Last week we talked a little bit about what it means to be bold, and this week we’ll talk about what the videogame Frogger can teach us about why we need to be bold.  Do you remember Frogger?  The premise of the video game is that you have to move the frog across all of the traffic and through the obstacles in order to make it to the other side to advance, score points, and win.

There is no safe space in Frogger.  There is no reward for the person who plays it safe and waits for the time to run out.  You either find a way to make it across or you don’t.  If you run out of time or if you get hit by a car, you still lose.  In Frogger you don’t ask permission to move.  You don’t evaluate every single insignificant detail to chart the correct path.  You don’t wait for a committee to make you feel good about your decisions.  You look at the situation, choose what you think is the best path based on the info you have, and then you move.   Bottom line is that you have to move or you won’t ever be able to win.

Have you ever realized that we are playing a live action game of Frogger?  The cars trying to hit us are disease and competitors.  The obstacles we have to navigate are the changing healthcare environment, patient activation, patient adherence, and growing through volume.  Our time limit is patent expirations and windows of opportunity that are closing faster and faster each day.  Our victory is financial success and helping patients.  We are playing live action Frogger, and the only difference is the way we play Lilly Frogger.  Here, we spend a fair amount of time hesitating.  We wait for permission.  We wait for people to confirm all of our ideas.  We keep holding out to make sure we analyze every single little thing to ensure we don’t have buyer’s remorse later because of a decision we made.  All of the while, the time bar is going down and cars and obstacles are swirling around us.

Just like in the real Frogger, you have to move fast or you won’t ever be able to win.  Why do we need bold leadership?  Bold ideas lead to action.  Action leads to movement.  Movement is the only thing that gives us a chance to win.  Are you feeling froggy?  Are you bold enough to leap?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry