Operational experience is critical when it comes to learning and improving.

My father-in-law cut his teeth as a new doctor delivering babies at Parkland Hospital in Texas, which is one of the leading U.S. hospitals by the number of annual births. It was the best place to learn because the quickest way to excellence in any discipline is to get into the action and repeat, repeat, repeat.

I read today that twenty health care workers – 12 physicians and eight nurses from UCSF in San Francisco are flying to New York to help their fellow citizens. This is incredibly brave and courageous. Two hundred people volunteered, which also says something about UCSF and its culture.

While others do their duty and shelter in place, these healthcare workers are moving into the danger zone. It reminded me why the US flag is backward on military uniforms. It is because the flag gives the effect of flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward into battle.

These brave souls will return to San Francisco as better physicians and nurses because they have seen the heat of the battle and learned.  New York wins, San Francisco wins, we all win.

Let’s roll.

Source photo Fezbot2000

Band of Brothers is an American war miniseries. The series dramatizes the history of “Easy” Company during WWII. The men fight, laugh, and cry together through countless battles as they move across Europe towards Berlin. Good men are lost along the way, leaders emerge in the heat of the action, and cowards show their true colors. They forge bonds lasting a lifetime.

Combat or “operational experience” is a critical ingredient required for promotion in the military. In the heat of the battle, rites of passage that normally take years, take place in days.

People will connect and rise to the occasion in the same way during the 2020 lockdown and fight against COVID-19.

In New York, the unofficial rule is seven years of living in the city until you can call yourself a New Yorker. Those silly rules don’t matter anymore. If you lived through the lockdown in cities like San Francisco, New York, or London, then you will be a local. It’s a baptism of fire, banding together as good citizens, doing their part in the battle to beat COVID.

In companies, there will be pre-COVID and post COVID employee cohorts. “Campfire” stories will be told about friends and colleagues who rolled up their sleeves, served their customers, looked after each other, made sacrifices and saw it through to fight another day. There will be battlefield promotions and demotions as people step up. The COVID alumni networks will outlast any LinkedIn connections made over the last 10+ year bull market.

Now we fight. We will tell stories later.

‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’

Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash

If you don’t own the results of your decisions over an extended period and take accountability for the implementation and results, then you don’t learn.

Small business owners like doctors, chefs, grocers, plumbers, electricians do this every day. They are in the arena every day, getting their hands dirty.

In the coming months, we are going to hear a lot from talking heads on television and Facebook about who deserves to take the tax stimulus, who needs a bailout, and who should be left out to dry. Most of these people haven’t built or run anything in their lives. It’s all academic to them, and they don’t own anything they are pontificating about.

Seek out and listen to your tribal elders about finding your way through this uncertainty. Sound judgment and wisdom come from making mistakes in the arena, picking yourself up, and persisting. That’s where the learning is found. These elders were once in the same position as you, and that’s why they are trying to help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKG4ED00_8M

Yesterday my dad reminded me of the story about the man who visited a psychiatrist because he was suffering from severe anxiety and anger issues.

It’s easy to be “contrarian” and make up shit when there are no personal consequences. Politicians, journalists, and full-time Facebookers do this all the time. They will only face up to reality if they have skin in the game. If the consequences are immediate then they are more honest. 

Quick feedback loops happen in restaurants every day. If the food served is not what the customer ordered then feedback is instant, the customer is unhappy, the chef listens and corrects the mistake quickly. The consequence of a bad meal is a crappy online review and lost patronage.

Here are some examples of how to keep the talking heads honest:

• They can support a war if they sign up to fight or their kids are conscripted. They will think long and hard about supporting a war on foreign soil when they have a loved one at stake.
• They can say climate change is a hoax if they agree to waive the insurance for bush fires and flooding. Losing their own home to a wildfire will sharpen their focus.
• They can be anti-vaccine, but they need to agree to send their kids to a school with other anti-vaxers. Herd immunity won’t save them in that scenario.

I saw the same pattern with COVID-19. Politicians, journalists, and full-time Facebookers kept repeating that seasonal flu was more dangerous and that we were overreacting. They were just doing what they normally do – which is opining on things they knew nothing about because they thought there were no short term consequences. Well, guess what? The consequences were immediate and deadly. People got really sick and died, and now they themselves are at risk of infection and even death.

Imagine if the consequences were immediate for the “boots on the ground” crowd and the climate deniers. Remember this the next time you see someone standing on a soapbox screaming about fake news. What have they got to lose and do they have skin in the game?

Soapbox Photo by Helen Shi on Unsplash

I went for a swim in the ocean today and have never seen so many fish. The beaches are closed so there was nobody there. Usually, when I get closer to a busy beach, I smell the sunblock in water. Now there’s nothing but the smell of the ocean and seaweed. You can only be on the beach if you are exercising. The water was choppy and frothy around me, and I realized it was fish. They were swimming right up to the beach and feeding. When I swam back, I was surrounded the whole way again by flashes of silver shoals and small jellyfish. It was a little eerie.

As we hibernate during this lockdown, the earth is exhaling. Nature abhors a vacuum. I wonder if we can learn to share more when the tide turns again and we rush back into all the nooks and crannies that have been filled by the animals and ocean.

Will hibernation change us? Will we take less and appreciate the free and priceless things in life?

Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash

Bill Gates is proposing we build factories to manufacture the seven most promising vaccines, so they can all be tested in parallel.

“A few billion in this situation, where there are trillions of dollars being lost economically, it is worth it… we can save months because every month counts.”

I agree with Gates. I also think that the construction needs to be 100% subsidized by the US government to eliminate the risk for private companies.

The approach reminds me of a quote from the film Contact starring Jodie Foster. In the film, the world had put a GoFundMe type campaign together to finance the construction of a machine that would make contact with extraterrestrial life. When the machine was tested, a religious fanatic destroyed the machine, and all hope was lost. But then S. R. Hadden, a billionaire industrialist who was dying of cancer and was now in residence on the Mir space station, revealed that his company had secretly made a second machine in Japan.

Here Hadden’s quote that reminds me of Bill Gates’ proposal to build seven factories:

Hadden : First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors.

Photo by Matt Benson on Unsplash

I like this scene in Michael Clayton. A wealthy client of Michael Clayton’s law firm was involved in a hit and run. The client has fled the scene and is making excuses and starts concocting stories about how maybe the car was stolen, or that it was the jogger’s fault. As usual, the client wants to buy his way out of the problem like everything else in his life and not take responsibility or accountability for his mistake.

Here is Michael Clayton’s response:

“Cops like hit-and-runs. They work ’em hard, they clear ’em fast. Right now there’s a BCI unit picking paint chips off a guard rail. Tomorrow they’re gonna be looking for the owner of a custom painted, hand-rubbed Jaguar XJ12. The guy you hit? If he got a look at the plates, it won’t even take that long. There’s no play here. There’s no angle, there’s no champagne room. I’m not a miracle worker, I’m a janitor. The math on this is simple; the smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean up.”

We have become a transactional society:

• Want to skip the long lines at the airport? Just pay extra for a shorter line pre-approved line, or better yet, take a private jet.
• Want better healthcare? Pay for a Cadillac healthcare plan, a private room at the hospital, and a concierge doctor service.
• Want to skip the traffic to JFK out of Manhattan? Take a helicopter!
• Want to get your kids into an ivy league university? Make a donation and get them to the top of the list.
• Want your permits approved for another renovation on your house?  Hold a fundraiser for your longer representative.

The world is going to learn about Michael Clayton when it comes to COVID-19. There’s no angle, there’s no champagne room. It is not about an interest rate cut, printing money, boosting the stock market, better messaging, or political ratings.

The math is simple: Stay home, flatten the curve, dig in for the long game, and wait it out. The smaller the mess, the easier it is for all of us to clean up.

Photo by Klara Kulikova on Unsplash

I visited India a couple of years ago. Before I left, a couple of my friends told me that it was a matter of “when” and not “if” I would get the dreaded Delhi Belly.

I was given all the top tips:

• Don’t put ice in your water.
• Don’t eat the ice cream.
• Only eat at the hotels.
• Don’t buy bottled water from street vendors because it’s probably old water.
• Don’t drink the milky tea from the big metal urns.
• Don’t eat the street food,
• Don’t eat the food on any of the train services.
• Only eat vegetarian food.

I arrived in India full of vigilance and followed all the rules. It was no fun, and I felt like I was living in a bubble when everyone around me was on a different fun planet. About two weeks into my trip, I dropped my guard and got adventurous. It has been over 15 years now, but I still remember the restaurant. I ordered some kind of chicken dish off the menu, it tasted fine, but I remember thinking something seemed off. That night I was terribly sick and ended up feeling ill and bilious for the rest of my stay in India. I probably lost about 5kgs.

I can relate this story to the current shelter in place order. We have been in the lockdown for the last few weeks, and I can feel all of us starting to relax a bit and get cockier. Handwashing isn’t as vigilant, groups of two people are becoming groups of three, etc. We are craving contact and human connections, which means stepping out of the bubble.

The virus isn’t cocky, and it doesn’t drop its guard. It justs waits patiently. We beat this thing if we persist and don’t let up.

Hard choice, easy life. Easy choice, hard life. Let’s make the hard choices now and get through this.

Photo by Maksim Larin on Unsplash

It’s quiet out there these days. I’m still getting out for an ocean swim, but it’s a solo affair. The exercise keeps me sane and calm and is an excellent reason to leave the house for a break.

I like to survey the beach and the ocean before I swim. What’s the wind doing, can I find any blue bottles washed up on the beach, is there a strong rip current. It’s also reassuring to see other swimmers out. I couldn’t see any heads bobbing up and down behind the break, but it was gorgeous and bright out there, so I waded in and ducked under the first wave. I paused and trod water after I made it around the point. It was an excellent spot to get my bearing, adjust my goggles, and see who else was out there. I saw a swimmer heading towards me. He had goggles and cap on, and I recognized him as someone I’d seen during my early morning swims. He slowed down and stopped a couple of feet from me. Yes, there was even social distancing in the Pacific Ocean. We both floated for a bit, and then we smiled at each other. I asked him about his swim, and he gave me some advice about the current and the water temperature. He could see I was a bit reluctant to head into open water on an uncrowded day, so he gave me a few words of encouragement and then pulled away towards the beach. That final boost of motivation was all I needed. I tested my goggles, adjusted my cap, and swam away from the beach.

Two human bodies in a larger body of water connected for a second, and then we went on our way. It was energizing interaction in a moment where we aren’t quite sure about how to connect and talk to each other during our hibernation state.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash