Show Transcript

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Kevin Lowe: How does a kid living in America as an undocumented immigrant,

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Kevin Lowe: facing adversity at every turn, become a serial entrepreneur,

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Kevin Lowe: a pioneering ophthalmologist, and a space economy specialist?

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Kevin Lowe: Dr. Shez, he describes his own story as a testament to the power of curiosity,

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Kevin Lowe: humility, and an unwavering spirit. it.

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Kevin Lowe: This, my friend, is an interview with Dr.

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Kevin Lowe: Shez, an interview that's going to have you entertained, but more so,

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Kevin Lowe: have you leaving feeling a little bit better than when you came.

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Kevin Lowe: This is episode 342. I look forward to seeing you inside.

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Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life? Because those bad days,

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they're just doors to better days.

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And that's exactly what we do here at Grit, Grace, & Inspiration.

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Your host, Kevin Lowe. He's been flipping the script on his own life,

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turning over 20 years of being completely blind into straight up inspiration,

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motivation, and encouragement just for you.

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So kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

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Kevin Lowe: Welcome back to another episode here on Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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Kevin Lowe: Today, I'm in the studio with none other than Dr. Shehz.

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Kevin Lowe: Dr. Shehz, welcome to the podcast.

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Dr. Shehz: Thanks for having me, Kevin. It's going to be fun. Super excited.

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Kevin Lowe: Absolutely, man. Well, I'm excited to get to dive into your whole story.

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Kevin Lowe: And I feel like there's always, I feel like in anybody's journey,

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Kevin Lowe: there's always like a pivotal moment that happens.

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Kevin Lowe: Maybe it's at the beginning, maybe it's somewhere along the way that something

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Kevin Lowe: happens that ends up leading us on the direction that we take and ultimately where we are today.

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Kevin Lowe: And and I guess I would love to ask you is when you look back at this journey

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Kevin Lowe: you've been on, where do you feel like things really started that really got

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Kevin Lowe: you on the course that, you know, would end up having all the dominoes fall to lead where we are?

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Dr. Shehz: Gosh, that is a very good question, because I guess it depends on which dominoes you're talking about.

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Dr. Shehz: You know, I sort of think about my life from, you know, two different, I guess, perspectives.

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Dr. Shehz: One is there's this journey that I took to become an eye doctor,

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Dr. Shehz: which I don't, you know, it's not something that was like I consciously like chose.

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Dr. Shehz: And I know that sounds silly because it's like, what do you mean,

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Dr. Shehz: dude? You went to school for like 13 years, right?

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Dr. Shehz: I had to make those decisions to get to where I am.

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Dr. Shehz: But you know how like you learn a language and or speak like your native language

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Dr. Shehz: and you just like wake up one day and you start speaking it.

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Dr. Shehz: You don't really remember like learning it, right? Because it's like part of me.

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Dr. Shehz: That's how becoming a doctor was for me. I was always sort of just like told.

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Dr. Shehz: That that's what I'm going to do. You know, those were my, those were the expectations

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Dr. Shehz: my parents had and my extended family had.

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Dr. Shehz: And so there was no other like question in my mind.

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Dr. Shehz: It was, you know, even though I did all of these other things along the way,

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Dr. Shehz: like start a business and, you know, some other things, it was always,

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Dr. Shehz: always, I'm going to be a physician.

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Dr. Shehz: And so when you go through life in that way, I don't think you really like appreciate

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Dr. Shehz: the true power and gratitude of the thing that you were able to do, right?

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Dr. Shehz: Like I'm a physician and I always just never really like truly understood what

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Dr. Shehz: that meant because I felt like I never had the agency to like choose that path

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Dr. Shehz: my way, right? Out of my own belief.

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Dr. Shehz: Because, you know, even though, I mean, you would think like I'm an eye surgeon,

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Dr. Shehz: I do all of these beautiful surgeries to help people see, you would think that

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Dr. Shehz: I would be very like fulfilled and happy on the inside, but I wasn't.

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Dr. Shehz: I felt very empty on the inside, right?

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Dr. Shehz: Even though externally on paper, I looked really good. I looked super accomplished.

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Dr. Shehz: And that's when phase two of my

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Dr. Shehz: life started. When I really started to dig deep into why was I not happy?

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Dr. Shehz: You know, what was the reason for my not feeling fulfilled, even though everything

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Dr. Shehz: seemed to be going really well.

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Dr. Shehz: So when I dug deep there, I realized that I didn't know what my purpose was,

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Dr. Shehz: right? I didn't know what my purpose was.

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Dr. Shehz: I was just kind of going along life to doing what I thought I was supposed to

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Dr. Shehz: do, doing the things that I was told I should do, but I didn't know what I wanted

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Dr. Shehz: to do or what I was doing, right?

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Dr. Shehz: What is my purpose and what really gets me super excited?

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Dr. Shehz: Ophthalmology, eye surgery is one angle of that, is one dimension of that.

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Dr. Shehz: But I'm sure when you read my bio, you're like, man, this guy is like all over the place.

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Dr. Shehz: You know, I have a lot of different aspects to my personality.

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Dr. Shehz: I like to do a lot of different things.

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Dr. Shehz: And I would say just recently over the last two, three years,

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Dr. Shehz: when I've just really been on this journey of self-awareness and introspection,

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Dr. Shehz: I've realized that my purpose,

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Dr. Shehz: is not only to help people see the beauty of our world through physical means, through what I do.

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Dr. Shehz: Also to help others see that we all belong. We are all in this thing that we

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Dr. Shehz: call life, this game together, right?

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Dr. Shehz: There is this overlying theme of oneness that I have discovered for myself that

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Dr. Shehz: really combats the loneliness that I've felt my whole life.

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Dr. Shehz: And I want others to see that as well.

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Dr. Shehz: Because I think once we realize that we all belong and that we're all one,

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Dr. Shehz: we're humanity first, right?

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Dr. Shehz: We're not these different races and these different ways in which we like split

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Dr. Shehz: humanity apart. We're all one.

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Dr. Shehz: So I hope that answers your question, but it's kind of in two phases.

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Dr. Shehz: You know, I got to be in an eye surgeon and then I realized, wait, hold on.

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Dr. Shehz: My purpose extends beyond that. Even though what I do, I love what I do,

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Dr. Shehz: right? I mean, it's a privilege to do what I do.

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Dr. Shehz: But that's really the impact that I want to have in this world.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah. You know what? You know what I love about that so much is I do feel like

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Kevin Lowe: so many people can relate to that,

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Kevin Lowe: is that life is so many times just this idea of going through the motions on

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Kevin Lowe: that path that you think what you're supposed to be doing.

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Kevin Lowe: And it's just ingrained in you that you're going to go to college,

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Kevin Lowe: you're going to do whatever career and you never actually stopped to really think about things.

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Kevin Lowe: And, and so to hear you here in the height of your career, realizing,

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Kevin Lowe: wow, maybe there's more to me than just this.

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Dr. Shehz: Absolutely. Absolutely. That was, that was, that was a huge part of it.

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Dr. Shehz: And some of it has to do with, you know, another thing I realized is like,

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Dr. Shehz: some of it has to do with just the nature of medical training in this country, right?

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Dr. Shehz: Probably in the world, you know, because I had some, you know,

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Dr. Shehz: burnout is such a catchphrase, it's such a buzzword, but some of it was definitely

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Dr. Shehz: burnout just because of the system in which we operate, right?

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Dr. Shehz: The ridiculous, you know, insurance game that we have to play as doctors.

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Dr. Shehz: You know, it gets really, really just...

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Dr. Shehz: It's cumbersome, you know, part of it is like, I just want to be a doctor.

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Dr. Shehz: Can I just be a doctor? No, you also got to do some of the other logistical

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Dr. Shehz: and admin stuff. So that was part of it.

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Dr. Shehz: But something happens in each of our lives that, you know, I call it sort of

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Dr. Shehz: like you hit your bottom, right?

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Dr. Shehz: When you hit your bottom is when

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Dr. Shehz: you really start looking at a mirror and looking at what you truly want.

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Dr. Shehz: And I think we all go through that at some point in life.

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Dr. Shehz: I just honestly was lucky to go through that early in life.

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Dr. Shehz: You know, I would, I would explain this to my friends and family and they're

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Dr. Shehz: like, man, you're having a quarter life crisis. What's wrong with you?

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Dr. Shehz: I guess I am, but I would rather have a quarter life crisis than a midlife crisis.

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Dr. Shehz: I want to figure it out early. You know what I mean?

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Kevin Lowe: So that is, that is too funny.

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Dr. Shehz: Not to say that I've figured anything out, but man, in this phase of my life,

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Dr. Shehz: I'm 33 years old. I'm going to be 34 in like two weeks.

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Dr. Shehz: I can't believe it. I have so much more clarity now than I've ever had before.

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Dr. Shehz: And clarity is a wonderful thing, man.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Well, well,

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Kevin Lowe: give me an idea of, cause I'm curious at this point to understand more about

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Kevin Lowe: who, who you are in terms of your background, where you came from,

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Kevin Lowe: because I read that you lived,

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Kevin Lowe: basically you came to America with your family from India.

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Dr. Shehz: Yep, yep.

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Kevin Lowe: Talk to me about that whole journey in your story.

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Dr. Shehz: Yeah, so we came from India when I was seven years old. My dad,

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Dr. Shehz: life was very, very tough in India.

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Dr. Shehz: And so he decided to pick up in his early 20s and move his entire family across the world.

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Dr. Shehz: Can you imagine coming to a brand new country?

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Dr. Shehz: Got a seven-year-old kid, had a younger sister. She was six months old.

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Dr. Shehz: And you're just trying to figure out, you know,

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Dr. Shehz: if there's something better out there for you. So, you know,

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Dr. Shehz: kind of the very typical sort of immigrant dream, if you will,

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Dr. Shehz: right, that we that we hear about.

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Dr. Shehz: And it's such a common story among so many people. And when you got here,

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Dr. Shehz: we came on a tourist visa.

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Dr. Shehz: And 20 something years later, we're still touring, man.

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Dr. Shehz: America's so big, there's so much to see. No, I mean, so we came on a tourist

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Dr. Shehz: visa and there's a particular process you're supposed to go through to legally

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Dr. Shehz: immigrate into the country.

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Dr. Shehz: And my dad just didn't know about that, right? He didn't even graduate from

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Dr. Shehz: high school, really didn't have any formal education and training in any way, neither of my parents.

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Dr. Shehz: And so he came here and he was working like three different jobs, just trying to survive.

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Dr. Shehz: And before we knew it, our visas had expired and our whole family became undocumented.

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Dr. Shehz: And so those initial years of my life were spent in that way.

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Dr. Shehz: I didn't get my green card until I was 22 years old.

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Dr. Shehz: So from 7 to 22, I was one of those illegal aliens.

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Dr. Shehz: So from 7 to 22, no green card, got my green card at 22, got my citizenship at 25.

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Dr. Shehz: And then my world just completely changed, right? I mean, I was able to go to medical school.

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Dr. Shehz: I was able to intern at NASA. I did some of the initial research on vision issues

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Dr. Shehz: that astronauts have in space.

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Dr. Shehz: And then, you know, I was about to go to residency. I mean, my entire life completely changed.

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Dr. Shehz: And that is what happens when you become a citizen of one of the greatest nations on earth, right?

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Dr. Shehz: So, I mean, I call it my blue superpower.

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Dr. Shehz: My passport is like my superpower. I can pretty much do anything I want,

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Dr. Shehz: you know, anything that you set your mind to.

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Dr. Shehz: I really, really believe that. So that's kind of how that whole immigration journey went.

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Dr. Shehz: And those initial years from seven to 22 without a green card,

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Dr. Shehz: I mean, some of the hardest, hardest years of my life.

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Dr. Shehz: You are limited in a lot of ways without any documentation.

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Dr. Shehz: Can't drive, can't do anything, can't travel.

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Dr. Shehz: All of our discussions as a family would be like, man, like, you know, what do we do?

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Dr. Shehz: Do we do we save money and invest back home?

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Dr. Shehz: Do we save here? I mean, all of those like conversations and just living in

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Dr. Shehz: fear, like that's what I remember right from those early years.

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Dr. Shehz: And it got even worse because my dad was picked up by immigration,

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Dr. Shehz: by ICE, as part of like this kind of raid, if you will.

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Dr. Shehz: And so my dad was placed in deportation proceedings.

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Dr. Shehz: And I mean, I could tell you, I swear I could tell you how to legally immigrate

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Dr. Shehz: to this country, like to the T now.

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Dr. Shehz: Because when I was trying to figure out how to prevent my family from getting

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Dr. Shehz: kicked out of the country, I was calling those shots. I was talking to the lawyers.

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Dr. Shehz: I was learning about this system and how to navigate it so that our family can be together.

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Dr. Shehz: There was just a lot of chaos in that early part of my life.

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Dr. Shehz: And I think in that chaos is probably where I started to feel like I just don't belong.

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Dr. Shehz: You know, when I mentioned earlier about loneliness, like I just always felt like I never belonged.

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Dr. Shehz: Right. As an immigrant, it's really hard to fit in. I couldn't really speak

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Dr. Shehz: the right type of English. My accent was very thick.

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Dr. Shehz: This whole immigration thing. And so I just started creating this narrative

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Dr. Shehz: in my head that like, I'm not supposed to be here. I don't really belong.

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Dr. Shehz: My mother had some mental illness around that same time as well that started

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Dr. Shehz: showing up bipolar and schizophrenia.

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Dr. Shehz: And so I have a very soft spot in my heart for people with mental illness.

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Dr. Shehz: And so like at home, I felt like I didn't belong because of all the chaos in

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Dr. Shehz: this country. I felt like I didn't belong because of the immigration story.

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Dr. Shehz: So the only place I felt like I belonged was school. I was really good at taking

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Dr. Shehz: tests and just knock him out of the park.

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Dr. Shehz: So that became sort of my identity, right?

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Dr. Shehz: I was the guy that was really good at school. And so I just like hung on to that.

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Dr. Shehz: I think that's probably part of the reason why it was always medicine and it

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Dr. Shehz: was always something in academia, right? Because I was good at that.

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Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow.

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Kevin Lowe: Very, very, very powerful story just of your childhood years.

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Kevin Lowe: I mean, and I appreciate you sharing this story with me for just gaining that perspective.

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Kevin Lowe: I think that in context of where you are, what you've done, I think it speaks very highly of you.

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Kevin Lowe: Because it's very easy, I think, when kind of you could say we're dealt a bad hand.

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Kevin Lowe: It's very easy. The easy thing is to fall victim to that.

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Dr. Shehz: Yes.

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Kevin Lowe: Instead, you found school was your escape. And so you dug into that and you rose above.

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Dr. Shehz: Yes, absolutely. I didn't know what else to do.

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Dr. Shehz: I didn't know what else to do. And I played victim. I played that victim card

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Dr. Shehz: for a while, man, for a long time, right?

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Dr. Shehz: And it's like, it's two sides of a coin, right? Like on one side,

00:14:47.215 --> 00:14:50.095

Dr. Shehz: it's okay to acknowledge that

00:14:50.095 --> 00:14:53.615

Dr. Shehz: you were a victim of your circumstances and you were dealt a bad card.

00:14:53.795 --> 00:14:58.155

Dr. Shehz: I think there is some processing that needs to happen around that, right?

00:14:58.935 --> 00:15:02.355

Dr. Shehz: Because it's a tough thing to go through. And I'm not the only one.

00:15:02.455 --> 00:15:07.095

Dr. Shehz: There's so many people out there. But at some point, you have to take that now

00:15:07.095 --> 00:15:09.395

Dr. Shehz: and be like, okay, now what am I going to do with this, right?

00:15:09.515 --> 00:15:11.715

Dr. Shehz: Where are the gifts in this struggle?

00:15:12.255 --> 00:15:17.875

Dr. Shehz: Yes, there are the things that, you know, are not gifts. They're the things

00:15:17.875 --> 00:15:20.075

Dr. Shehz: that were really, really hard emotionally.

00:15:20.535 --> 00:15:24.695

Dr. Shehz: But every struggle has a gift. What was mine, right?

00:15:24.855 --> 00:15:28.295

Dr. Shehz: And I really had to like think deep about that. And, you know,

00:15:28.375 --> 00:15:33.975

Dr. Shehz: part of your podcast title alludes to this, this like grit and this resilience.

00:15:34.695 --> 00:15:38.915

Dr. Shehz: That's my gift. That's what came from my struggles. Right. And I think that's

00:15:38.915 --> 00:15:42.595

Dr. Shehz: common. That comes from, you know, anything that really pushes you,

00:15:43.152 --> 00:15:49.252

Dr. Shehz: and then you persevere, that is a resilience building exercise, right?

00:15:49.592 --> 00:15:56.532

Dr. Shehz: And so I always say this, there's really nothing that kind of phases me at this point of my life.

00:15:56.672 --> 00:16:01.972

Dr. Shehz: I mean, I haven't experienced the death of a close family member, knock on wood.

00:16:02.252 --> 00:16:04.712

Dr. Shehz: That's like the only thing that I'm like, man, I don't know,

00:16:04.872 --> 00:16:07.772

Dr. Shehz: like you meet some people, you know, they've lost their parents in an early

00:16:07.772 --> 00:16:10.672

Dr. Shehz: age and things like that. I'm like, I don't know what I would do like that.

00:16:10.952 --> 00:16:13.312

Dr. Shehz: I don't how to get through something like that.

00:16:13.732 --> 00:16:17.732

Dr. Shehz: You know, that seems really, really, really difficult from an emotional standpoint.

00:16:17.872 --> 00:16:21.012

Dr. Shehz: But when it comes to like financial difficulties or whatever,

00:16:21.152 --> 00:16:22.592

Dr. Shehz: I mean, I've lived that life.

00:16:22.732 --> 00:16:27.332

Dr. Shehz: You know, we had pretty much nothing when we first came to the States. Right.

00:16:27.792 --> 00:16:31.892

Dr. Shehz: And, you know, and now thankfully my day job allows me to do well.

00:16:32.012 --> 00:16:33.072

Dr. Shehz: I have resources. Right.

00:16:33.492 --> 00:16:37.552

Dr. Shehz: And so there's really nothing that I'm like, I won't be able to handle.

00:16:37.732 --> 00:16:40.252

Dr. Shehz: If you have a U.S. passport, right?

00:16:40.472 --> 00:16:44.192

Dr. Shehz: And you have some resilience, you can pretty much handle anything that comes

00:16:44.192 --> 00:16:46.432

Dr. Shehz: your way. And I really have that mentality now.

00:16:46.712 --> 00:16:51.632

Dr. Shehz: So, and then, you know, I want to share this perspective that I think you specifically

00:16:51.632 --> 00:16:53.252

Dr. Shehz: would really appreciate.

00:16:53.692 --> 00:16:59.752

Dr. Shehz: When I was feeling so alone growing up and I felt like I didn't belong,

00:16:59.992 --> 00:17:04.852

Dr. Shehz: I would go outside and I don't know, for some reason, I was always drawn to

00:17:04.852 --> 00:17:07.172

Dr. Shehz: the stars, right, to space.

00:17:07.452 --> 00:17:11.812

Dr. Shehz: And I would just go out and I would look at the stars, you know,

00:17:12.012 --> 00:17:17.112

Dr. Shehz: houses of chaos, conflict, you know, worried about getting kicked out of the country.

00:17:17.212 --> 00:17:20.592

Dr. Shehz: I'm just like, I just got to leave. So I would go outside, look at the stars.

00:17:20.812 --> 00:17:27.572

Dr. Shehz: I'd look at this like dark sky and I just would have this like calmness that came about me.

00:17:27.732 --> 00:17:31.012

Dr. Shehz: And when I thought deeper into that, I realized that, you know,

00:17:31.012 --> 00:17:36.692

Dr. Shehz: I am one of seven or eight billion people on this planet, right?

00:17:36.972 --> 00:17:38.892

Dr. Shehz: And we all have our struggles, right?

00:17:39.263 --> 00:17:45.063

Dr. Shehz: And we are all on planet Earth. And we are one of many planets in our solar system.

00:17:45.203 --> 00:17:48.843

Dr. Shehz: And we're one of millions of solar systems in our galaxy.

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