No, I was not counting pennies. It was a buyout of a startup I co-founded and I have significantly more than 10 million (actually I honestly don't know how taxes work in this case so maybe half of it gets taxed, IDK, this all was concluded 3 days ago); I got lucky, essentially, and it's not reproducible and I hated the work.
This thread has kind of devolved at this point from the simple question I asked, probably due to my vagueness, so sorry. Anyway, I don't plan on abandoning nor changing my career paths just because I happen to have a lot of money. My career goal has always been to become a physician and I've been constantly involved in healthcare activities throughout my life (including my startup, but I was working backend so it was not fun).
I do enjoy these activities. I am failing to see the point you are all making that me wanting a 'vacation' for 6 months or whatever is somehow equatable to me disliking or not wanting to do medical/premed things—I don't find them mutually exclusive, especially given my age. I can't go on a tour of Europe for months with my family (all being healthy) in the middle of residency in 10 years or whatever, but I can do it now. I'd rather enjoy this time given my newfound wealth as a young healthy person BEFORE I embark on this 15 year-long journey...I don't think this is abnormal.
To cut it short it seems like if I'm doing literally remotely productive during this time then I'll be okay, so that's an appropriate and happy medium. I would have zero issues writing this in some sort of secondary or saying it in an interview; if I get denied based on this, their loss.
Congratulations, and good luck!! You should definitely do whatever feels right, and not worry about what a bunch of anonymous strangers on the internet think. If I were in your shoes, however, I really would try to use the time to seriously question my willingness to put up with all the BS you are going to be subjected to over the next 10 or so years, given the fact that you do now possess life changing wealth. People walk away from all kinds of stressful situations every day for a lot less.
The issue is going to be whether or not you are deemed to be sufficiently driven and properly motivated. People here were questioning it before you revealed your windfall. You have now provided context, and it makes perfect sense why you see no need to grind away during a gap year to further improve an already stellar application. I wouldn't either in your position.
The fact remains, however, that you also might not see the need to grind away in med school, or in residency. If adcoms get even a whiff of that, it might indeed end up being their loss, in which case you might have spent the time you are going to spend applying in a more productive and less frustrating manner.
In your early 20s you have already accumulated more wealth than many people, even in the profession, will after a lifetime. How are you going to feel, when you are mentally and physically exhausted, taking crap from an attending when you can buy and sell him or her 1,000 times over?
Money isn't everything, but you do have the financial freedom to do whatever you want, including spending a gap year f***ing around. Your lack of willingness to play the game during a gap year, or to apply straight through with an "application ... already at a level where it can't really be improved on" might be deemed to be an early indicator that you are not going to be motivated to put up with the s**t the rest of us will to get from Point A to Point B. And, the truth is, they just might be right. I don't think you will help yourself at all by talking about your good fortune in your application, and, if you don't, your gap year will not have the proper context and might end up representing a red flag.
Again, the best of luck to you. You really are set up to do pretty much anything you want with your life. Try to choose wisely.
