Change and the year 2008

Change and the year 2008

My last column of 2008 must be dedicated to Change. This is probably the year that has seen the most change in history, or at least in recent history.

A few years ago I had a very interesting conversation with a futurologist (people that study the future, not charlatans that say they can predict it) in a San Antonio convention and he said to me that knowledge was doubling every three years more or less. If that is true, then by the end of this year, the world would know twice what it knew since we had the conversation. He also said that within 5 years, knowledge was going to double every eleven hours. Did you get that? Knowledge doubling by the end of the day and doubling again the following morning. I can’t even grasp that concept. I can’t conceive that happening. What if he is wrong and knowledge will never double so fast. What if it doubles every 11 days or every 11 months? Even so, it is really mind boggling.
What are we to do?
To begin with, we must understand that even though there is tremendous change, some things don’t change much. The Sacred Heart church in Santurce where I graduated from High School is still there even though the school without the nuns has changed quite a bit. Central High school, close by, is still there although Gonzalez Padin, right across, is not. I wonder if bus 8A still goes from the old Ferreteria Merino in Todd Street to the Borinquen Towers where I used to live.
We still have the beautiful beaches, the San Juan Hotel, the Intercontinental which used to be called the Americana Hotel, the Caribe Hilton, still the same name although it has been remodeled and the La Concha Hotel, rebuilt 100%, although Las Nereidas right in front of it is history. I get nostalgic writing about this stuff.
Anyway, 2008 was a very difficult year for most and lots of people really want it to go away the sooner the better.
Not everything was bad, fortunately, there were some important medical breakthroughs and those are always good.
For the first time, man made neurons were created from ALS patients’ stem cells
A study confirmed that reducing inflammation is just as important as reducing cholesterol when it comes to the treatment of heart disease.
California surgeons removed a woman’s appendix via her vagina, making only a few internal incisions. Scar less surgery we may call it.
A commercially available test makes it possible for all of us to map our entire genome so that we can find out some potentially useful stuff or simply interesting secrets we may know nothing about. It can be done for less than four hundred bucks.
Four genes may help explain why nerve cells die in Alzheimer’s, a brain degenerative disorder.
We have now a five in one vaccine. Kids are going to love this! Pentacel combines five shots in one and it cuts recommended injections by 30%.
There is now a way to predict which women will respond to Herceptin a cancer drug that has worked for some women but not for others.
There is now an alternative test to detect Down syndrome which requires no needles. It is a genetic test which uses a blood sample from the future mother.
Cancer patients that require chemotherapy hate it not only because it has many side effects but because it causes nausea. There is now a patch that calms the stomach for up to five days.
There are many others but let me give you one more: Stem cell Trachea Transplant. Doctors from Spain gave a woman a windpipe made from donor trachea and her own stem cells. This is awesome

In the world of finance, what is happening world wide can be catalogued as a disaster. We are still in the middle of it and even though I always look for positives (there are some) I do believe that it will get worse before it gets better.
Looking at some of the big companies that failed in the US, I came across some of their slogans. For example, Lehman Brothers who had more assets than the Mexican economy had a very interesting slogan: “Where vision gets built”. They obviously had the wrong vision but we never found out until it was too late.
AIG the insurance company’s slogan was”The strength to be there”, and we all know what happened to that strength.
Indy Mac, “you can count on us”. Really?
Morgan Stanley, “world wise”, Security Pacific Bank, “Smarter Money” and T.Rowe Price, “invest with confidence”. You can’t make this stuff up.

And to make matters worst, a guy is caught in a Ponzi scheme swindling fifty billion dollars. As I write this, a French banker in New York has just killed himself and you know what I really can’t understand? The guy is doing house arrest in his multi million dollar apartment in New York. Where is justice?

Well, it isn’t the end of the world and we must face 2009 one way or the other.

I think we have to really be well informed from now on. Read your local newspapers and with the internet, US and foreign newspapers and magazines. Never before in history, human beings have had the ability to connect to a laptop and have all the information in the world in that laptop. If you have no computer, and more than half of Puerto Rico doesn’t own one, go to a library and use theirs. They are free and you pay for them with your taxes.
Slow readers should take a speed reading course. When I was with Xerox Learning Systems, we developed one which could double and triple an employees reading speed in twelve hours of instruction, two hours a day, six days.
Time management is now more important than ever. This is so important that I came out with a DVD entitled “El tiempo y los 40 ladrones”, sorry, I don’t have it in English. You can see some snippets for free in www.youtube.com; just type my name in the search box.
Finally, there is quite a lot of pessimism out there in the street. Don’t let it affect you. You must remain positive and instead of worrying for things you have no control of, worry for the things that you can control and how you manage the events in your life is one of the things you can control.
Be creative and innovative, solve problems people have and market the solutions to the potential clients. When you get a client, service them to death; don’t lose clients because you didn’t offer them good service. Things will get tough alright but remember when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.