Much has been written lately lamenting that expense management has never been more important and that there are not enough qualified individuals to lead the charge within healthcare organizations to make the needed changes.

These writings comment on the lack of support or understanding from administration and other departments; that silos are still prevalent and that some supply chain managers are unable or unwilling to challenge the status quo. Within these writings there are also the requisite examples of those select few organizations that have true leaders with responsibility for the effective operation of the supply chain and how much they have positively impacted the people and the organizations they work with.

Someone once said that only with great risks come great rewards. There are, of course, many examples to support this theory. From great political risks, such as Abraham Lincoln’s choice to go to war in order to save the union of the United States of America to Chuck Yeager’s decision to strap himself to a rocket in order to advance jet fighter and eventual space flight technology. Both of these are examples of individuals who took risks not just for personal glory but also for the betterment of mankind.

You can find many, many more examples of risk and sacrifice made by individuals documented in our history books. And every day we hear examples of heroics from our men and women in uniform both domestically and abroad. However, for every one person whose name is well known or reported in the news, there are thousands of names that are known only to a special few. These individuals have made an impact on the people they work with, their families and friends. They share a willingness to make the hard decisions and ultimately do what they believe to be right regardless of the consequences.

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." From The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1995), pp. 258-259

Failure stinks. It just does. Anyone that tells you differently does not have enough of himself or herself invested in what they are doing. They just don’t care enough about their role, their mission, or the impact they are having on others. You have to really care about what you are doing in order to be truly successful. Unfortunately this means that it is also going to hurt when you fail. If you do not love what you are doing enough to risk the pain of failure, then you probably need to be doing something else. Sound harsh? Maybe. It is just that we are in crises in healthcare today, and there is no more room in this industry for those who are not willing to step up and be recognized. Individuals must embrace their roles, whatever those roles may be, and do what must be done.