Business Insight Can we handle this crisis? Part 1. Our country, our state, and our metropolitan Chicago have been in crisis many times in history. We wentthrough the economic depressions, supporting the world wars, flu, housing bubbles, and somehow, we survived. Perhaps we were not exposed to wars directly as much as European countries, and perhaps we had some financial backup in order to pull out from economic lows. But we also had resilient community and unifying leaders. Most of us do not go that far back to remember the '30s or the 2nd world war. But many of us do remember the days of and after 9/11. We were shocked, full of fear and anger, unable to put our thoughts together. The markets went down, people lost jobs, and we were not sure what the future would bring. And yes, we got up and as a united country, we cleaned up the sites of terrorists' attacks and built memorials to those who lost their lives. New Yorkers and communities of Washington DC and Pennsylvania joined their forces and were supported by every single American. It is true that, with time, we sort of lost our way with pre-emptive wars, but right then, we stood together as one. This was a great example of social responsibility for one another, empathy towards those who suffered the most, and strength to re-build and prevail. We certainly are in a deep crisis now. It is accumulating economic crisis, public health crisis, but most of all, moral crisis. Deep divisions among red and blue, urban and rural, poor and rich, masked and unmasked, with insurance or with no insurance, somehow, we cannot pull together. There are plenty of reasons for the divisions, including our leaders, healthcare system, lack of vision for the future, but among the reasons outside of our control, there are some very much in our control. We live in the country that does not distinguish between individual rights and selfishness. We work in workplaces that look for productivity but do not care much about safety. We treat regulations and restrictions as blockage to our freedom rather than protections from abuse of standards. We live in the country that successfully with our astronauts returning is sick medically because it cannot support healthy lifestyle and preventive medicine. We live among neighbors who may have to pick between buying medicine and paying electricity. Of all the above, I worry about the selfish 'me, me, me' culture. It is destructive to small and big projects. Nobody can succeed today on their own. Interdependence is the truth of everyday life. We use more common good than we can count. We just do not take time to think about it because we are so focused on our phone's social media that we do not see passing people and cars. No big projects and inventions in the past were a job of a single person. Even the most individual discoveries were connected to each other. There would be no plane if we had not discovered a car first. It is ironic that the most common tools that take our time and minds were developed by people of a very individual personality, sometimes questionable, but totally dedicated to the common good for the society. Let it be an iphone or a computer. Both, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were and continue to be models of work ethics, dedication to the idealistic projects, and visionaries for the good of the society. I am going to leave you today with a quote of another, contemporary visionary, Elon Musk. You may like him or not, but just spend a moment thinking about what he said, very recently. His company Space X and NASA, working together, sent a mission to the international space center. This weekend, the mission ended home. Elon said: 'If this project succeeds, it is thanks to hundreds of hardworking NASA and SpaceX people. If this project fails, it will be my fault! This is what a great and selfless leader says. Michael Bukhalo, MD Arlington Dermatology 5301 Keystone Court Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 Tel. 847 392 5440 | www.arlingtondermatology.net Business Insight Can we handle this crisis? Part 1. Our country, our state, and our metropolitan Chicago have been in crisis many times in history. We wentthrough the economic depressions, supporting the world wars, flu, housing bubbles, and somehow, we survived. Perhaps we were not exposed to wars directly as much as European countries, and perhaps we had some financial backup in order to pull out from economic lows. But we also had resilient community and unifying leaders. Most of us do not go that far back to remember the '30s or the 2nd world war. But many of us do remember the days of and after 9/11. We were shocked, full of fear and anger, unable to put our thoughts together. The markets went down, people lost jobs, and we were not sure what the future would bring. And yes, we got up and as a united country, we cleaned up the sites of terrorists' attacks and built memorials to those who lost their lives. New Yorkers and communities of Washington DC and Pennsylvania joined their forces and were supported by every single American. It is true that, with time, we sort of lost our way with pre-emptive wars, but right then, we stood together as one. This was a great example of social responsibility for one another, empathy towards those who suffered the most, and strength to re-build and prevail. We certainly are in a deep crisis now. It is accumulating economic crisis, public health crisis, but most of all, moral crisis. Deep divisions among red and blue, urban and rural, poor and rich, masked and unmasked, with insurance or with no insurance, somehow, we cannot pull together. There are plenty of reasons for the divisions, including our leaders, healthcare system, lack of vision for the future, but among the reasons outside of our control, there are some very much in our control. We live in the country that does not distinguish between individual rights and selfishness. We work in workplaces that look for productivity but do not care much about safety. We treat regulations and restrictions as blockage to our freedom rather than protections from abuse of standards. We live in the country that successfully with our astronauts returning is sick medically because it cannot support healthy lifestyle and preventive medicine. We live among neighbors who may have to pick between buying medicine and paying electricity. Of all the above, I worry about the selfish 'me, me, me' culture. It is destructive to small and big projects. Nobody can succeed today on their own. Interdependence is the truth of everyday life. We use more common good than we can count. We just do not take time to think about it because we are so focused on our phone's social media that we do not see passing people and cars. No big projects and inventions in the past were a job of a single person. Even the most individual discoveries were connected to each other. There would be no plane if we had not discovered a car first. It is ironic that the most common tools that take our time and minds were developed by people of a very individual personality, sometimes questionable, but totally dedicated to the common good for the society. Let it be an iphone or a computer. Both, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were and continue to be models of work ethics, dedication to the idealistic projects, and visionaries for the good of the society. I am going to leave you today with a quote of another, contemporary visionary, Elon Musk. You may like him or not, but just spend a moment thinking about what he said, very recently. His company Space X and NASA, working together, sent a mission to the international space center. This weekend, the mission ended home. Elon said: 'If this project succeeds, it is thanks to hundreds of hardworking NASA and SpaceX people. If this project fails, it will be my fault! This is what a great and selfless leader says. Michael Bukhalo, MD Arlington Dermatology 5301 Keystone Court Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 Tel. 847 392 5440 | www.arlingtondermatology.net