Christopher L. Hedges's Blog, page 6

Full Disclosure (5/6/15)

This blog post is one to explain a vision. These words were written on June 19th, 2014 in anticipation of what may happen by this date. If all has gone as planned I should be on my way home from a 10 month book tour that hit 99 of the top book markets in America. Ideally I should now be on my way to drop off my car, repack my bags, and fly off to Honolulu to complete the tour by visiting the final of the top 100 book markets in America.

There was a lot that I was hoping to accomplish with this itty bitty book tour. The one thing that was rarely said as I made my way across North America was the charity that I intended to donate to. Being a cancer patient that no longer believes in western medicine it is really difficult to support the community that you are a part of without compromising your morals. The Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is one of the few charities that lets me do both, and being a part of the McDonald’s family the RMHC has always held a very special place in my heart. Regardless of what I accomplish I wish I could have done more for the organization, but there is little you can honestly do to support a non profit, save donate, unless they are willing to form some type of official partnership. The other problem was there is no easy way to donate to the RMHC because there is no central body that collects and distributes money as needed. Each of the individual chapters is run as an independant entity. So I had to go to each of their respective chapters to drop off my donations, and for the ones where I wasn’t able to make it to their local facility I dropped my donation off in a store location. Basically an identical donation was made to the individual RMHC chapters for every city that they represented on my tour.

There may have been activities that were performed that led you to believe that I was looking to make money off of this tour, like my crowdfunding campaign. Let’s set the record straight there was no way for me to realistically turn a profit on my adventure across America. To even consider that money was my motivation is absurd. My bare bones estimates of what this tour would cost to do was about $50,000, and that was with sleeping in the car, crashing on a friend’s couch here and there, and skipping meals when I had to. That doesn’t even take into consideration the money I donated to the RMHC. To tell you the truth I probably would have had a better opportunity of turning a profit if I took all the money I invested in this book tour and bought lottery tickets with it. I’m a cancer patient with three massive non malignant tumors that really make my life awkward to say the least. I lost nearly 4 years of my life when I was confined to the house, not to mention the ongoing problems I still deal with. I needed something that was challenging enough that it let me feel like I reclaimed control over my life; I guess you could say I was also trying to make up for years of lost time in just a few months.

When I wrote Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence I was trying to fill what I saw as a void. Of all the great books I have read I didn’t find any of the people truly relatable. That’s mainly because it borders on inconceivable for most people to believe they can be like the person that has billions of dollars in the bank, A-List status, or is a prominent national leader. If the reader can’t relate, then there is little chance he or she will act. She may never speak up and make her voice heard at a community event that could determine the outcome of a major election. He will never commit to going to the gym because all he sees is the six pack abs and classic Greek statuesque physique. It doesn’t seem possible. I wanted to tell the story starting at the bottom, showing my flaws and letting the reader see the actual growth I went through. It is my hope that by taking a novel approach readers will dispel their preconceived notions, which are based on myths that fog over reality, that those whom they read about are somehow different than they are. Once that thought is eradicated from your psyche the only thing holding you back in life is the person you have to confront in the mirror every morning when you brush your teeth.

To quote Michael Douglas in The American President “We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about character, Bob, you’d better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.” Those words may have graced the silver screen in 1995, but they are of even greater relevance now. We are in a period of time where you can no longer just sit idly and listen to the talking heads tell you how the things are. We have a reached a point where we as a society need to unplug from mainstream media and make a concerted effort to actively engage in being a part of the world around us. That might just mean you as a parent standing up and crying foul at at PTA meeting or it might mean marching on and demanding a change from the status quo in Washington. How ever you choose to reengage is your choice, but choose. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Hopefully being willing to stand up and lead by example will inspire someone else to follow suit.

Believe me when I say if I was able to follow through with what I set out out to do and I’m not able to motivate my tribe to actively reengage in life on more than just a superficial level, I give up. If I was 100% successful I would have gone from anonymity and mediocrity listed on google page 1,352,013 behind the other Chris Hedges to successful bestseller that is competing for page 1. If I did my job and listened to my team I would have been on local, national, and premier (think Oprah and Dr Phil) TV. I will have picked up several corporate sponsors, and my book will have made it to the NY Times Bestseller List. The best part is that I will have accomplished this feat in spite of “disability”, and financial restrictions. The only assets that will have gotten me across success’ finish-line are hard-work and unrelenting commitment; the only tools required for achieving the all, but forgotten American Dream.

This was about telling the story of one Average Joe who wasn’t willing to settle for what he was told to. It’s fundamentally no different than your story. It’s my sincerest hope that you choose for more too, and if you do I look forward to seeing you on the road some time.

Why MZ Ignores Us

MZ I had plenty of time to think about why you constantly disregard the input from gamers; you have been mesmerized by the Bloomberg reports that if Machine Zone where to have an initial public offering you could be valued as high as $8 billion. That’s not too shabby for a one hit wonder.

However, I guess you overlooked the article’s point that most game companies with only one major revenue generating platform experience drastic drops in revenue once the newness factor wears off, and can’t justify the bloated stock price that was originally projected. Zygna Inc’s stock price dropped roughly 70% from its initial public offering, and King Digital saw an 11% dip in the stock price by the end of its first quarter post initial public offering.

I’d like to thank Bloomberg for providing those details so that we could continue to talk about your future MZ. You know I heard from a lot of people that you intended to possibly pursue  an initial public offering. I thought there was no way you were already going public. Then when those people told me the projected value I nearly broke my Kindle when I fell out of my chair.

Everyone I spoke to about the possibility of an initial public offering was so impressed with everything they were reading. I actually had to sit a few of them down and explain why you might be considering going public. The first reason was that you needed additional capital to grow the company. Well considering the $13 million initial investment from Menlo Ventures, the $250 million you pursued in a private placement with JP Morgan and the $619,197 estimated daily revenue I don’t see any way on earth that you could have been under capitalized unless someone was embezzling. That leaves us with option two. The second reason to take a company public is because the investors are looking to recuperate their investment and turn a profit as quickly as possible. Making money is the name of the game after all.

Normally investors wait till they believe they can get the highest offering possible. If you go to soon you leave cash on the table from the company’s appreciation and if you wait too long you miss the price apex and the buyer takes some of the money back. So in this case it’s more likely that your investors knew that Machine Zone was teetering towards it’s apex and were looking to bail out of the investment. After all why walk away from something if you thought it still had the potential to continue growing.

So when we contact you with our problems MZ you might want to tell Suzi to do a little better job making us feel appreciated. You may want listen to what we have to say, and follow through on some of the stuff we are asking you to do because we aren’t too far from the point where all the polish from being new has worn off. When that happens revenue streams dry up, and people like Mark Pincus, the CEO and founder of Zygna Inc, are gradually pushed further and further out the C-suite door. That’s just some food for thought MZ for when you conveniently choose not to recognize the input from your customers #PowerToThePlayers.

Profitability at the Expense of Playability…the MZ Credo (3/19/15)

Let’s get back to this whole Suzi discussion MZ. I know you have had enough time to actually reflect on what I said to you on 3/18/15. So now I want to look a little deeper into the heart of yesterday’s conversation.

You see I know why you seem to have a problem actually following through with any of the feedback that we the players provide you with. It’s partly to do with the fact that you are more concerned with growing your net profits than customer satisfaction. In order to expand net profits we all know you have to lower your overhead, increase revenue or some combination of them both.

Your overall fixed costs are fairly stable other than when you have to make capital expenditures to keep the system from completely failing. Based on how slow everything is running you haven’t invested in that department in a long time. When it comes to variable costs you shouldn’t have to many. As for revenues there is one of two ways you generate cash.

You can use really overpriced ad campaigns to attract new players knowing that only a small proportion of those players are going to be spenders. That’s basic sales 101….it’s all a numbers game. Based on the number of new kingdoms you’ve created I believe this is your sales growth bread and butter.
You can create a boat load of new overpriced options that require your existing players to spend more money. This is equivalent to month on month sales or store on store sales, how an individual revenue stream produces over time.

You actually do both, and the people that get hurt are your long term players who have invested the most time and money.

The new features usually are flawed which isn’t unheard of for first generation options, but you seem to drag your feet in fixing them, that is if you ever do fix them. Usually you are too concerned with moving onto the next set of updates then working out the preexisting flaws.

Besides chasing that almighty dollar the level of success that GoW has achieved to date creates an even larger problem. You have been struck by the Midas Touch, and you feel that everything you do will turn to gold. MZ if you remember the story you will recall that the Midas Touch was curse. The level of hubris that it takes to blow off the feedback from your customers is the reason all great organizations, corporations and even countries fall apart.

However, from what I hear you are already contemplating your exit strategy. Is it possible that you already know that you are getting ready to bail out of the GoW fiasco? Has GoW already reached it’s pinnacle? Why don’t we talk about that on Tuesday. Until next time MZ…. #PowerToThePlayers

You Thought I Was Joking MZ… (3/18/15)

I know you thought that I was bluffing. To tell you the truth MZ I was procrastinating a little too much today and almost didn’t get this post in before my self-imposed deadline of 9am. However, I was feverishly writing till the sun came up just to make sure I didn’t disappoint you.

I know you are used to disappointing other people; you are so good at it after all. Take the following reply I received via email from you regarding a suggestion I sent you.

“MAR 16, 2015  |  10:56AM PDT

Suzi A. replied:

Hello,

Thank you for submitting your thoughts on this! We will definitely pass on your suggestion! Please keep in mind that we receive hundreds of suggestions each day. Be sure to check the blog regularly for new and exciting updates.

If you have any new suggestions or feedback, please let us know by submitting a new support request. We love to hear them!

Thank you for playing Game of War – Fire Age!

Sincerely,

Suzi”

Regarding Suzi’s point that you have hundreds of daily suggestions; that doesn’t surprise me in the least. You have hundreds of suggestions because people continually write in about very similar issues that you choose not to fix, and that is why you are inundated with customer feedback. Perhaps if you fixed some of the concerns we have you wouldn’t get so much fan mail.

Why don’t we do this? How about we redirect some of that $40 million you came up with to pay Kate Upton to be your smokin’ hot Avatar and face of the company, and apply it to your infrastructure so that the game play is better for the customers. You know the lag time was so bad for me the other day that I lost a days worth of work grinding out new troops. I heard a friend say she was in the middle of doing something until the game just randomly happened to boot her out.

I understand that Kate commands top dollar and you might not be able to just say, “Hey babe we need to give you a pay cut so that we can provide a quality product to our customers before they tell us to kick rocks because our service sucks.” So I have an alternative idea. Cut back on the ad campaign. The $4.5 million per 30 second Super Bowl ad is a little pricey in my opinion, but it was a good investment if you asked me cause it is the only time of the year that people actually watch commercials. Hell the Super Bowl party I was at the commercials were the highlight of the night. However, you can ease back on the day to day TV, and the movie theater ads are just plain overkill.

Look at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how many people know about GoW because a turd is a turd, and all turds stink. I’m not saying you are currently at turd status, but you are gravitating in that general direction. In fact once you arrive at turd status being a household name is actually a liability.

Jonny walks up to Joe and asks, “I was thinking about getting into GoW. Do you still play?”

“Sorry Jonny. I quit playing last month. I had a bunch of problems and this girl name Suzi gave me some crappy canned BS email reply. It isn’t worth your time!”

All of a sudden your fancy ad campaign is creating a negative return on investment. By marginalizing your customers with patronizing responses that insult their intelligence you’re creating ill will.

We’ll continue this line of thought tomorrow, but for the mean time respect your customers by providing better service instead of simply trying to raise quarterly revenue streams. Thanks for listening MZ #PowerToThePlayers

Game of War: Power to the Players (3/17/15)

Thank you Machine Zone…aka MZ. Up until now I was stuck in such a funk that I couldn’t drag myself to put together a blog post twice weekly let alone continue the marketing of my first book. Since December I have been admitted to the Emergency Room twice, which led to 15 days inpatient admittance and roughly $200,000 in unadjusted hospital bills. My total number of ER visits should have been closer to 12, but I’m too stubborn to go every time; not to mention an average Joe can’t afford the luxury of that much healthcare in the United States.

I find myself sitting here twiddling my thumbs until April 8th waiting for surgery in Cleveland with the worlds #1 GI surgeon. Game of War: Fire Age has really been my only form of entertainment as of late. It’s amazing the things you take for granted until they are taken from you (going to the gym, enjoying a good meal, breathing without pain). Having GoW at least let me actively think about something other than reality. MZ you have now provided me with the appropriate motivation to pull myself out of this less than desirable emotional state, and for that I thank you.

I toyed with the idea of the online community GoW has created when a stranger that I met in the game passed away. It’s not like anyone in my little community called Lynx had ever met Second Age in person, but hundreds of people showed up for a virtual wake that was held in his honor, and I even have a screen shot to prove it.

Second Age’s Memorial

These are common occurrences in GoW. Even our petty disagreements have been momentarily put on hold in respect for the community.

So when I listened to some of my friends in this community expressing their discontent with their perception of your apparent disregard for their feedback, as customers, I saw this as an opportunity. I saw a fun book project that I could later propose to my publisher Morgan James Publishing as a possible sequel in the Average Joe’s Story series on top of it.

MZ going forward I will be using you as the central theme to talk about success and business. I will be posting every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 9am, and I’ll even consider posting more frequently if the level of interaction dictates the frequency needs to be increased. You can expect to see these blog posts pop up on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. After surgery you can look forward to a video blog being included on YouTube as well.

Why?

Glad you asked MZ. With a recovery period that could be as long as six months I’ll have nothing but time while stuck in bed and I have to fill that downtime somehow. Secondly, based on some of your past responses that I’ve received after contacting you I don’t think you really give a damn about your customers, and I think that attitude should change. Perhaps if enough of your customers unite together you might actually listen to what we have to say. This blog will serve as a vehicle for those customers who feel they aren’t being recognized by you MZ. It will be a place where the gamers can express their frustrations and we can work together to attempt to resolve these issues. You may want to think of this blog as our Alliance City. There may only be one or two members in this alliance right now, but give it time because this alliance will eventually grow.

For anyone else who isn’t addicted to Game of War: Fire Age and happens to join the conversation this blog will be a look at general business. The blog may focus on Machine Zone and GoW, but the meat and potatoes of the discussion applies to business and life in general. So I hope you find something of value in these posts, and you choose to contribute as well.

Talk to you tomorrow MZ…GAME ON!!!

I Stood Up For My Rights…Will You Stand Up For Yours?

There are very few areas where I invest more time than in healthcare. There is currently a PETITION at the White House that is opposed to MANDATORY vaccinations for anyone. I want you to click on the PETITION link and sign in it, and check the email address you use to confirm your signature once the White House sends you a confirmation email. I’m not saying that I am anti vaccinations, but I am opposed to someone else stripping me of my RIGHTS. After watching the parents of a 17 year old girl in Connecticut be threatened with prison, and the forced removal of their children for neglect because the parents were honoring their daughter’s wishes of not following a doctors recommendation of chemotherapy I have finally come to the conclusion that the medical industry has become as dangerous as the Military Industrial Complex.

Children are regularly seen as competent and tried as adults for capital crimes in this country, but when a girl who is older than some of those defendants makes a rational and logical decision of not having “their poison” pumped into HER body she is treated as an irrational incompetent child who couldn’t make a decision for herself. The government and the medical industry are trying to rob this young lady, who is referred to as Cassandra C by the press, of her rights, and mandatory vaccination robs all of us of us of our RIGHT TO CHOOSE.

If the Medical Industrial Complex was truly looking at the best interest of the patients and overall healthcare I wouldn’t have a problem with vaccinations, but in my 15 years in the system I can wholeheartedly say, “They aren’t looking out for our interests!” Medicine has become big business, and even though individuals in the system may want to help people the system itself is a profit center that is only concerned with making money, even if it’s at the expense of our Rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Money is the reason why we haven’t found cures to diseases like Cancer (I won’t even get into the lack of transparency and integrity of the pharmaceutical industry). It is more profitable to only validate three procedures (Chemotherapy, Radiation, and Surgery) that are controlled by the Medical Industrial Complex than it is to consider looking at other options. Things like proper nutrition and the body’s imbalances that cause conditions like cancer that can be corrected cheaply outside of the medical community are not promoted and in some instances campaigns are instituted to discredit alternative treatments and the people who recommend them.

My original surgeon told me that I needed to have surgery, but what he failed to mention were the side effects. I was ignorant at the time and I did what I was told. What resulted was the worst disaster of my life. Now I’m confronted by a similar situation, but this time there is the subtle threat of extortion. You see on April 8th I’m lucky enough to be seeing the best surgeon in the world for the surgery I “need” to have performed. Unfortunately no one has truly explained the surgery to me. When I bring up the fact that I’m undergoing an alternative treatment and want a CAT-Scan to see if there is any shrinkage in the tumor prior to surgery so that I can make an informed decision my family reminds me that if I don’t follow through there is the high probability that I will never have another opportunity to see this doctor if I need surgery in the future, and they’re right.

The Medical Industrial Complex at it’s finest! You must succumb to us or else. Where in that thought process do you see an interest in the patient’s well being or healthcare in general. If my well being and health are truly the focus when I make the request the surgeon should say, “Absolutely lets run the scan and see what things look like.” If there is any visible shrinkage in the tumor the surgeon should say, “At this time we should hold off on surgery and see where this alternate treatment takes you.” But I’m not holding my breath. I fully expect to be confronted by the choice of succumb or else.

The direction things are going in healthcare reminds me of a poem by Martin Niemöller someone once shared with me. This was translated from German so there are several variations, but this is one of the most common English variations:

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I remained silent;

I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.

There are people that are actively speaking out for you even if you don’t know it or know them for that matter. They will continue to speak out for you not because they know you or care for you, but because their rights are your rights. No one is asking you to be a torch bearer, but I am asking you to support the people who are fighting for you by signing this petition and asking the people you care about to follow suit.

If history has taught me only one thing it is that history is cyclical, and it does in fact repeat itself; speak out now.

Petition: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/prohibit-any-laws-mandating-force-and-requirement-vaccinations-any-kind/HW1B3YKz

Casandra C.: http://fox13now.com/2015/01/07/teen-forced-into-chemo-treatments-mother-supports-decision-to-refuse/

Alternative Treatment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu_wZV7w-g8

Ignorance is Cool, Stupidity is Unacceptable (2/3/15)

The lesson I learned this week was I can tolerate ignorance, but stupidity is unacceptable. Ignorance is a burden we all share. No one is all-knowing, not even an expert is omniscient in his or her own field of study.

However, it’s amazing how many brilliant people shift from ignorance to stupidity once they have reached a certain level of education and experience. I have seen this in every professional environment. I’m talking about a form of arrogance where a professional overtly or covertly dismisses someone else because there is no possible way that a ‘layman’ could provide any meaningful contribution to the discussion.

In 2005 I was rushed to the hospital with a 104 degree fever, where I waited in the ER lobby for over an hour behind life or death situations like cheerleaders with minor arm fractures. This hospital visit ended up being a three week inpatient procedure because experts from four different departments were in conflict for seven days over the correct strategy to follow. In the meantime I laid in a bed in excruciating pain with my health deteriorating by the day. Finally a doctor put his foot down and said this is what we’re doing. He was right.

Two months later I was rushed to the ER with the same condition. After waiting in the lobby for an hour with a 104.3 degree fever I was finally brought in to see the medical staff.

“What seems to be the problem son?”

“Doc, I need an IV, a shot of Dilaudid for pain, and a shot of benadryl for my fever. I have an abscess in a Desmoid tumor in my abdomen that has begun to experience necrosis. I need to be sent down to imaging and scheduled for surgery to have the abscess drained.”

“So who’s the doctor here?”

I learned the hard way the first time what I was going through and I wasn’t about to wait around for a week of ego driven infighting again. However,an assertive and educated patient threatened this particular professional’s ego. I got my shots, and before I was admitted to a room the ER physician had me scheduled for imaging. I was put on the schedule to have the abscess drained within 5 hours of leaving imaging, and my hospital stay was cut down from three weeks to ten days.

Two months later I was rushed to the hospital a third time with the same symptoms. After my standard one hour wait in the lobby I was brought in back.

The nurse attending to me asked, “What’s going on?”

“Nurse I need an IV, a shot of Dilaudid for pain, and a shot of benadryl for my fever. I have an abscess in a Desmoid tumor in my abdomen that has begun to experience necrosis. I need to be sent down to imaging and scheduled for surgery to have the abscess drained.”

“Doctor?”, the nurse looked over as if asking for clarification and permission.

“Nurse you can do what he said and then find him a bed upstairs, he knows what he’s talking about.”

“Thanks Doc. Good to see you again too.”

Needless to say I made an impression with my ER physician on my last visit. None of us will ever know everything, even when we are the best in the world in our field. There is something that can be learned from everyone, but if your ego makes you dismissive of someone you feel is beneath you then you have crossed from ignorance to stupidity. Ignorance in subject matter can be corrected through various forms of education, but the arrogance that leads to stupidity can be permanent.

I Want to be Like Chris Kyle When I Grow up (1/29/15)

This is a follow up to a book I read, but may have yet to review, American Sniper. I just saw American Sniper in the theaters the day before I was supposed to check myself into the hospital for surgery because I read someone else’s comments regarding what a friend of mine said about the Navy Seal whose life the story is based off of. Needless to say it didn’t sit well with me, mainly because the way I saw it the person commenting was attacking Chris’ character and the way Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper portrayed him.

Now if this was someone that knew Chris Kyle I would have said okay I can’t argue with you, but you have a better chance of finding the mythical Knights Templar treasure then you do of getting a Navy Seal to open up. This was someone that was expressing their opinion based off of news articles and sound bites.

My response was as follows:

“I went to go see the movie based on the first two comments you received, and I agree with you. I read the book well before I ever watched the movie and the only difference between the two was the ending. The ending was modified to include the funeral and the events that led up to Chris’ death, and it was 100% on point with Chris’ accounts in his book. There was no romantacizing. As portrayed in the movie he was brutally honest that he saw the targets at the end as someone that had to die. As for the conflict Hollywood created in his character, Chris talked about that in his book too. He talked about coming back depressed with PTSD and not being able to function in society. As for when he showed conflict with a target at the end of his gun that may have been the director or actor’s creative license. Unfortunately Chris wasn’t able to be on set to advise the cast and crew because he was murder by a veteran who was experiencing the same traumatic experience Chris himself had overcome. 

If the cast and crew was trying to do anything with their creative license it was to give an accurate picture of who these soldiers are. They are complete human beings that have the same qualities, flaws and problems the rest of us do except when they clock in to work they hope that their training is enough to bring them home safely. This movie did a great service for all soldiers because it highlights a problem that exists that doesn’t get enough recognition, men and women need help after they go through horrific life experiences and it’s okay to ask for help. They aren’t alone.

If someone feels the necessity to blame someone for the events recounted in American Sniper that were displayed in that movie there is plenty of blame to go around. You can start with the media and the one sided talking points that never show the whole truth, just the truth they want you to see. You can blame the industrial military complex that thrives on global conflict. You can blame your elected officials for continually seeking out the next war, since WWII, to constantly feed the people that keep their political coffers full. You can blame the banks that are the only true winners in war because they profit the most from the death, destruction and reconstruction of war zones. You can even blame your fellow citizens for sending the same elected officials to represent them election after election.

However, to blame the soldier is a copout. That same man that you see as a heartless machine romanticized by Hollywood is the type of person that jumps into rebel controlled Somalia to rescue journalists in the dark of night. He is the type of person that uses his body to shield said journalist from harm until they can be extracted from the conflict zone. He’s the type of person that is flown in last minute when no one is willing to pay the ransom on your head, and is willing to sacrifice his life to ensure you go home. He is selfless and of service to his country. 

War is an ugly thing, and it leaves men and women scarred infinitely more than we will ever be able to see. I thank God every day that there are men and women that feel compelled to selflessly serve others in that capacity, and I pray that those that feel the need to highlight the faults of someone like Chris Kyle or the people who chose to tell his story never find themselves in need of his services.”

Three months before Chris was murdered I was actually in Houston visiting family. I wanted to drive out to West Texas to see if I could get Chris to sign my copy of American Sniper before I drove home to Florida, but I got sick and elected to drive home. That is one of the few regrets I have. I only hope that one day my contribution to society might be half as meaningful as what Chris accomplished before his life was stolen while still trying to save men and women who were scarred in combat.

 

Darren Hardy vs Rise of the Lycans (1/27/15)

I had Underworld: Rise of the Lycans on the TV in the background while I was on a phone call the other day. I wasn’t watching it for say. It was more of white noise playing in the background. If I was listening to the words of Darren Hardy he would probably be standing over my right shoulder going ballistic over the fact that I was killing my daily momentum, or at least that’s what I’d expect him to be saying after reading his book The Compound Effect.

The principle of the compound effect is very simple. You are the sum of all of your decisions over the course of time, and small indiscernible decisions will have exponential results in the long run. So according to Darren watching this rendition of Romeo and Juliet with a Gothic and supernatural twist would stunt my success growth. He may be right, but success is so subjective it flirts with impossible when you try to define it.

Although I agree with most of what Darren has to say in his book I don’t completely agree with him. I think what one person sees as an inefficient waste of time another might see as a key to success based on his or her perspective. In keeping with the Underworld example if you were watching it for entertainment in the middle of the day the movie could be viewed as a momentum killing waste of time. However, with a slight shift in perspective that movie could be seen as very valuable.

There was a scene towards the end of the movie where Lucian, the movie’s hero, stands up and rallies his troops, calling for them to stand up to the tyrannical rule of their heartless overlord. This is a theme that has played out throughout history: Moses in Egypt, the founding fathers of the United States of America during the revolutionary war, and that story theme will eventually repeat itself again. People have an underlying desire to be free. When the heavy foot of a repressive regime becomes too much people will eventually rise up demanding their God given rights.

Taken from a different perspective Underworld: Rise of the Lycans could be used as a case study for understanding leadership. In fact I had a professor at the University of Miami who taught an MBA level course in leadership based off of The Godfather, and it was one of the most memorable classes I ever took. I guess you can say one man’s momentum killing waste of time is another man’s teaching aide. The truth is depending on your perspective you can make a case that anything can be a valuable contributor to your success, if you are willing to look at the situation in a creative light from outside the box.

Your Degree vs My Life Experience (1/22/15)

I find it amazing how an experience can hijack your train of thought. There are so many other things I could be talking about, but after two trips to the ER that led to two hospital inpatient visits it seems healthcare is where my mind is focused.

For liability reasons my nurse was escorting me downstairs to my ride home after I was released from second visit. We were making small talk in the elevator when I asked, “How long have you been in the industry?”

“I’ve been practicing nursing for about eight years.”

“Well it looks like I’ve been in the industry longer than you’ve been practicing.”

It’s funny that I have never spent a day in med school, but I have accumulated enough life experience to go toe to toe with any medical professional and I know that I can win when I do.

It was about midnight on the third night of my second in patient visit when the alarm to my medical pump went off. I looked at the alarm code on the monitor, the level of fluid remaining in the IV, whether or not the tube to my arm was kinked and then finally at the connection site. It wasn’t until then that I finally hit the call button to have a nurse show up.

“What’s the problem?”

“My IV is obstructed, and the site needs to be changed.”

“How would you know that?”

“The obstruction alarm for the pump went off, the bag of saline is over two thirds full, there wasn’t a kink in the IV tubing, my left wrist is swollen two and a half times larger than my right wrist and it hurts like hell.”

On a scale of patients from 1 to 10 where 1 is a needy pathological liar who creates nothing, but problems for the medical staff and 10 is a person who never hits the nurse call button, I’m about a 9. I understand the medical staff has a really tough job so I try not to make it any harder. However, my practical knowledge can compete with their traditional education so I find it offensive when I’m patronized by a professional touting their book smarts.

I may not have all the answers but I have enough common sense and basic knowledge to know when someone is providing an ill-advised course of action.

“Have you spoken to your surgeon? You need to talk to your surgeon.”

“My surgeon was out of office (total b.s. cause I hadn’t called her), but I’m going to get in touch with her next week.”

I was admitted to the hospital the first time for extreme dehydration. The body didn’t have enough water in it and it was basically going through a complete shutdown. My blood pressure was jumping between normal and 230/180 and every muscle fiber was constricting simultaneously. If the EMTs hadn’t gotten an IV in my arm I think that my leg would have hyper-extended and broken under the force of my muscle fiber contractions.

When my colon was removed nearly 13 years ago I learned that the vast majority of the water you consume is absorbed by it, your GI track is where all of your nutrition and water is absorbed. In fact if you don’t have enough of your GI track you have to be fed intravenously by a tube.

So my problem was having a doctor try and force a short term solution, surgery, to one problem, a partial GI blockage, down my throat, and talking to me as if I didn’t have the mental capacity to grasp the current situation. Would surgery fix the GI problem? Possibly. No one can say for sure because I’m subject to other health conditions that could affect the results of surgery. However, if my original problem was water retention why would you adamantly promote a procedure that would exasperate that problem?

The part that amused me the most was when I did see a GI surgeon during that hospital visit. We talked for about 20 minutes and before he left he said, “Your problem will most likely correct itself on it’s own. I don’t need to be here, and hopefully you and I don’t have to see each other again.”

I’m not saying I have all the answers, but please don’t patronize me because you feel your degree is more valuable than my life experience.