This week I had the privilege of hanging with 175 extraordinary and incredible people who not only never say “No!” but always embrace the possible–no matter how big and audacious the goal.
It was surreal; All these people gathered under one roof in Cambridge, Mass, for three intense days of saying “Yes!” It got more intense as the days went along, too, growing as the energy built to:
“Yes, we can change the healthcare system!”
“Yes, we can make the patient’s experience positive and up lifting.”
“Yes, we can reverse Alzheimer’s!”
“Yes, we can reverse Rheumatoid Arthritis!”
“Yes, Yes, Yes!”
Well, you get the point. There wasn’t a “No!” in the house.
Since I left, I’ve have been overwhelmed, over-stimulated and my head has been spinning. Right now, I’m trying to decompress, but more importantly, trying to understand what I do with this incredible experience and what I could share with those that weren’t in attendance. So here goes… with reckless abandon!
1. Think Big! Anything is possible. Realize that you have an incredible, audacious purpose. These 175 people gathered together validated the idea that bigger is better and that anything is possible.
What if there is a way to know what treatment will work specifically just for you, for your body, your genetics? What if there was a way through a very simple blood or saliva test to tell you if you have a predisposition to Dementia and Alzheimer’s? What if simple changes in diet could eliminate Rheumatoid arthritis? What if a simple product like bovine colostrum could eliminate infectious diarrhea and potentially eliminate the need for gut-destroying antibiotics?
There are people that are working on all this and more through data and algorithms as well as from real tissue, and they were all at this gathering. The person who is working on tissue has been doing this for 28 years. Oh my! And, they are accomplishing what they set out to do. A diet protocol has been developed by a cardiologist and used for almost 35 years that can help alleviate Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
These are big, big things that at this summit where proven to be possible by people who only know the possible and the word “Yes!”
2. Know that you do have a specific, unique talent that nobody else has and that it is extremely important on the world stage and that the world desperately needs.
In a morning breakout session, I was with 15 unique individuals discussing healthcare and what could be done differently. Twelve of the 15 where older guys with graying hair, one was a millennial women with blue hair. The older men where only contributing on a surface level–but not really diving into anything that was really disruptive or going to profoundly change healthcare. Then all of a sudden someone asks the millennial what she thought, and she immediately said, “Its a design problem. You aren’t designing a system for success.”
She was so absolutely right. She is a famous disk jockey who now has a successful business reading energy at sporting events and nightclubs. This individual has a unique talent that the healthcare world desperately needs. And, btw, many of us will nurture and make sure she has a seat at the table.
3. Everyone wants you to succeed.
At this summit, there where at least four notable researchers/scientist/experts from some of the most credible institutions in the world, all focused on brain health. What was fabulous about this was during one of the presentations, I noticed a global research leader sitting in on a colleague’s presentation. Then I noticed all of the scientists were in each other’s presentations–supporting each other and even being acknowledged through shout-outs for different components of their work.
Amazing that it was apparent that there was a “No!” here after all. But not the no you may think! It was no competition–-just total support for each other to change the world. This sent a significant message to me that in the world that matters, or in the purposeful world, we all need to support each other for major change. These individuals where the epitome of support and belief that they can accomplish big things–and they are! Detecting, reversing and making people aware is happening.
Kudos to all of them for shining a light on the fact that there is no competition, there is no individual slice of the pie. There are big problems to solve for future generations and there is no room for ego, greed or elitism. We are all in this together.
So share your ideas, build a team that wants to accomplish something big and work together, whether you are metaphorically Stanford, Harvard, John Hopkins or Wake Forest. And remember, if one succeeds you all succeed. YEAH!
So with my head spinning, and hope shining through my entire body after this gathering, I hope there is a morsel here that reminds you how incredible and extraordinary you are and how you are going to do awesome, purposeful and incredible things for all of mankind. You just have to remind yourself that you can and that you are the big, audacious possibility. You have a unique talent that the big audacious is going to need, and that everyone around you wants you to succeed! Ok, now let’s all have a group hug!
AZ
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