Be the hero of your own life…

The creation of a new model of health and healthcare is the greatest single business opportunity of our lifetimes, and we expect it to be accompanied by profound and lasting cultural change.
Some of you already know that I have an important collection of antique books. There is something quite magical about reading a book that was printed in 1638. What is incredible is that I am basically the only person in the world to have the information contained in that specific arcane book. Basically, just about anything published after 1800 is already available on the net, but if you are reading the memoirs of Mr. de Cleveland, illegitimate son of Cromwell, published in 6 volumes in 1734, there is a strong likelihood that you are the only person in the world with a copy of that specific book.
Reading these books allows me to have a great historical perspective as it allows me to project myself in that particular time. OK, so you get it, I read a lot…

Did you ever read the Odyssey?In the Odyssey, Ulysses returns to his wife Penelope and to his homeland after 20 years of war. He is disguised as a beggar to surprise his wife's suitors… And indeed, no one recognizes him; No one, apart from his dog Argos. Argos, old and feeble, who has been thrown on a junk heap next to the dusty road. When Argos sees his master coming on the dusty road from far away, he barks once weakly towards the sky, wags his tail once, and dies.

Now why did Argos recognize his master when no one else did? Because Argos could see past the filthy rags that Ulysses was wearing, and see the man under the clothes. Argos could see the truth of the man…

It is important, every now and then, to take stock of your life and to rethink it, and to really know if you personally want a rendez-vous with history.

For a while, I have had a feeling that the medical industry, my industry, has been moving in the wrong direction. I have mentioned in one of my previous articles that I believed that we were moving towards a state of Revoluxury, where we have the luxury of choice, but do not make the right choice. Basically, our healthcare systems today know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

The world keeps on complaining that the healthcare system is sick, but it is in fact us that are sick. We are sick from overindulgence and lack of understanding. We are sick because we tend to make the easy choice, and not the hard one. The fact is that most people know what is good for them, but simply choose to ignore it.

You must be careful not to be pulled away from your center…

Medical aid systems are pushing towards a predictive health system, where they will be able “to eliminate disease before it actually happens”, and are using this, this promise of a future, as an excuse for not doing what they should be doing today, which is to educate and inform people on how to lead a better life. That's like asking me how a watch works. For now we should just keep an eye on the time…

Healthcare management is not the future of medicine, but its actual present. Tomorrow’s healthcare systems will consist of solutions, not for everyone, but indeed for each and every single one of us. But today’s healthcare systems must focus on what is already available, and what is available is an incredible set of technologies for managing the patient, rather than just managing his diseases.

There was a certain elegance to business back then
My business has changed over the last 20 years. It used to be much simpler. We would develop cool stuff, innovate in our core competencies, make it look good, fulfill a need, make money, put the money back into the business, make more cool stuff, etc etc etc… I have felt for a while that perhaps I have been pulling away from my core values, which are to develop businesses that will have a long term, sustainable impact on the lives of people who use/buy/receive my products. I believe that if we do our job right, what we create can last forever, and that what we do should send a giant ripple through the universe. We should look beyond, we should innovate in the true sense of the word. We should look for everything but the ordinary. But there seems to be a deafening silence around the true purpose and meaning of innovation.

Give me a point of rest and I will lift the world... Archimedes said... And it is true... Our point of rest should not be innovation for the sake of innovation, but a true revolution in thinking... Over the last 20 years of working in healthcare, I have worked with some of the most intelligent people on the planet. But we need to go further than just intelligence...

I think intelligence is not enough...
I believe in illumination

Schopenhauer said that intelligence will allow you to hit a target that no one else can hit...But illumination will allow you to hit a target no one else can see...

Illumination will allow you to create some thing new, an entirely new market. Steve Jobs did not ask people if they would like the iPod, iPhone or iPad... Steve Jobs did not create mp3s, phones or tablets. He created tools for the heart, and if you can touch the heart of people, the possibilities are infinite...
The problem is that most people are scared of illumination, of trusting their gut... Of doing something completely new... As Guillaume Apollinaire said, il est temps de rallumer les etoiles, it is time to switch the stars back on...

Everything changes in a man, except the beat of his heart. But it is difficult to hear what is someone's heart.

I have just started hearing my heart again…

So I am tempted to paraphrase Churchill, (as a homage to one of my greatest friends and my father in business, Mr Morten BRUNVOLL):

We shall go on to the end, whatever the cost may be.
We will fight them on the beaches
We will fight them on the landing grounds
We will fight them in the streets
We will fight them in the hills
We shall, I shall, never surrender

But remember, there is no intelligence without emotion, and it don’t mean a thing if it don’t got that swing...

Uwe DIEGEL
www.medactiv.com
uwediegel@mac.com