Enter the Dragon

There is a video going around the Internet that shows the late Bruce Lee (his actual name was Lee Jun-fan ) playing Ping-Pong with his nunchuks.  It's pretty impressive and very cool to watch - unfortunately, it's not true.  The video first appeared in 2008 in an advertisement for the Nokia N96 Limited Edition Bruce Lee cell phone and has had over 20 million views.  It's impressive what you can create with technology today - the video of Bruce Lee playing Ping-Pong was created specifically for this commercial advertisement and for the release of the cell phone line bearing his name.  Regardless, it's still a cool video to watch!


Bruce Lee was certainly an incredible athlete, but he was more than just a martial artist and television/movie star.  He studied both Asian and Western philosophy his entire life and was greatly influenced by Taoism and Buddhism.  The Indian philosopher and writer, Jiddu Krishnamurti was a major influence as well.  His martial arts were largely a metaphor for his philosophical beliefs and teachings. 


I have posted about his philosophy before (see HRO: Commitment to Resilience from November 22, 2016).  In addition to one of my favorite lessons ("Be like water my friend"), I also really like the following quote:


"I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine."


Think about that for a minute.  It's really a powerful lesson.  We don't need to live up to someone else's expectations for us.  Why should we?  What really matters is how we feel about ourselves.  We should be living up to our own expectations - and in fact, in many cases, we likely have higher expectations for ourselves than others do for us anyway.


I am reminded (once again) of the teachings of the ancient Stoics.  Seneca once said, "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."  We shouldn't compare ourselves or compete with others.  It's more important to compare ourselves to our own standards, not those of others.  Ryan Holiday, author of the "Daily Stoic" once interviewed the entrepreneur, Sam Altman, who said:


“I think one thing that is a really important thing to strive for is being internally driven, being driven to compete with yourself, not with other people. If you compete with other people, you end up in this mimetic trap, and you sort of play this tournament, and if you win, you lose. But if you’re competing with yourself, and all you’re trying to do is — for the own self-satisfaction and for also the impact you have on the world and the duty you feel to do that — be the best possible version you can, there is no limit to how far that can drive someone to perform. And I think that is something you see — even though it looks like athletes are competing with each other — when you talk to a really great, absolute top-of-the-field athlete, it’s their own time they’re going against.”


There is a famous prayer by the philosopher, Fritz Perls, called the Gestalt Prayer.  It is simple, yet amazingly powerful:

I do my thing and you do your thing.

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.

So there you have it.  Be internally driven.  Live up to our own standards, not those of others.  Do your thing.  And always, be like water my friend...

Remembering Sabin Sunday

Today, April 24th, we celebrate the 59th anniversary of the first administration of Dr. Albert Sabin's live polio virus vaccine to nearly 20,000 children on what is now commonly known as "Sabin Sunday."  It's a big day in the history of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and a big day in the history of the city of Cincinnati. 


Thanks to Dr. Sabin, who spent over 30 years on the faculty of Cincinnati Children's, polio is virtually non-existent in the United States and in much of the world today.

It's not as bad as you think...

How did you do in the Gapminder Quiz?  The correct answers are highlighted in bold at the bottom of this post below.  If you didn't do too well, don't worry.  Most of us (and I may have prepped you to answer differently based on my last post) don't actually do very well.  As a matter of fact, at least in Rosling's initial studies, over 10,000 individuals were polled, and 80% knew less about the world compared to when chimpanzees took the test (who answered correctly 33% of the time).  These statistics demonstrate one of the major claims that Rosling makes in Factfulness, that is that we generally skew data and trends and use selective stories to make people think that the world is getting worse.  In fact, or at least according to Rosling and his team of investigators (and many other global health policy experts), the world is getting better.


Rosling claims that there are 10 gaps in our understanding of the world that prevent us from seeing the positive changes or progress in the world today.  The rest of the book goes on to explain each of these 10 gaps in greater detail (I have attached a list of the gaps below, which can also be found on the Gapminder website).





Gapminder Quiz

1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?

A. 20%

B. 40%

or

C. 60%?

2. Where does the majority of the world population live?

A. Low income countries

B. Middle income countries

or

C. High income countries?

3. In the last 20 years the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has?

A. almost doubled

B. remained more or less the same

or

C. almost halved?

4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?

A. 50 years

B. 60 years

or

C. 70 years?

5. There are 2 billion children in the world today aged 0-15 years old, how many children will there be  in year 2100 according to the United Nations?

A. 4 billion

B. 3 billion

or

C. 2 billion?

6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people,  what is the main reason?

A. There will be more children aged below 15

B. There will be more adults aged 15-74

or

C. There will be more very old people aged 75 and older?

7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years?

A. More than doubled

B. Remained about the same

or

C. Decreased to less than half?

8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today, which options more accurately represents  where they live?

A. 1 billion in Europe, 4 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America.

B. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 2 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America

or

C. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 2 billion in America?

9. How many of the world's 1 year old children today have been vaccinated against some diseases?

A. 20%

B. 50%

or

C. 80%?

10. Worldwide, 30 year old men have spent 10 years in school on average, how many years have  women of the same age spent in school?

A. 9 years

B. 6 years

or

C. 3 years?

11. In 1996 tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos were all listed as endangered, how many of these  three species are critically endangered today?

A. 2 of them

B. 1 of them

or

C. none of them?

12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?

A. 20%

B. 50%

or

C. 80%?

13. Global climate experts believe that over the next 100 years the average temperature will on  average?

A. get warmer

B. remain the same

or

C. get colder?

Factfulness

I just read a really interesting book by the Swedish physician and health statistician, Hans Rosling, called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.  He wrote the book during the final year of his life (he passed away from pancreatic cancer on February 7, 2017), which was finished by his son and daughter-in-law.  If you want a glimpse of Rosling's work, check out a really cool video that he did for the British Broadcasting Company called "200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats". 


Rosling served as a public health expert in many countries around the world.  He is perhaps most famous for his investigation and subsequent publications on an outbreak of Konzo, a debilitating paralytic disease cause by consumption of inadequately processed cassava (resulting in excessive cyanide intake).  During his career, he served as a health adviser to the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and several other aid agencies and was one of the founding members of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Sweden.  On a completely unrelated note, Rosling is also a sword swallower! 


Bill Gates listed "Factfulness" as one of his five books worth reading for summer 2018.  Basically, the premise of the book (and really much of Rosling's work) is that the world is doing much better than we are commonly led to believe.  For example, birth rates are stabilizing, life expectancy all around the world is increasing (with the notable exception of the United States, as I have previously mentioned in "Invest your money wisely..." and "Our national embarassment"), the gender gap is closing, and poverty across the world is shrinking.  He goes on to argue that subdividing the world into "developed" and "developing" countries is no longer correct (similar to the argument that the term "Third World" no longer applies either).  Rather, in today's global economy, most countries are "developed" and should be classified based upon income levels into four categories:


1.  $1-$4 a day
2.  $4-$8 a day
3.  $16-$32 a day
4.  > $32 a day


Check out Rosling's highly interactive website at www.gapminder.org for a detailed explanation and analysis of these four income levels (you can compare the different countries in the different income levels based upon a number of qualitative and quantitative measures using the link "Dollar Street").


Rosling begins "Factfulness" with a quiz (he calls it the "Gapminder Quiz") on our views of the world - take the quiz and see how you do.  I will explain more in the next post.

1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?

A. 20%

B. 40%

or

C. 60%?

2. Where does the majority of the world population live?

A. Low income countries

B. Middle income countries

or

C. High income countries?

3. In the last 20 years the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has?

A. almost doubled

B. remained more or less the same

or

C. almost halved?

4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?

A. 50 years

B. 60 years

or

C. 70 years?

5. There are 2 billion children in the world today aged 0-15 years old, how many children will there be  in year 2100 according to the United Nations?

A. 4 billion

B. 3 billion

or

C. 2 billion?

6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people,  what is the main reason?

A. There will be more children aged below 15

B. There will be more adults aged 15-74

or

C. There will be more very old people aged 75 and older?

7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years?

A. More than doubled

B. Remained about the same

or

C. Decreased to less than half?

8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today, which options more accurately represents  where they live?

A. 1 billion in Europe, 4 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America.

B. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 2 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America

or

C. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 2 billion in America?

9. How many of the world's 1 year old children today have been vaccinated against some diseases?

A. 20%

B. 50%

or

C. 80%?

10. Worldwide, 30 year old men have spent 10 years in school on average, how many years have  women of the same age spent in school?

A. 9 years

B. 6 years

or

C. 3 years?

11. In 1996 tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos were all listed as endangered, how many of these  three species are critically endangered today?

A. 2 of them

B. 1 of them

or

C. none of them?

12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?

A. 20%

B. 50%

or

C. 80%?

13. Global climate experts believe that over the next 100 years the average temperature will on  average?

A. get warmer

B. remain the same

or

C. get colder?

"Earn this!"

I may have mentioned this a few times in the past, but "Saving Private Ryan" is one of my all-time favorite movies.  There are so many great leadership lessons in the movie.  I want to focus on the movie's climactic scene - the U.S. Army Rangers led by Tom Hanks' character and Matt Damon's character (Private Ryan) have fought the last battle against the Germans.  They've held the bridge, and the reinforcements arrive.  Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) has been shot, and it is clear that he isn't going to survive.  Private Ryan comes up to him, and Captain Miller pulls him close so that he can hear his final words, "Earn this.  Earn it."  He then breathes his last.

Private Ryan was saved by Captain Miller and his Rangers.  It was a heroic mission, one that several of the Rangers gave the ultimate sacrifice.  Ryan receives his reward - a second chance at life - before earning it.  It almost never happens that way.  We almost always have to pay our dues and earn our reward.  Here, Captain Miller was simply wanting Ryan to live a good life to earn that opportunity - that second chance - that the Rangers had given him. 

Nothing in this life is free.  We have to earn everything.  Whether it's a promotion, a new job opportunity, a commendation - we have to earn them all.  Leadership is no different.  Leadership is not handed to us - we have to earn it. 

Ben Roethlisberger, 2-time Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers once said, "Leadership is something you earn, something you're chosen for.  You can't come in yelling, 'I'm your leader!'  If it happens, it's because the other guys respect you."  I think that is just as true in health care as it is in professional football.  Leadership does not come with position or title - it is earned by how we act.  It is earned by how we respect our team.  It is earned by how we lead.

There is a story from another famous 2-time Super Bowl winning quarterback named Peyton Manning (I hope you have heard of him!) - he shared the story during his 2014 commencement speech at the University of Virginia.  The story, as he tells it, goes like this:

I learned a valuable lesson when I was a freshman at Tennessee that I applied to my first year on the job in the NFL.  It was the first time I ran into the huddle as a quarterback at Tennessee.  We were playing at UCLA in the Rose Bowl, 95,000 people in the stands.  ABC broadcasting the game on national television, Keith Jackson and Bob Griese.  Tennessee was ranked ninth in the country.  UCLA was unranked.  It was expected to be a blowout.  I was third team on the depth chart, not expecting to play the entire game, much less the entire season.  On the seventh play of the game, our starting quarterback tears his knee and he is out for the year.  Our backup quarterback was a guy named Todd Helton who went on to have an 18-year Major League Baseball career.  Let's just say, Todd was kind of thinking about that baseball signing bonus he was about to get.  He wasn't real crazy about going into the game.  So we're getting beat 21-0 and my coach turns to me and he says, "Peyton, you're going in."  And, boy, I didn't think I was nervous.  I looked down and all the hair on my arms is just sticking up.

So I'm jogging into that huddle and I remembered something my dad had told me.  He said, "Son, if you ever get into the huddle with the starters at any point in the season - it may be in the fourth quarter of a blow out, it may be just in practice, it doesn't matter, you be the leader and you take control of that huddle.  That's your job as quarterback.  You're just 18 years old.  Most of these seniors are 21, 22.  It doesn't matter.  Be the leader and take control of that huddle."

So I remember old dad's advice and I get into the huddle and I said, "All right guys, I know I'm just a freshman, but I can take us down the field right now, get us a touchdown and get us back in the game.  Let's go."  Big left tackle, a guy named Jason Leyman, about 6'5", 330 pounds, grabs me by the shoulder and says, "Hey, freshman, shut the blank up and call the blanking play."  And I said, "Yes, sir."  That was really great advice from my dad.  I really appreciated that.

Leadership is earned.  Never given.  "Earn it."