The $6 Million Letter

Posted on April 26, 2013 by John G. Self

Our society is losing an important method of communication and as it turns out, a potentially profitable one in select circumstances.

It’s the art and practice of writing letters.

“Imagine…you have stumbled on the secret of life, aka the double helix structure of DNA. Thrilled, you pen a letter to your young son outlining the discovery and concluding with, ‘Lots of love, Daddy’,” wrote Gillian Tett, an award winning assistant editor for the Financial Times based in the U.S.

Francis Crick Signature

What would a letter, if it actually existed, be worth? This is not an academic question, Ms. Tett wrote in her editorial page column last Saturday. British scientist Francis Crick actually wrote such a letter to his son 60 years ago. It begins, according to Ms. Tett, “Jim Watson and I have probably made a most important discovery,” and goes on to describe the discovery as “something beautiful…by which life comes to life.”

The heirs of Professor Crick recently sold the letter at auction. Christie’s estimated before the sale that the document would be worth about $800,000, Ms. Tett reported.

It sold for $6 million to a mystery bidder.

Doctor Crick’s research partner, American scientist James Watson, PhD, now 85 and a resident of New York City, was undoubtedly thrilled. The sale set a very high monetary bar if, or when, his heirs decide to sell his papers, which include an early manuscript of the pioneering book The Double Helix, replete with his editing marks in the margins.

Focusing on Prof. Crick’s $6 million letter, Ms. Tett wondered what the seven-page document would have been worth if it were a mere email. “If historians look back at 2013 in 60 years time, they will see an age when the volume of communication surged in scale, but they will see a period when communication was so fleeting and ubiquitous, it lost its value. Nobody is likely to pay $6 million for a tweet.”

This wasn’t the only big price paid for a letter of historical significance, Ms. Tett reported. A letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to some school children sold for $3.4 million in 2008. A letter Albert Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt warning of the threat of nuclear weapons sold for the equivalent of $3.4 million.

“Something precious is being lost amid this tsunami of computer code,” says Ms. Tett. With all its advantages, the digital revolution is threatening the art and practice of writing letters.

I doubt the $6 million price tag for the Crick letter will reverse the trend, but I can always hope. I am of the school of thought that letter writing helps define who we are as people.

Note: Last week I wrote in this space that texting was replacing thank you notes, many filled with strange acronyms that require a dictionary to decipher unless, of course, you are under the age of 30.

For the young among us who would like to experience what actual letter writing is like, I strongly recommend George H.W. Bush’s wonderful book, All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings.

The Elephant in the Room Is Fat

Posted on April 12, 2013 by John G. Self

It has been a long, tough day, a good day but stressful nonetheless. A delicious ice-cold martini sounds incredibly tempting.

But as I lean back in my chair, I bump into the elephant in the room.

My waistline is greater than the insurance target of 40 inches – not much, but enough to drive up the cost of my health coverage. One martini, as tempting as it may be, represents 388 calories. If you want to add an olive, or four, that is another 12.5 calories per olive. The gym in the lobby of my building, by comparison, helps to burn calories and represents lower health benefit costs and, ultimately, better health.

First, let me go on record and say that I think it is inherently unfair that gin, a clear spirit, should have any calories at all. Scotch or bourbon should have a lot of calories based on their rich looking golds and browns. But gin, or vodka? Well, that seems wrong. But it isn’t and that brings me back to the elephant in the room.

The room is really a metaphor for our country. We have become a nation of overweight – fat – people whose eating and wellness habits are contributing mightily to the rising cost of healthcare.

Something must be done, but people are not going to like it. It will be painful because sacrifice – and exercise – will be involved. If you don’t like this message, and you think that I am as full of sh*t as a Christmas Turkey – or in text/SMS shorthand, AFOSAACT – then pay attention to this: your employer may insist you change.

That’s right. Increasingly, employers are telling their employees to lose weight and lower their blood pressure or face $1,000 or more in out-of-pocket costs for health coverage. Companies have finally come to the conclusion that voluntary wellness programs rarely work on the majority of employees and so companies like Michelin North America, the premium tire maker, are requiring their employees to share personal health information such as body-mass index, weight and blood-sugar levels, or face higher premiums, according to a Wall Street Journal article earlier this week [paid article].

No one argues that the connection between poor eating habits, obesity and high blood pressure, significantly increase the risk of stroke or heart disease, two very costly illnesses. But, already, employees and worker rights advocates are using the silliest three words when it comes to personal accountability: That’s not fair.

Employee rights advocates are saying the Michelin program, and others like it, amount to “legal discrimination,” the WSJ quoted Lew Maltby, a worker’s rights advocate in Princeton, NJ. “While companies are calling them wellness incentives, the penalties are essentially salary cuts by a different name.”

“It means workers are getting their pay cut for no legitimate reason,” he said.

Good grief. Don’t you love it?

OK, so it is apparently not fair to hold employees accountable for their personal health.

Let’s shift to the other side of the healthcare cost equation, providers – doctors, hospitals and others. They, too, are being criticized for contributing to increasing healthcare costs. Consumer advocates – I wonder if Mr. Maltby is in that loosely defined group – are arguing for reimbursement recalibration.

What an innocuous sounding word, “recalibration,” until you understand that what it really means is that the federal government and private insurance companies are going to cut the money they pay to hospitals and doctors under healthcare reform and deficit reduction initiatives. It is a cut in the pay for a group of workers who went to school for 10 years or more, who pay the earth for malpractice coverage, and who work long hours – for “no legitimate reason.”

Maybe I will have that martini after all.

Abandoned But Still Relevant

Posted on March 22, 2013 by John G. Self

I just had a senior moment. Not the kind associated with old age with an ever so slight hint at forgetfulness or, worse, the earliest stages of dementia, but a real honest to goodness meet up with the inescapable fact that I am now a “gentleman of a certain age.”

It happened as I was thumbing through the Brooks Brothers spring catalog that arrived in the mail. The cover notwithstanding, at page two I dropped the magazine in shock — none of the models looked like me. They were thin with a hint of European ancestry, one with a rangy beard and flowing locks could have been a Russian Oligarch. He was pictured with an exotic looking woman. None were wearing clothes that remotely resemble the Brooks Brothers fashion I have worn for years. Gone were the familiar older models, people like me, displaying an elegant sport coat or pinstripe suit. No, this catalog was filled mostly with hip, extra slim fashions that, in years past, would have drawn disapproving stares in the elite so-called white shoe, very conservative law firms, banks or search firms of New York where Brooks Brothers earned its reputation as the clothier to the business elite.

Over the last five years I have noticed that the inventory at my Brooks Brothers store in Dallas was changing, featuring more and more of the stylish slim cut shirts, and sleek trim slacks, sans pleats, all at the expense of the more traditional fitting attire that men of my age require. I was being forced to buy more and more on-line instead of seeing my old friends at the store. And now this spring catalog! I feel as though the abandonment is now complete.

My senior moment led me to realize that not only is Brooks Brothers changing but so are all the rules of career and personal brand management, providing mature executives across America with their own senior moments as I learned at the annual American College of Healthcare Executives Congress last week.

More than a few senior executives privately say they are facing doubts about their own relevance in a rapidly changing environment – shaped by the Affordable Care Act, the future negative impact of deficit reduction, a constant onslaught of new technology and cutting edge connectivity tools, and the approaching tidal wave of bright, well-educated executives eager to move to the C-suite. Many have hinted, or expressed specific concerns, that the speed of change is causing them to question whether they can keep up the pace.

OK, so I am no longer an exclusive Brooks Brothers customer. It is not the end of the world. The tailors at the Neiman Marcus flagship store in Dallas, many who look like me, seem to understand my angst and they have assured me that all is really OK.

Amid the flurry of senior moments, I would encourage current and future senior executives to keep these points in mind:

Be Kind, Be Gracious – There is nothing more attractive than a successful executive who takes the high ground, one of the best, most rewarding places to be. Talented, competent leaders with a solid track record who are also nice and gracious leaders are absolutely golden. They are the type of leaders that recruiters covet.
Don’t Feel or Act Threatened – The only leaders who should feel threatened by technology, their age, level of energy or the competition for the best jobs, are those who have not embraced change. For those who think they can coast into retirement, a bad surprise is probably right around the corner. In my own case, I have learned more in the last five years than the previous 15. I am fascinated and excited by the technology and the possibilities created by our ever-increasing connectivity. I have a social media consultant and I have embraced the various social networking platforms. Meanwhile, I have come to admire many of today’s popular musicians even if I cannot wear the slim fit suits and straight legged jeans of their younger fans. Many of my contemporaries roll their eyes in wonder, amazement or skepticism when they ask about the music mix I am listening to, but it works for me and it helps me keep connected with a new generation of clients. (I recently had my first search with a panel comprised of under-35 candidates and I was reminded, repeatedly, that texting is the new voicemail).
Embrace Change and Technology, If Not Jay Z – Unless you are in the most secure of positions, with an attractive guaranteed severance plan that will allow you to flow into retirement without skipping a financial beat, brand and career management remain a strategic imperative. Technology and the connectivity offered by the social networking platforms as well as YouTube, provide competent executives with exciting and empowering tools to manage their brand and overcome the traditional market filters of web-based employment portals, job boards and, yes, search firms. Smart companies hire people who can deliver results – value. Most avoid candidates – regardless of age – who by their appearance, presence and resume appear out of date and out of sync.

Moral of the story: Your age should not be an issue unless you allow it to become one. I am having more fun, with greater intellectual reward than at any time in my career.

The younger guys will have to run a little faster if they want to catch me, but that might be kind of difficult in those body-clinging new suits.

OK, I apologize. That was not so gracious.