Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes

– Okay ZPAC, we need to have a heart-to-heart, okay? I bet you’re not gonna share this video and I’ll tell you why. Recently I did a video about how I’m feeling really burned out, that nothing is changing. I’m shouting, and shouting, and shouting, and nothing is changing. I feel like people are using me to put a band-aid on things like burnout, and physician wellness, and provider wellness, and all this. And, look, I’ll tell you why I’m really made. After that video I got a ton of really supportive messages. Man, I’m with you, I’m burned out too. I feel like nothing’s changing. And then I got messages from really, really connected and powerful people who are like I feel you too. This is something I’ve felt, et cetera. And here’s my question, then why the hell aren’t you standing up and shouting. I’m talking to everybody in the ZPAC. We are so afraid of losing our job, losing our income, of things changing that we sit and we internalize all this hurt and injury, this moral injury. But we do nothing about it because we’re fear-driven. And, look, I’ve been there, I’m sometimes still there. There’s still sometimes things that I don’t say because I’m afraid, well, what if a potential sponsor hears that and won’t work with us? But you know what, now I no longer care. Because I realize the path to change is we have to stop being so damn agreeable. We have to stop being so tolerant of this horrible system. We have to stop being tolerant of people that suck. So if you have a leader in your organization that just sucks throw ’em out, okay? We’re all afraid that if we say something, if I share this video, the ZDogg’s ranting about how we need to change the system, if we become this intolerant minority we’re gonna get stomped, we’re gonna get fired. Nurses have been fired for sharing my stuff, for sharing my stuff they’ve been fired. A doctor in Florida got fired for sharing one of my videos because it made a statement, okay, that is disgusting. Individually, in these organizations we will be stomped. Why can’t we all stand up together? What if we all shared this video at once? They can’t fire us all, if they did, well, they’re up creek aren’t they because nothing’s gonna happen. It would be the effective equivalent of having civil disobedience if we all got ourselves fired at once, right? And if you think you can’t be rehired somewhere that’s a lie they tell you. Oh, you’ll never find a job like this. No one else will hire you. You won’t find the benefits and the team like this anywhere else. That’s a lie they use to control you. And not all these people are bad people trying to control you, just they’re scared. You don’t think our leaders are scared? They can’t staff their hospital. They have trouble recruiting. The costs are high because of burnout. So they get a massage therapist in. And they hire ZDogg, and he comes and gets them fired up. And it’s bull you guys. The only way we fix this is we actually have to transform the system. It has to be us, who else is gonna do it? We dropped the ball, that’s a moral failure on our part, isn’t it? Why do you think I feel so burned out? Because I feel a damn responsibility to try to help catalyze this thing. And then I see people sitting on their ass too, they’re like I’m scared. And after I did that video I’m getting all these emails. Oh, I hear you man, the struggle is real. No, the answer is what can we do together? How can we make noise together, you know? We have this huge platform, why aren’t we using it? I’m not letting you off the hook anymore, okay? It’s time to slap you around a little bit, like this is not a joke. This is the future not just for us, it’s for our children. This is the future not just for healthcare, for the whole country. This is an albatross around our neck, this $3.5 trillion albatross that’s destroying us. Man, we’ve gone to war for less than our own healthcare system has done to our own people. You see it every day, well, what do we do? Oh, this is the system man, it’s hard. Really, I don’t know why I’m so depressed and why I’m feeling so unhappy. But I still go to work and don’t change. Nothing changes, nothing’s ever gonna change, bull .

– [Tom] Nothing changes if nothing changes.

– Nothing changes if nothing change, like Tom said. Tom and I were talking about this. How do you think all the great revolutions in history have happened, it takes a bunch of people suddenly waking up together. That’s what happened in Civil Rights. That’s what happened in Arab Spring. That’s what’s happening right now in healthcare, you just don’t know it. And if you’re in denial about it it’s time to wake up. I’m telling you, because I have tendrils out everywhere. I hear from people all around, and change is coming. And either you are gonna be a legacy player, one of these big medical industrial complex organizations that’s just trying to resist it and keep their piece of the pie, or you’re gonna be on the leading edge of change. And you know what, you are gonna be the ones that are running it in the future. But you have to own that. You have to own how powerful you are. And I’m talking to CNAs, I’m talking to LVNs. I’m talking to environmental science engineers, people who you think have no power. You’re the ones just by sharing a video who change the conversation. Just by doing little things every day that make things a little bit more health 3.0. By the end there’s a tipping point and everything’s changed. But it takes loud angry people, okay, which is us, which is us, all right? That’s all I’m saying, I know you’re gonna be scared to share this. But if you get a couple friends and share it together they can’t fire us all. I’ll say this, doctors, my own colleagues are the most risk-averse, we’re the most scared. And, look, I actually have a lot of empathy because I’m terrified every day I wake up I’m scared. Every day I’m terrified you guys, seriously, I’m seriously scared. Does that stop me from doing , no, all right? It shouldn’t stop you either, so let’s stop living in fear, all right? I have no idea what this is for, except to start this happening in a way that it can’t be stopped. And it’s already in motion you guys, be a part of it, all right, we out.