"My Teammates" - The Sign of Selfishness

I happen to watch a lot of NBA basketball. Teamwork on the court is just like teamwork in the board room. My hometown Detroit Pistons prove their mettle year in and year out. Built on a mantra of unselfishness, the Pistons have appeared in the last five Eastern Conference Finals, winning the NBA Finals in 2004. When any of the Pistons are interviewed, they talk about the team concept, they praise others, and they thank the team collectively. Same with the San Antonio Spurs (4 rings). Have you ever noticed how the new crop of NBA players refers to others on their teams as "my teammates"? Using that term rather than words like "our team" or "the team" or "other players" condescends to the true team players on each squad and exposes their unquestionable selfishness.

Now it's very true that others on their team ARE their teammates. It's the context of the quote that raises eyebrows. Case in point: Dwight Howard. Did anyone see the NBA Dunk Contest during All-Star weekend? Cheryl Miller (aka the best female basketball player who has lived or will ever live), asked "the new Superman" how he got the idea for his red-caped flight to the rack. Dwight said "my teammates came up with the ideas" for his dunks. Can we get names, please? Everyone says that was one of the most creative and dramatic dunks ever, and you can't give the guy who thought of it some credit? Was it Jameer Nelson--the guy who threw you the pass on the Superman dunk and went to chest bump you after you made it and you went the other direction? Now you know why Stan Van Gundy's been calling him out all season.

Dwight Howard - Selfish NBA Player

Who's next on the list? None other than LeBron James. If I had a dime for every time LeBron uses the term, "my teammates" to describe the Cavaliers, I wouldn't have to work. One quote, however, sums up LeBron's selfishness:

"I love sharing the ball with my teammates. I see a lot of things before my teammates see them."

What? So what you're saying is that you love to share the ball with guys who can't see? Yes, LeBron. We are all witnesses.

LeBron James - Selfish NBA Player

Here are the most frequent "my teammates" guys who will never be winners because they condescend to other players rather than honor the team itself (not in any order).

1. Dwight Howard
2. LeBron James
3. Tracy McGrady
4. Amare Stoudemire
5. Kobe Bryant (although much less so in 2007-2008)
6. Allen Iverson (the poster child)
7. Carmelo Anthony (doesn't bode well for Denver's playoff hopes, huh?)

So why did I bring all this up? Because in business--especially entrepreneurship--everything is teamwork. If you want your business to succeed each player on the team MUST set aside his or her ego and work toward the common goal. That old cliche about the "weakest link" still holds. If you have some people like the seven listed here on your team, it might time to ask what team they play for.

Enough said.

PatientsLikeMe Featured in the New York Times

PatientsLikeMe, the leading treatment and outcomes sharing online health community, is featured in the March 23, 2008 edition of the New York Times Magazine. The article, entitled Practicing Patients, appropriately discusses the pros and cons associated with sharing data-rch personal health information in an open community.

PatientsLikeMe seeks to go a mile deeper than health-information sites like WebMD or online support groups like Daily Strength. The members of PatientsLikeMe don’t just share their experiences anecdotally; they quantify them, breaking down their symptoms and treatments into hard data. They note what hurts, where and for how long. They list their drugs and dosages and score how well they alleviate their symptoms. All this gets compiled over time, aggregated and crunched into tidy bar graphs and progress curves by the software behind the site. And it’s all open for comparison and analysis. By telling so much, the members of PatientsLikeMe are creating a rich database of disease treatment and patient experience.

With amazing patient successes balanced by medical leaders' skepticism, author Thomas Goetz strikes a critical chord within the current healthcare debate. Is the American health system broken? Can patients fix it through aggregation of collective experience? Are patients to be trusted to report their own health conditions? What does PatientsLikeMe mean for the medical establishment?

PatientsLikeMe is a tool that allows patients to manage their disease with a sophistication and precision that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago. The 7,000 members of PatientsLikeMe, in other words, are beta testers — they may be the vanguard of how we all will care and treat our résumé of chronic diseases.

The PatientsLikeMe Openness Philosophy (penned by yours truly) draws our company line in the sand. Openness can lead to better outcomes and accelerate research like never before. This is our goal for PatientsLikeMe. This isn't health science fiction. It's happening today.

Read the article--and join PatientsLikeMe--to see where you stand.