Black History Month. As many of you know I am a minority. I have always been intrigued with sociology, literature, and history; the differences in which books are written based on the perspective of the writer, and the social context of the time. Earlier this week I received an email from Mike Barber in which he highlighted the origins of Black History Month. I asked if I could share some of that in today's email and he...
Authenticity is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as the quality of being real or true. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the term refers to a strong sense of being “of undisputed origin of authorship” or in a weaker sense of being “faithful to an original” or a “reliable, accurate representation.” Simply stated, to be authentic is to say what it professes to be. Yet in an always-on, always-connected, always responsive world the question is how often...
Calling Dr. Patel. I have a lot of colleagues and friends that are physicians. Some I have been friends with for more than a decade and some are more recent. Some of my physician friends have been practicing for 40 or more years while others have just finished medical school. The one thing I always do is use the prefix Dr. before their surname. This last week I was conversing with a few of my friends and when we...
On the evening of Christmas, I was reminded of the fragility of life. (a local 24-year-old was killed in a car crash) In an instant, in the snap of a finger, that life as we know it can be taken away from us. I was reminded of how the decisions we make can be the difference between life and death. It also sends ripples throughout the world we leave behind. It impacts a mother and a father. It...
Delivering WOW - Part 2. I have been on the industry side of medicine for a decade. In that time I have observed diagnostic and therapeutic businesses from the inside out, and the outside in. From my perspective, many of the businesses say the focus on customer service, but oftentimes the organization isn't committed to investing the people, process, and technology to actually deliver on that goal. In early 2018 I was about 45 days into a new...
Value is defined as the importance, worth, or usefulness of something or someone.❤️In all industries, but especially within #medicine it is inherently important that we remember the value in people.❤️We need to acknowledge that people are not our greatest asset, but that people are our only asset.❤️I often observe people forgetting that it is a privilege to work alongside people and to lead a team.❤️It is simple to acknowledge people. To give your undivided time and...
On November 27th of this year, former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh died. I am not going to focus on the remaining days of his passing. They were tragic. I am going to focus on how his ideals for Zappos and culture have influenced me. I was never fortunate to meet Tony. Yet the world is small, and I have met many people that spent time with Tony. Over the years I was able to learn from their time,...
Gratitude. The dictionary defines gratitude as the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. When I sit and contemplate all of the words I could use to describe 2020, gratitude is probably not one that jumps to the top of the list. At least not immediately. During Thanksgiving, we are all encouraged to take time out of our busy lives to reflect on our good fortunes and to give thanks. Thanks for...
The other day I was rewatching the HBO series Successions. It is a show about the Roy family, the owners of Waystar Roy Co, a global media and hospitality empire. There is a particular scene that has always stood out to me. It is a scene in which one of the sons, Roman, shares his observation on the shift in media and consumption. Roman says, “I was at the book shop the other day and I just started...
Life. 36.2 million. What do life and the number 36.2M (million) have in common? Is it the number of people we will encounter? Is it the number of cells that make up a hair follicle? What if I told you that your life would contain a total of 36.2M minutes? Would you live life differently if you knew you only had a certain amount of time? Would you make different choices? Would you be more present? Would you focus on something...