“Once you are on a sure footing try and be bold; Don’t copy, there is too much of that.” With Dr. Traj Nibber CEO of Advanced Orthomolecular Research
Try to be different, differentiate yourself. You don’t necessarily try to reinvent the wheel in the beginning but once you are on a sure footing try and be bold. Don’t copy, there is too much of that. Have your principals and try and find your niche and stick with it no matter what the competition or everyone else is doing. Always spend time with your loved ones with intensity and focus. Otherwise you may achieve all the success but regret will always haunt you of emptiness.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Traj Nibber. Dr. Nibber is the Founder and CEO of Advanced Orthomolecular Research (AOR).
Thank you so much for joining us Dr. Nibber. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
After I moved to Canada I started my own pharmacy, and was working there when I was contacted by People with AIDS (PWA) advocacy groups who were searching for hard-to-find formulations for AIDS buyers’ groups. I was shocked to learn about the lack of access to nutritional supplements, and how people were suffering as a result.More questions arose asking why the supplements available at the time had so many needless excipients and fillers?. At first, I started by sourcing and compounding the specific formulations needed by People with AIDS. As I immersed myself more in the literature on nutritional factors in health, I began to develop more formulations and launch new natural health products into a wider audience of health-conscious individuals.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
My pharmacy was in a mall that had very little traffic. Plus I could not compete with four other chain pharmacies. I was the new kid on the block and business was tough. I had all my family members working, my wife who was pregnant with our first child, my brother who was a PhD and my sister. The running joke was did we even make enough to pay for the gas to and fro from home! Hours were long 10 hours plus an hour there and an hour back, six days a week.
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
I had lots of time on my hand as business was very slow. But then fate interceded as it always dose. A prescription came to my pharmacy and it was for “Gold Chloride drops”. I had never seen such a request before. When I called the prescribing physician, he told me to order if from a compounding pharmacy in the nearest town. It got me thinking and I delved a little more and found there were three MD’s that were practicing nutritional medicine and liked prescribing “odd” items. This was my adventure into compounding pharmacy. And what an adventure it was! I quickly learned as much as possible about compounding and on top of that had an idea to replace all other items in my pharmacy- paper products, cosmetics, candy, contact lens solutions and diapers etc and just carry vitamins and herbal products so I could differentiate myself and be able to serve the three nutritional MD’s in the area. From there on word spread that there was this unique nutritional pharmacy that carried hard to find supplements. Shortly thereafter the AIDS community (the epidemic was in full swing at tha ttime)contacted me with all sorts of requests and consequently I opened Canada’s first ever Buyers Club for the AIDs community often supplying for free because they wanted lots of products but couldn’t really afford them.
So, how are things going today? How did grit lead to your eventual success?
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, and in the beginning I was forced to think outside the convention, and once I started doing that more ideas were coming in thick and fast. Some ideas worked some didn’t. But now I was on a path of innovation and there was almost a cavalier attitude and knowing that I could do anything. It’s strange that once you get that feeling of innovation it is self perpetuating and if you allow it to follow its natural course it usually turns out to be a success.There was an element of luck of course. A big one! Perhaps luck favours the bold?
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting?
My education in compounding knew no bounds and I started getting excited and try new things. I once made a concoction of a cough mixture for a family member and told him how to use and to make sure to shake the bottle really well. The person came back the next day and told me that the bottle had exploded overnight on the table!
Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Never to try that concoction again! But don’t give up on trying new things!
What do you think makes your company stand out?
AOR has become a leading provider of genuinely innovative nutraceuticals in North America and around the world. We have continued to innovate over the years, consistently putting science-backed natural health products into the hands of health care practitioners and consumers. AOR has launched many formulations which are the first in the world, including our D-Ribose, R Lipoic Acid, Strontium citrate, nitrates, benaGene and many more. AOR is also a leader in collaborating with universities across N america as well as in Europe. In 2017 we did 29 different collaborations and 9 were human clinical studies. In total we have over 60 projects we have collaborated with various researchers. Only through research can we collectively achieve “A rising tide that raises all boats”!
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Try to be different, differentiate yourself. You don’t necessarily try to reinvent the wheel in the beginning but once you are on a sure footing try and be bold. Don’t copy, there is too much of that. Have your principals and try and find your niche and stick with it no matter what the competition or everyone else is doing. Always spend time with your loved ones with intensity and focus. Otherwise you may achieve all the success but regret will always haunt you of emptiness.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
There are many. The great Issac Newton said that if he was able to see that much further, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giants. Indeed, I stood on shoulders of many giants. All of them made me look much better than I really was. And that is the truth. I had many teachers to thank. The only thing I offered was willingness to learn from them. But I would highlight my mother and my wife. My mother had several diseases but was always willing to try my new supplements and see if they worked. Never did she refuse. Also in the beginning during my compounding days my mother would stay up late and hand fill thousands of capsules by hand (in those days, I did not have access to capsule filling machine and it had to be done manually). Every morning I would find she had filled so many capsules, saving me lots of time so I could run my pharmacy. My wife Pramjit, because she was right at the start, shoulder to shoulder she was there often carrying the burden alone, always giving me sound advice (many times I never acted on it. Alas!) and she worked even harder than myself becuase she had to look after the family, my parents and the biggest baby- me! and yet she never got any praise!
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
As a person trained in the arts of pharmaceutical sciences, the goal for me has been to make natural products as effective, and quick acting as any pharmaceutical with the safety. Why do we have to take something for weeks or months to see any benefit? Why can’t natural products be made to work quickly. That is the goal. At AOR, we are always true to science and ensure the highest quality ingredients in our products.We exist to create safe, effective, and therapeutic solutions from nature herself, so you can always trust that we deliver the right molecule in the right dose, at the right place, at the right time. In accordance with Canadian regulations, we test all of our ingredients for heavy metals, pesticides, solvents, potency, and other toxins. We care to make our customers feel better, and our science-backed formulas ensure that they get the most effective, safest product available. Being able to introduce so many new products, many first in the world or to North America has made much difference to peoples lives e.g. strontium citrate for bone health, R+ Lipoic acid as an excellent antioxidant and mitochondria nutrient, or D-Ribose for muscle health but the heart as well and so on. I think all these have been positive.
In addition, AOR has strong commitment to both social and environmental responsibility, supporting local charities and always striving for greener solutions every aspect of our production process. By relying on solid science and listening to our customers, rather than only following popular market trends, we make sure that are consumers always know exactly what they are getting in each product. We avoid genetically modified organisms, only sourcing from companies that align with our values and ethics, ensuring that every product is infused with our sustainable and ethical mission.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started my company” and why?
• Be bold and never be afraid to try something new. Differentiate yourself.
• Have values. Your values not others. Always stay true to your values
• You will often feel some sort of pain. It is ego. Overcome it before it overcomes you.
• Failures are part of the success (though it never seems like it at the time)
• Even if the most trusted people leave you, don’t worry, someone always comes in and fills their position.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Eliminate ego. And the cause of ego is separateness. Eliminate separateness. Stop labelling things, it’s the mind trying to trick you. We are all the same.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
We are on Instagram at @aorhealthus.
“Once you are on a sure footing try and be bold; Don’t copy, there is too much of that.” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.