Great Minds Don't Always Think Alike

Today’s post may appear to be just ramblings, but rest assured it is another necessary piece of our jigsaw puzzle.

What do you think I have in common with the President of the United States?

A.    Peter and Barack are fans of the Discovery Channel show, Myth Busters

or

B.    Peter and Barack had a drink with both  Michael Bloomberg and Vladimir Putin

It was a trick question.  The answer is (A) and (B).

For those of you who do not have Discovery Channel at home, Myth Busters is a hit TV show filmed in San Francisco, where Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman set out to test popular myths, to see if they are plausible, confirmed or busted.  Adam and Jamie worked in the Hollywood special effects industry, but they have very unusual backgrounds.  They have a great approach to testing myths/hypotheses and always start with an open mind.

If Adam and Jamie were to join us on our quest – they would probably call it a crusade – we would have valuable support indeed.

Cold calling and networking in Business, but not in Medical Science

Now I could write a book about cold calling and networking in the business world.  If you have a bright idea, you can use it to open doors in most parts of the world.  Like most things, it works best in America, but it even worked well in some former communist countries, just a few years after the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. Romania is a good example, still in my 20s, I managed to get one to one meetings with important people, including with two of the five richest people in the country.  From my flat in Kensington, I got summoned to meet Lord Rothermere, the last of the great English press barons, to discuss an idea.  The list goes on.

But either I have lost my magic, or it just does not work on doctors and medical researchers.  They are not interested to talk to me, I find this quite perplexing.   Maybe I need a white coat?

They seem to be very closed-minded, or just not interested in autism.  Even American researchers are not interested!  Even when they are working in the field of neuroscience.

I think the medical world needs some kind of shock from the real world.  It seems, at least in case of polio and malaria, they are getting just that.

 

Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Peter (me)

Next cryptic puzzle; what do Bill, Paul and Peter have in common?

Well, you surely know that Bill Gates is the man behind Microsoft.  You may not know that Paul Allen is the co-founder of Microsoft.   Paul also set up the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which he and his sister endowed with $100 million.

Now Bill Gates is applying his business acumen (and not inconsiderable fortune) to eradicating polio.  If you want some inspiration just listen to Bill talk about how he is going about eradicating polio.  He is applying business common sense, rather than any medical knowledge.  He is making great progress.  If you live in the UK you can watch the full 60 minute lecture on the BBC iplayer just search:-   Bill Gates: The Impatient Optimist - The Richard Dimbleby Lecture. If you do not live in the UK you can only watch access the short preview on YouTube.

There is so far only a very weak link between Peter and Paul.  Before starting this blog, but after watching Bill talk about polio, I wrote to Paul.  In essence, I said go talk to those French research guys about Bumetanide and put your millions to good use.  Well at least I got a polite reply from the Institute.

I have not met Bill;  maybe one day I will.  It turns out that Mike (Bloomberg) and Bill are now joining forces to eradicate Polio.

By the way, in case you did not know, Mike is Mayor of New York and founder of Bloomberg LP a leading global provider of financial data, analysis and news.  He is also a great guy (and my former client).

Conclusion

Well, does all this really fit together?  I think it does.  We need a little something from the Myth Busters (Adam and Jamie) and some more from the philanthropists (Bill, Paul and Mike).  I think it’s called inspiration !

As for Vladimir, well Barack might not agree, but I think he is doing a pretty good job over there in the Kremlin.

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