9 Business Lessons you’ll learn if you stay a week in the hospital
As a frequent Instagram scroller and “inspirational” business account follower, my feed is flooded with get-rich-quick schemes. As tempting as they are, I’ve been able to resist the click-bait. But then I saw the following post by Knowledge_through_Surgery and gosh darn was I intrigued. 👀 👀 👀
So obviously, as an intellect, I decided to donate my appendix and treat myself to an early birthday present.
30 minutes later, I found myself en route to the hospital with a ruptured appendix ready to embark on a journey that would reveal the inner workings of a complex multi-million dollar business.
Throughout my stay, I interacted with administrative workers, nurses, surgeons, interns, radiologists, and many more people who make this business run. Also, as an added bonus, I lived through the ups and downs of surgery with post-operation complications…so this truly was an incubator for learning.
Now I know what you’re thinking….
“This seems amazing, but I’ve already had my appendix removed, how can I still learn??”
That's where I come in.
Here are the 9 Business lessons you'll learn if you stay a week in the hospital
- Just because your job is hard doesn’t mean another job isn’t hard.
Do you know what’s hard? Performing open-heart surgery. Do you know what’s also hard? Nursing multiple patients to health simultaneously from 8 PM to 8 AM. Just because you’re the CEO doesn’t mean your job is harder than the person working back to back shifts cleaning office facilities. You may have more responsibility but that's a different discussion. As said by a surgeon during my stay, “…nurses may not be able to perform surgery but I think they have the hardest job at the hospital.” Remember this.
2. Things can and will change quickly, be prepared.
For me, I was doing yoga at home and then suddenly was being rushed to the hospital. A ruptured appendix may seem unlikely, but the more people you work with/manage, the more likely these unlikely events will occur. I think it's necessary to reflect on your team's resiliency and take the necessary steps to prepare for changes. This way, when something does happen, shit doesn't hit the fan. Now speaking of shit hitting the fan….
3. Shit only hits the fan once for optimists
There are optimists and pessimists. For pessimists, they have to live through the event twice, before it happens and when it happens. Hospital patients are constantly given potentially good and bad scenarios, so there are plenty of opportunities to be negative. Resist the urge, no matter how bad it gets, and stay positive. There’s a reason Jeff Bezos cares so much about this…
4. In every field at every level, there are people who are better and worse at their job
In a hospital, there are a lot of people that will treat you. You will be surprised at the disparity between high and low performers. In my head, I had a preconceived notion that people in the medical field would be more consistent with their performance, but I was wrong. Clearly, like any other business, some people are just better at what they do.
5. Don’t wait, Just Do It
I’ve always been fascinated by how people decide to make a change. Why are we waiting until January 1st to stop stuffing our faces with black and white cookies(guilty)??? Why are we waiting for a birthday to tell us to start a new hobby??? During my stay, I had the good fortune of celebrating my 24th birthday (Kobe year!) in the hospital and besides the extravagant party (see below), it was the exact same as any other day in the hospital. Why was that? As sad as it may be, your birthday is just another day. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the same goes for every holiday. So why are people waiting for specific events to make a change? Just make the change! Events like your birthday or the new year can be super effective as reflection points but these events should be used to see the progression on certain goals rather than being used as a crutch to wait for action. The same can be said for business deliverables. There is rarely a concrete reason why cultural or operational changes have to wait. So why wait? Like Nike, Just do it.
6. You won't care about a Park Avenue View from a hospital bed
I had a view of Park Avenue from my hospital bed. Was it nice? Sure. Did I care? Nope. Your health is important and should be number 1, 2, and 3 on your personal priority list. Without your health you have nothing, there's a reason you’ve heard this before.
7. Close communication gaps. A 5 on The Richter scale is a lot different than a 5 on the “pain” scale.
When I walked into the ER, the receptionist asked, “On a scale from 1 to 10, how bad is your pain?” How could I confidently answer this question without any context? I immediately answered 4. Next, a doctor asked me the same question, I changed my answer to 5. Later, a nurse asked me, I changed it back to a 4. She responded, “Oh not that bad.” Now I’m starting to rethinking my answers.😕 Fast forward to post-operation and the nurse again asks me to quantify a feeling. As my mind is trying to run the numbers, I suddenly see the following sign…
And just like that, I was underselling my pain the whole time! I sure as hell wasn't a flat face. I was frowning like no other. Immediately I gained the confidence I needed to properly access my pain. In this case, I was the customer and the hospital was the business but this can be extended to all user feedback systems. “Please rate this application feature from 1 to 5 stars?” What is the difference between a 3-star feature and a 4-star feature? Frankly, I’m not sure. So how could any confident decisions be made if the rating metric lacks clarity? Maybe instead of using numbers and stars, businesses should consider using smiley faces, or something of that nature. 😃
8. Limit information handoffs whenever possible. If they are necessary, always maintain a central location for truth
In order to provide around the clock assistance, patient-handoffs are inevitable and frequent. This means if everyone isn't on the same page, a person’s health could be in jeopardy. To mitigate issues, hospitals limit handoffs when possible and record everything. Things still get lost and multiple times I had to correct employees and tell them the proper treatment. This is not their fault but an issue with the system. In any industry, informational nuances are lost when transferred. Therefore it is important to have a single central location for information that can act as the golden goose for every party involved.
9. Understand what your business relationship is before you start establishing a business relationship
On day five of my trip, I had my first male nurse and we started to hit it off. We talked about drinking, football Sundays, living at home during COVID, you name it. This was great until I had to ask him to change a bandage which was 6 inches from my private parts, which was definitely awkward. Keep in mind the nature of your business relationship before/while you are creating this relationship. Each scenario is different.
After spending a week at the hospital, I decided I had learned enough and was able to leave healthy and energized. I hope I was able to streamline the learning process and save you a potential trip to the hospital. Maybe I’ll start clicking on Instagram ads more often. 💯
What's next:
If you liked this article, follow me on Twitter as I continue to document my journey as an entrepreneur.
Disclaimer and Acknowledgement:
Knowledge_through_Surgery is not a real Instagram account and please do not get appendicitis to learn about hospitals. I did this for you. 😉
Also, I would like to thank everyone who helped me get better during my stay at the hospital.
Extra Content Alert:
Photos from my stay
