Originally published on IdeaMensch
Dr. Orien Tulp is a distinguished professor, author, and medical researcher and the founder and President of the University of Science, Arts and Technology. He is a career military veteran and dedicated volunteer who has served on hundreds of medical civic action mission teams in the USA and abroad.
Dr. Tulp earned a BS, MS, and Ph.D. from the University of Vermont, followed by NIH-sponsored post-graduate studies specializing in Nutrition, Endocrinology, and Metabolism at the Clinical Research Center of the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He is also a graduate of the Vermont Military Academy. He has served in leadership and academic roles throughout his career, including a professorship at Drexel University in Philadelphia and at the University of Science, Arts, and Technology in Montserrat for almost four decades.
Dr. Tulp has lectured on a wide variety of topics, including aspects of medical nutrition, medical and biomedical research, endocrinology, and metabolism, with an emphasis on nutritional medicine, and has mentored dozens of graduate students for the Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees. He has conducted extensive research on obesity, metabolism, and diabetes and has written hundreds of scientific papers, abstracts, and book chapters, including the first-ever contribution to the new journal Academia Biologica, launched in 2023, and serves on the editorial boards of several professional journals.
Dr. Tulp is an active member of numerous professional organizations, including the Nutrition Society of the UK, the American Society for Nutrition (USA), the Association of American Physicians, and was recognized as a Fellow of the American Association for Higher Education and others. He has been recognized for his contributions to healthcare by the South Florida Dept of Health and was awarded the Morrison Award for excellence in medical and graduate education. Dr. Tulp invested as a Knight of the Sovereign Order of the Orthodox Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem.
In addition to a successful academic career, Dr. Orien Tulp has a long-term military career. Enlisting at age 17, Dr. Tulp recently finished 44 years of active, reserve, and National Guard duty, retiring in the grade of Colonel. He was awarded the US Legion of Merit Medal for exceptional meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements, in addition to numerous others, including the US Army Meritorious Service Medal, the award of Order of Military Medical Merit (by Surgeon General, USA), The US Army Commendation medal w/7 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Garde du Nationale Trophy, (by National Guard Assoc of the USA), and a certificate of appreciation for his medical support of the International competition by the Conseil de Sport Militaire, of the International Military Sports Council in addition to accolades for his support of the International Special Winter Olympics and many other awards and decorations for his military service.
Dr. Tulp is a passionate volunteer and has participated in hundreds of humanitarian and medical civic action missions in the USA and abroad. He has also received a Presidential Volunteer Service Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the White House, a Presidential Citation signed by President Clinton, and the Citizenship Medal, Awarded by Sons of the American Revolution.
Dr. Tulp enjoys football and has been an avid skier for many years. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife, Carla.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
Always starts with a shower, breakfast, and coffee to get the neurons and metabolites up and firing for the day. Breakfast is historically regarded as the most important meal of the day, as it kick-starts your metabolism. [My mom also told me, and I learned it in elementary school, so I know it must be well grounded].
Include some quality protein so you won’t be starving by noon time. Skip the sugar and artificial sweeteners to taste the coffee; they are best left for holidays and special events. The same goes for anything overly salty or for anything alcoholic before 5 PM, although that is not practiced in all cultures. Remember that the fat in a meal takes a bit longer to digest and also adds to the satiety factors, in addition to enhancing many of the flavors contained in spices and other condiments.
A pat or two of real butter adds a lot of flavor to lots of warm foods like eggs and maybe whole-grain toast if bread is included in your diet.
Don’t eat a lot later in the day, especially after 8 PM if you are not hungry. Remember that just like in medicines, the ‘dose makes the poison’ so moderation in caloric intake with an eye on the nutritional content of foods you wish to consume is the key to successful dieting and sound nutritional practices – and to kick start your metabolism and thought processes at the start of the day.
Also, begin to organize your objectives for the day during breakfast, and make a few notes if you need to for follow-up during the day, as it is easy to become distracted if you allow it to interrupt your day and delay your progress. Each day often brings new ideas and challenges, take them in stride, and a good, timely, nutritious breakfast can start you along that trend, but don’t just sit in front of your computer the entire day.
Save about 10 minutes of each hour for some light exercise. Stairs and treadmills are not all bad; save about 20-30 minutes a day or 150 minutes a week for physical activity.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Make a plan for success, map it out, and put the blinders on to make it happen. Use the resources you have on hand to plan for the next stage of fulfilling that dream. If the University is not immediately available, a nearby community college or Vo-tech program can be a great start.
The stars will always be out there, but if you don’t reach toward them, you may never reach the one you were wishing for. The USA is just about the only country on the planet where anyone who sincerely wants to can find success, whether the plan is large or small. It’s not always where you find yourself starting out in life; it is what you do when you get there.
Many successful individuals may have started out in a rural one-room schoolhouse, but their dreams took them well beyond those often-humble origins. Life is only hard sometimes if one makes it that way. There aren’t a lot of shortcuts in life, and we can all grow and expand our horizons one day or one step at a time.
I will always be grateful that my mom was a schoolteacher in her youth and never let me forget the value and importance of education. Hope is not a plan for success; action is.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Plan for retirement, or else it may arrive at your doorstep before you are prepared. Life can slide by all too quickly when you aren’t paying attention. The next big thing will not be the new car, new house, or new computer or cell phone; they are only props along the way. The next big thing is a new addition to your retirement plan and the steps you will take to secure it.
Most people change careers more than once in a lifetime. Plan on it but build a career that you can build on as you go along.
I will always remember my first factory jobs and my first hospital experiences, and many of the important things in life and about people that I learned from them. Set some realistic goals and expectations that will enable you to discover, plan for and succeed in building a legacy and retirement portfolio that will get you to where you would like to be at the end of the day.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
At every stage of your life, always have a ‘Plan B’ ready for backup if or when you may discover that you may need it. Read ahead and learn what you need to achieve for the next stage of your career long before that time comes, as it is too late to plan ahead when the intervening time has passed.
As a professor, find out on the first day of a new position what you will need to achieve for the next promotion; don’t take a promotion for granted, as they seldom are. In academics, applicants for tenured positions are usually notified near the end of year 4 or 5 of the timeline and process for their tenure decisions. Sadly, far too many often wait until they receive the notification to start working on their requirements, which is now at least a few years too late.
Your planning ahead should start on or before your first day of the new assignment. In all stages, remember that a bit of diplomacy in your actions and in much that you do goes a long way, and its rewards often come in the form of your future successes.
There are many facets and sometimes some obstacles along the course of success; learn from your mistakes and how to achieve the elements of success in career planning early. Time will march on even if you don’t march with it.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Know where you wish to go and read up on how to get there each step of the way. With the Internet resources available to nearly everyone these days, it is easy to learn what the steps are in achieving virtually any dream.
Don’t be afraid of dreaming big. Ideas help to form dreams, and actions help to make dreams come true. Many of the great enterprises we take for granted today started with an idea, then a dream, and then their actions became a reality, often with only little more than a shoestring when they started to set their dream in action.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
On a publication. What is published can last a lifetime or an eternity. I recently read about the famous poet and playwriter Shakespeare, who never actually attended any institution of higher learning but still accomplished his dreams thru diligence, perseverance, and talent. His many published plays and sonnets are still alive and continue to be studied and enjoyed throughout the globe 400 years on and are still considered by many to be among the most important literary works ever published. So yes, items that can be published can live on indefinitely.
The other best, by far, $100 I spent recently was buying fresh flowers and taking the love of my life out to dinner once in a while.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
I actually don’t listen to very many podcasts; it has not been my interest very often. They take time to listen to and would keep me from doing other things during the time spent.
I do like to listen to newsworthy and entertaining things on the radio while driving, and occasionally watch one of my all-time favorites, ‘Forensic Files’ as they keep my mind engaged as the plot moves forward.
Forensics has long been one of my interests, likely evolving out of my time teaching toxicology and applied nutrition topics, always looking for the key pathophysiologic triggers in the scheme of events. In teaching toxicology to engineering and environmental science students a Drexel, I always tried to take the topics of the day and relate them to the career fields they were studying for. There are many examples of failed engineering projects that went South because someone didn’t take all the environmental or structural variables into consideration. It made the courses fun and interesting at the same time.
I like books and publications and probably always will. As long as my eyes and mind don’t fail, I will probably keep on reading for many years to come. What one sees, hears, and reads can help to keep the mind alive.
I read a few research papers that others have published nearly every day. I especially enjoy the opportunities and challenges when I am fortunate enough to be invited to present a lecture to an audience at a conference, as such gatherings often draw participants from the far corners of the planet, and it is always valuable to hear the opinions and comments of others who may be interested in your work. It is always valuable to learn about the perspectives of other cultures. They can help you to continue the materialization of your own dream.
Key learnings
- Hope is not a plan for success; action is.
- At every stage of your life, always have a ‘Plan B’ ready for backup if or when you may discover that you may need it.
- Don’t be afraid of dreaming big.