Do It Now!

As I watch this Health Care reform drama unfold on our TV screens and listen to all the commentators and editorialists describe positions both pro and con, I am struck by the simple fact that if we do nothing, there will be an additional 10 million people who will not be insured over the next five years.  In addition, the abuses perpetrated on all of us by the insurance companies will continue unabated and we will all be paying more and getting less.

Dennis Kucinich, the representative from Ohio got it right when he said that even though this bill may have big problems, it is at least a beginning, and he couldn’t in good conscience vote against it.  It is a way to insure 30+million more Americans, as well as end some of the egregious practices of the insurance companies. 

Nicolas Kristoff writes in the New York Times today about the life expectancy of Americans and the periods in our history when life expectancy increased most.  It turns out that the period of the largest increase was during the War years in the 1940s when many more Americans had to have physicals when they entered the armed forces or were screened to do a variety of jobs for the war effort.  Diseases and problems were diagnosed early and treated, and lo and behold, we as a nation became healthier!

It is so patently obvious that preventive care will save us money and increase our productivity as a nation, that those who stand in the way of initiating this reform could easily be considered principled morons or in the most extreme, traitorous!  Where is our moral obligation to our fellow countrymen?  Why is it that when we are dealing with others in a one-on-one relationship our compassion and generosity comes forth with ease.  Yet when we are faced with relationships that are group-to-group, we become covetous, stingy, competitive and morally questionable.

I have always felt that the provision of health care and reform is our moral responsibility as human beings.  Our country’s success now depends on our finding a way to support our less fortunate countrymen so that we as a nation can rise to a new level of caring and productivity. 

My experience just since I have started writing this blog has shown me example after example of serious problems with the current system, both personally and anecdotally from friends and acquaintances.  This morning at the dermatologist’s office, for example, the receptionist asked me if I wanted to pay the whole bill for my last visit.  I said, “Didn’t my insurance cover most of it?”  She said they had covered $84 of a bill for $350 for exam and freezing removal of a variety of little lesions.  I am paying $23,000 a year for insurance, and the best they can do for this kind of procedure is $84?  Better yet, I went for lab work and a physical 6 weeks ago, and the bill was $169.  My insurance paid $.83 (yes, that’s 83 cents!). 

Something is wrong with this picture!

So I ask you again, can we not find it in our hearts, person to person, to reach out with some compassion and support for those who need the help.  Health care reform needs to be passed now, not later.  If we fail to do this now, it will be at least a decade before we will have another chance, and by then my friends, I fear it will be too late for all of us.

Make your voice be heard.  Can’t you take a minute to write an email to your congressman?

Feeling Good!

I am on a new mission.

About 3 months ago we started a new business called Paradise Coast TV. It’s an in-room hotel channel that provides visitors with options for shopping, restaurants and attractions in SW Florida. It’s part of a national service called the Visitors TV Network.

As anyone who has ever started a business knows, there is so much to do that it is impossible to do it all. What is so amazing about this process is that both my partner and I feel incredibly energized…..again! I am trying to analyze what has made the difference.

I have been in the workforce since I was 20, and that was 40 odd years ago. When we moved to Florida, I sort of expected to ‘retire’ after 30 years in the TV business and live a life of leisure. I was wrong. There is no retirement. In fact, I have discovered that the only way for me to feel productive and active is to be using my brain and creating something. For the past 7 years I have been involved in several enterprises that have been way stations along my path of life. They were interesting, modestly revenue producing, and exciting for very short periods of time. However I felt like I was trodding through life with no real direction for my talent. I kept having this internal dialog, “What am I supposed to be doing with myself?”

Don’t get me wrong, life is good! I am living in paradise, and there is something very soothing about being massaged with balmy winds in December and January while the rest of the country is shoveling snow. But the excitement was hiding. We were marking time.

For the last two years we have struggled with a business that was completely unrewarding. We tried everything we knew how to do to make it work, but it was just not happening. It was horribly depressing and enervating.

The good news is that just when things are the bleakest, a ray of light will appear and a path away from the darkness is suddenly visible.

That is what has happened to me and my partner with this new venture. For the past 40 years, that has been my pattern. As horrible as things may get, there is always a path. Circumstances change and if you are on the lookout, there is always a path. Some might say I am just lucky, but I think it is not about luck. It is about recognizing that change is a part of life in the most integral way. When you understand that, you are able to be alert for the opportunities that appear on your path. Then it is a matter of using your judgment and intuition to choose the right opportunity.

When we were on our vacation in Hilton Head last fall, I spent the day with a friend who had been very successful in the electrical contracting business. We were discussing why people succeed and fail at certain enterprises or ventures, and he told me about something he had done years earlier that had been a disaster. He made a very simple but obvious statement that I will never forget. He said, “I was doing something I knew very little about and that was the problem.”

If you think about it, we all have something (or many things!) that we know a lot about. When you get involved in those kinds of activities, you feel empowered, knowledgeable, and competent. Isn’t that the essence of success?   So, clearly, the secret of it all is to pursue those opportunities that you know something about. It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Well, we all know it isn’t, but nonetheless, choosing to pursue something that is familiar and well within your skill set does make it easier to succeed.

Anyway, that is what we are doing now, and I can tell you that I am excited, energized and productive. And I am learning new things at a rate that is dizzying. My industry has changed over the last 10 years so completely, that we have had to learn how to use a completely new set of tools. But the thing I know something about—the telling of stories in video and film---hasn’t really changed at all. There is my competency, and I am now exercising that muscle again.

It feels good!