Illness as Economic Metaphor

Recently I had the opportunity of attending an event at Cleveland Clinic called "Ideas for Tomorrow". This is an event that the Clinic holds on a monthly basis (for the most part). We invite leaders from around the world come speak to us on life, society, healthcare, business, innovation, success, and many other topics. Some of these speakers have included Tom Kelley (Founder of IDEO), Michael Porter (Harvard Professor, Strategist), political leaders, athletes, and so forth. Next week we will even have Former Walmart President and CEO, Lee Scott Jr. I try to attend these events and am usually fortunate enough to be considered a "VIP" (just because I know someone that organizes the events) so I get to sit at the front during the presentation, stay after to meet the individual, AND even get to eat some nice cheese and crackers (whoopee!)....I think it is mostly because they feel bad for such a young early professional so they give me the chance to rub shoulders with hot shots.

Anyway, a few months ago we had philanthropist, researcher, and businessman, Michael Milken speak to us. He is the guy that invented the junk bond, has raised a lot of money for disease prevention, and has done some other stuff in his life (good and bad)....see his bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken

Mr. Milken gave a stirring speech on the health of our nation in physical and economical terms and described some of his passions. At the end of the presentation he shared an article that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal in June of 2009 called "Illness as Economic Metaphor". He uses some great symbolism to describe the similarities between the current health/illness issues in our nation and the current economic issues in our nation.

I particularly appreciate the comparisons about:

• The importance of allowing the patients body to recover from the sickness....allow the market to recover from the downturn.
• Grave illnesses are usually more serious and life-threatening when they follow years of bad habits...consumers and businesses are usually in worse trouble when they have taken on years of poor business decisions just to make a quick dollar or two. Far too much overindulging in both cases!
• Even the Hippocratic Oath that starts with, "First, do no harm" supports the notion to do no harm to the economy but to keep it healthy by maintaining prudent business decisions.

You should be able to find the article online by Googling the name of the article and the date. Anyway, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts!!!