentioned my parents and grandparents, so I guess the next person who helped me was my uncle. He was a world-renowned spine surgeon. He was interested in patenting some of his ideas in the spine field, and we began working together in the mid-1990s. Frankly, I was barely out of law school and probably had no business presenting myself as a seasoned and knowledgeable professional. Still, it was his belief in my ability that gave me the opportunity to then build a strong portfolio of patents, build a series of companies, license products to major companies in the field of spinal orthopedics, raise capital into start-ups, an lead teams of people who were older, knew more about their field, and had far more responsibilities and experience in life than I. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
JP: I think Queen wrote it so poignantly in their song, We are the Champions, when they wrote “And bad mistakes, I’ve made a few, I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face, But I’ve come through.” You can’t be successful without having your share of embarrassing moments, things you’ve said or done that you wanted to take back seconds after, or woken up in the middle of the night unsure whether you should cry or laugh at something that happened. For me, I’ll always remember the road show for the ElectroCore IPO. I had been advised by the bankers that some of the potential investors would be a little gruff, others would be dismissive, but no one would be as hard and prickly as this one investor they were bringing us to speak with, and that I should prepare myself. This individual was a former practicing physician and was notorious for eviscerating medical device and biotech company representatives. As I waited for him to enter the conference room he had kept us in, I ran through in my head how I was going to deflect if things got spicy. He walked in and sat down, barely acknowledging us, and so I started off with a simple ice-breaker, “I understand that you practiced medicine before moving into investing. What field were you in and where did you practice?” He replied that he was an obstetrician-gynecologist and had practiced in New Jersey … at the same hospital where one of my other uncles had been an OB-GYN for close to forty years. I smiled and asked him if he knew my uncle, and the bankers who had brought us to the meeting watched in stunned silence as this man they had made out to be an ogre cracked open like a Cadbury Easter Egg, and spent the next 10 minutes talking about my uncle, my cousins, and expressing his condolences for my late aunt who he had adored. He even told us all about how my uncle had actually delivered his son. Needless to say, that meeting went very well, and I learned that no matter how challenging someone’s reputation might be, the chances are, if you catch them the right way, they are completely approachable and friendly.
The road to success is hard and requires tremendous dedication. This question is obviously a big one, but what advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your success?
JP: I have a saying that I use quite a bit, which is, “so long as you aren’t trying to violate the laws of physics, the only thing that separates you from success is energy.” So, be ready to give it your all, and that doesn’t mean 9AM to 5PM, it doesn’t mean 8AM to 8PM, it means every minute of every hour of every day of the year. I worked on Christmas Day and traveled on red eye flights on my birthday; I spent two months getting up at 2:30 AM every night and driving 30 minutes each way to change fixtures and collect data from endurance testing machines to meet deadlines and ensure the tests would deliver usable results. I slept through an entire vacation just because I was so exhausted. If you love what you do, then it won’t seem like a chore. It’s like caring for your child. You won’t be able to imagine not putting in the effort.
With all that said, I will caution you to figure out exactly how much work you can actually do per week, and do your best to limit yourself to that amount and no more. For me, it was around 85–90 hours. Beyond that amount, I would invariably get sick, and that would mean that I wouldn’t be able to perform the following week, or later that month, at the same level. It’s better to maintain 90 hours per week than push to 110 and then not be able to do more than 30 the following week.
Finally, I will tell you that there are three types of people in the world. There are those who see the world as a “zero sum game”, and they consider any success you have as an opportunity that he or she lost. Those are people to avoid. They can’t be trusted to ever do the right thing. Next, there are the people who recognize that more than one person can win, but if they aren’t going to win with you, they’ll tear you down just to spite you. There are too many of these people in the world not to work with them, but you have to constantly ensure that they see and understand the path to your combined success. Finally, there are the rare people in the world who do the right thing, even if it means they are going to lose something of value, simply because it is the right thing to do. These people are precious, and you must find and keep them close. Protect them as much as possible, because they are the soldiers who will jump on a grenade to save their brothers and sisters. They’ll have your back in a difficult spot. Show them that even if they lose something today, you will make it up to them. If they are the rare ones I am talking about, it won’t matter to them, but it’s the right thing to do.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
JP: There are several, and a couple of them are controversial. One is Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, and the other is The Art of the Deal, by Donald Trump. I read both when I was in college, and I still think about the life lessons of the first, and the peak into the deal-making creativity of the second.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
JP: You’ll get several for the price of one here. The first is a quote I first heard from the headmaster of my high school. I later discovered that it was his own take on a famous quote from Henry Ford. Ford had said, “it doesn’t matter if you believe you can do something, or you believe you can’t do something, because either way, you’re right.” Father Giles Hayes’ version was a bit shorter, and was, “if you think you’re finished, you are.” Another variation on the theme that I’ve heard is, “it’ll all work out in the end, because if it doesn’t work out, it isn’t the end.” The late Jim Valvano, for whom the Jimmy V Foundation is named, also said, “don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
The second quote is really just life advice that I heard from my uncle after a particularly positive early meeting, when I was riding a wave of excitement. He said, “don’t get too high, and don’t get too low. Be satisfied.”
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
JP: There are two related projects that I believe have the potential to change the world. In both cases, the projects involve the use of a therapy that I developed, called non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation. In the first case, we are working to demonstrate that use of the therapy during pregnancy can reduce the risk of the four major neurodevelopmental conditions that have been linked to maternal immune activation during pregnancy, which are Autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, and bi-polar disorder. In each case, the data are clear that in utero exposure to significant inflammation (as well as during early childhood) dramatically increases the risk of these conditions through the altered inflammatory profile of the immune cells in the child’s brain during critical periods of neurodevelopment. The fact that this occurs and is a likely causative influence in these conditions has been known for nearly two decades, and we are studying whether there may be a simple, safe, effective, and extremely financially accessible way to reduce the risks using a therapy that takes less than five minutes per day.
The related project is focused on demonstrating that use of this same therapy by children starting as young as 4 and 5 years old can optimize the neurodevelopment that is otherwise suboptimal because of the regular experiences of colds and infections and even skinned knees and bruises. The hypothesis is that use of this therapy from age 5 to 10, or perhaps 4 to 12, will maximize the child’s potential brain development and enhance intelligence, personality, and emotional stability. The military has already demonstrated that the therapy produces improvements in brain function in adults, even individuals who are already high performers, and it is being deployed for cognitive and performance enhancement.
Reducing the burden of neurodevelopmental conditions from Autism to schizophrenia, and potentially raising the overall intelligence and emotional stability of the next generation is a legacy I think is worth the efforts.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. As a business leader, you likely often face high stakes situations that involve a lot of pressure. Most of us tend to wither in the face of such pressure and stress. Can you share with our readers 3 or 4 strategies that you use to cope with the burden of stress?
JP: First, if you are doing what you love, facing demons and dragons is just par for the course. Second, if you know your stuff, and you’ve prepared for the fight, the demons and dragons shrink down to a manageable size pretty quickly. Third, understand that the world isn’t going to stop being stressful, but you can change how it affects you by being mindful of your diet, exercise, and sleep. In acute situations, when stress is maxed out, remember to take deep breaths, get up and stretch, walk around the office for a minute or two to get some perspective, and if you need to use your non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator for two minutes, it’ll calm you down quickly and make you smarter in the process. Finally, remember that 99% percent of the decisions you face will change over time, and as my uncle and I used to regularly advise one another, “if you don’t like how things are going today, don’t worry, because by Thursday, it’ll be different!”
Aside from being able to deal with the burden of stress, can you share with our readers five strategies that you use to optimize your mind for peak performance before high pressure, high stress situations?
JP: I have already mentioned that you need to really know your subject matter, and if you do, there is nothing anyone can ask you or ask of you that will throw you off your game. Second, never let anyone intimidate you based on his or her wealth or perceived station over you. There are plenty of smart and wealthy people who don’t know anything about your business, and they don’t know what you’re capable of. That doesn’t mean that you should antagonize them on purpose, but it also means that you should let anyone push you around. Finally, they say that when Ted Williams stepped up to the plate, he would repeat to himself, “I am Ted Williams, I am Ted Williams,” over and over. What does that mean for you? Trust yourself and believe that you are the best at what you are doing. You are the best person for the job that needs to be done, and you aren’t going to take failure as a final answer.
Do you use any special or particular breathing techniques, meditations or visualizations to help optimize yourself? If you do, we’d love to hear about it.
JP: Again, two things are very helpful.
First, I find that running is unbelievably therapeutic, so I do it every day. While on the treadmill (which protects my 55+ year old knees, allowing me to exercise long distance every day), I allow myself to do what I call motion meditation. I allow my mind to wander to wherever it wants to go, and I am half engaged in processing the thoughts, and half engaged in observing what my mind is creating. It is extremely helpful in balancing my perspective on things, and has been incredibly healing for a variety of emotionally difficult personal issues that have affected me through the years.
Second, like most people, I find that my brain isn’t just 5 or 10% better on a good night’s sleep versus a bad one. It’s 50–75% better, so I am very protective of my sleep. It doesn’t matter if I got to bed at a decent hour, or stayed up until 4AM working, I will make sure that I get at least 7.5 hours of sleep if at all possible. I also am not opposed to putting my head down and resting for 15–20 minutes for a power nap. Trying to power through these feelings of fatigue is useless at best, and counter-productive at worst. If you are having sleep trouble, seek professional help. Don’t just try to power through it, and don’t self-medicate with alcohol or OTC sleep pills. Neither will do anything other than make the problem worse, and the long-term health consequences are deadly, literally.
Do you have a special technique to develop a strong focus, and clear away distractions?
JP: I have trained my mind to return to certain topics in my idle time, driving, or a quiet moment in my office. As funny as it sounds, it’s like training your hair to always return to the part you want, so you only have to run your fingers through your hair to restore it to close to what you want it to be. (Of course, why is a bald guy making analogies to hair?)
The other trick I learned to do in college was to read a difficult problem several times before turning the lights out and going to sleep. Invariably, the solution would dawn on me within the first 20–30 minutes after waking, while getting ready for class. I believe that the brain continues to work on the problem in the background, while sleeping, almost like a computer running a calculation in the background while you are using another program to write an email. It’s the closest thing I have found to true multi-tasking.
We all know the importance of good habits. How have habits played a role in your success? Can you share some success habits that have helped you in your journey?
JP: I am actually somewhat low aptitude when it comes to setting up good habits and using personal organizational tools. Instead, I tend to be the intuitive and flexible thinker who thrives on rediscovering the best path forward every day. Other than my daily exercise goals, scheduled calls, and certain details around caving out time to be creative, I prefer to be unconstrained. I know from personal experience that I can complete tasks with exceptional speed and quality if it is something that I am moved to work on and can dedicate 100% of my attention to without concerns for other tasks based on scheduling. As a neuroscientist, I am very well aware of the stress that is caused by tying to time box thoughts and streams of ideas. The act of forcing yourself to shift from one project to another based solely on the clock is a powerful activator of the sympathetic nervous system, literally putting your brain and body into a fight or flight state. Instead, I prefer to establish a hierarchy of projects, and then tackle one until I have exhausted my ability to move that one further, at which point I switch to the next one without any difficulties, because my mind is ready for and welcoming of the change.
What is the best way to develop great habits for optimal performance? How can one stop bad habits?
JP: Habits are formed by repetition and re-enforced by success. Developing habits through forcible adherence to a schedule in the absence of a rationale and an emotional tie, or at least an attainable goal of value, is very difficult. The most powerful way to drive yourself to adopting a new habit is to convince yourself (and don’t lie, because you’ll know) that the new habit is going to help you achieve your goals.
As a business leader, you likely experience times when you are in a state of Flow. Flow has been described as a pleasurable mental state that occurs when you do something that you are skilled at, that is challenging, and that is meaningful. Can you share some ideas from your experience about how we can achieve a state of Flow more often in our lives?
JP: I LOVE finding my way into the flow state. It is easiest for me to enter that state when I am writing (I like to write both fiction and non-fiction), or when sitting with a pen and paper working on a challenging math problem. In those situations, hours and hours can pass in what feels like a matter of minutes, with no intrusions for hunger, thirst, or fatigue. They are the most productive times, and it is why I resist time boxing my work as much as possible. It is also why I tend to be a night owl, because the distractions and interruptions simply fade away around 10PM, leaving a solid 6 hours of incredibly productive work from then until 4AM. I recognize that getting into that schedule is simply not viable for many people, but I encourage setting aside at least one afternoon per week, at minimum, when you can tackle a project and not worry about any demands or intrusions that forcibly derail your flow state.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
JP: Well, I hope that some of your readers were inspired by the work we are doing in preventing neurodevelopmental conditions, and also in the possibility that non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation can optimize the development of children’s brains to learn faster, be happier and healthier, and be better equipped to make the future Earth a better place for everyone. So, if I had the power to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people, I believe that convincing the parents of the world to bring this safe and powerful treatment to their children. I truly believe that it should become a prenatal vitamin for all pregnant women, and it should sit next to the fluoride toothpaste in the bathroom for all the kids in the world to use before school and before bed every day.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them 🙂
JP: There are several that come to mind immediately. I would like to sit down and speak with every football, hockey, soccer, or any player who has ever experienced a bad concussion, to speak with them about their lasting symptoms, and how there are solutions to their sleep problems, mood challenges, brain fog, and risks of long-term neurodegeneration.
I would like to speak with leaders in politics, finance, social media, and tech about the possibility of enhancing the cognitive abilities of our next generation. It’s a promise that is simply too great to not deliver. And among those leaders, I would especially like to communicate with the leaders of the underserved and underprivileged segments of society, whose children are at the greatest risk of suboptimal neurodevelopment because of dietary, social, and environmental risk factors. I believe that delivering those children an optimized neurodevelopment is one of the greatest gifts for their futures and the futures of our civilization.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
JP: The research I am conducting on the autonomic nervous system, aging, and health and wellness are set out on my website, JPErrico.com, where there are great number of resources for visitors to learn about their brains and bodies, as well as a program specifically designed to help people manage their stress, called Breaking Free. For those who are interested, The Health Upgrade podcast, which I co-host with my broadcast partner, Dr. Navaz Habib, is a great way to learn more about these same topics in an easy to digest format. For those who want to really dig into the science, I have a recently published book, The Vagus-Immune Connection, available on Amazon right now.
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
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