PART FOUR
XVII
You don’t have to be a genius to see that a nation full of overeating, pill-popping, TV-watching, iPod-wired, shopaholic, attention-deficit-disordered people is not going to make it. We could be headed for extinction if we don’t watch out. And if we really doaspire to be great again, we’ve got our work cut out for us.
If this is the price of success, I’d rather lose.
I want to talk about a few of the things I’m experiencing these days that disturb me about our culture. These are more than just pet peeves. In many ways we’ve lost our compass, and we don’t know whether we’re coming or going. Leadership isn’t just a matter of putting someone at the front of the parade—unless you’re a lemming. All of us have to develop leadership qualities and nurture them in our children. Qualities such as responsibility, accountability, discipline, and community spirit.
GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT
Sometimes I wonder if we’d be better off with less success. Maybe our minds are getting a little warped. We have five hundred TV channels, plus the Internet. Too much TV, too much Internet, too many e-mails. I’m not knocking computers, but as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Do you ever stop and think about how you’re actually benefiting from this brave new computer world? I made the mistake of giving my cousin my e-mail address. This guy loves to tell jokes. He sent me fifty-three jokes—all dirty. Who has the time—or the interest?
Our society is the most affluent in the history of mankind. Nobody ever had it so good, and yet all you ever hear about is how depressed everyone is, how anxious, how nervous. What’s going on? I’d like to see the statistics for how many other countries in the world are being plagued by similar ills. I wonder how many Japanese and Chinese kids are being treated for ADD/ADHD.
Isn’t it time for us to admit that we’ve become a pill-pop-ping society? We think there’s a little blue or white or pink or yellow pill for whatever ails us, and the drug companies are even selling direct to the customer big time. “Ask your doctor if [fill in the blank medication] is right for you.” If we’re not careful, we’re going to medicate ourselves right out of being.
THE ISSUE THAT EATS AT ME
Sometimes the dichotomy of my life gives me the bends. One day I’m trying to do something about fat kids dying in America, and the next day I’m trying to do something about malnourished kids dying someplace else. What’s wrong with this picture? People in Darfur are starving to death, and we’re eating five thousand calories a day of fast food. Are we nuts?
I told you about my work with Nourish the Children. Most of my energies for the past twenty-two years have gone to my foundation, whose mission it is to find a cure for diabetes. I started the Iacocca Foundation in 1984, after my wife Mary died from complications of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of the pancreatic islet cells that produce insulin. It is a devastating disease, and can lead to an early death. I made it my mission to find a cure. The Iacocca Foundation is mostly dedicated to medical research. I hope this work becomes my legacy. We’re lucky to have some smart, highly motivated people running the foundation—starting with my daughter Kathi, who is the president, and Dana Ball, our executive director. My younger daughter Lia is also involved, as a foundation trustee. We’re getting close to a cure, and I still think it may happen in my lifetime. But I’m not counting my white mice before they’re hatched because medical research is a one-step-forward, two-steps-back kind of deal.
The world of medical research has been a real education for me. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that it suffers from the same kind of leadership malaise we’re seeing in the rest of society. I’m learning that research is a lot like government—kind of a self-generating bureaucracy. You do research so you can write papers to get more funding to do more research to write more papers. This was a big shock to me when I finally figured it out. I said, “Hey, isn’t anyone trying to find a cure?”
The most innovative research is often killed during the peer review process. Why? Well, let me put it to you simply: Imagine if every time Chrysler wanted to bring a new car to market, it had to depend on positive reviews from GM and Ford. Are you starting to get the picture?
Let me tell you a little story. In 2001, Dr. Denise Faustman, a longtime Iacocca Foundation–supported researcher, approached our board. Dr. Faustman is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. I happen to think she’s brilliant and dedicated, which is a winning combination. Dr. Faustman told us that she had remarkable data from a project funded by the foundation. It was one of those thrilling “Eureka!” moments of discovery in our work. Dr. Faustman had spent eight years trying to identify the source of the autoimmune attack that causes type 1 diabetes. In the process, she identified the bad cells that are responsible for the disease. After eliminating them in mice with drug therapy, she reported for the first time that regeneration of the damaged adult stem cells was possible. Suddenly, there was light at the end of the tunnel. We believed that human trials were not that far away. In 2003, Dr. Faustman published another paper that con-firmed the regeneration project, and that’s when the gloves came off.
Suddenly the diabetes research community was up in arms. Things got ugly. Competing organizations got the word out to donors that Dr. Faustman was a fraud. It was an undignified free-for-all. When we tried to keep discussions focused on science, people acted like angry children, name-calling, and trying to discredit both Dr. Faustman and the Iacocca Foundation. They saw regeneration as a threat, all right. A threat to the regeneration of their funding.
It took a while, but the major research organizations eventually came around. Today, even the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation admits that regeneration is one of the most promising research directions. But the process was bloody.
The politics of stem cell research is a costly distraction. While everyone is busy fighting about embryonic stem cells, we’re missing a big chance to make breakthroughs with adult stem cells. For the past twenty years, adult stem cells have proven their success. We use them to regenerate bone marrow, blood, and skin. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, have never cured a single disease or been used in a single therapy. We don’t even know if they’re capable of it. So, why don’t we go with what we know—regeneration—instead of wasting our time debating about some distant fantasy of a miracle with embryonic stem cells? Once again, I have to ask, does anyone out there really want a cure?
Sometimes the medical research organizations get so busy raising money and running their bureaucracies that they lose sight of the mission. The National Institutes of Health, funded by our tax dollars, spend billions of dollars a year on diabetes. You try to find out where the money goes. And if you do, let me know, because I sure haven’t had any luck getting information.
We’ve got to remember that we’re talking about real people here. Diabetes is a terrible disease that basically kills you from the inside out. Watching Mary die was a slow, agonizing process. Nothing could stop the progress of the disease, and the worst part for me was that overwhelming sense of helplessness. Mary was only fifty-seven years old when she died and she suffered terribly.
Mary didn’t live to see her two gorgeous daughters get married. She never had a chance to know her seven grandchildren, or to see them growing into the kind of adults she would be proud of. If I can do something to keep this tragedy from happening to another family, I’m going to give it my all.
A NEW EPIDEMIC
What has been discouraging is that even as we’ve made progress in research on type 1 diabetes, there is a growing epidemic of obesity—especially childhood obesity—which leads to type 2 diabetes, a condition that prevents the insulin-producing cells from functioning normally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one out of every three American children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. How do you start fixing that problem?
Well, first you have to ask why it exists in the first place. When you get to the core of the problem you find that it’s behavior-based, which is the toughest challenge of all. Most type 2 diabetes can be attributed to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, which cause insulin resistance. More than sixty million Americans are obese, and the number is growing, right along with the waistlines.
Some researchers are working on a magic pill so you can eat all the crap you want and not get fat. Others are talking about gastric-bypass surgery as a therapy for type 2 diabetes. In other words, we’re still looking for the instant fix. We want to stay fit and trim while stuffing ourselves in front of the TV, instead of exercising and eating right. Listening to people talk about getting their stomachs stapled as a cure for obesity is one of the most depressing things I’ve ever heard.
The Iacocca Foundation, whose original mission has been to find a cure for type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent), has now had to spend more money to address type 2 diabetes. It’s naïve to think there is a quick fix. We’ve got to face up to the truth: We created this problem by indulging our desire for instant gratification. Instead of using our heads and our God-given free wills and intellects, we’ve reverted to our basest natures. I call it the goldfish principle. If you’ve ever had goldfish, you know what I’m talking about. You have to regulate how much of the fish food you sprinkle in the tank every day. If you pour too much in, the goldfish will keep eating until they literally blow up. They don’t have a signal that says stop. It sounds an awful lot like twenty-first-century America.
HOPE TAKES WORK
I’m still learning that there is no such thing as easy when it comes to accomplishing big goals. A couple of years ago, when we realized that we’d need $11.5 million to get Dr. Faustman started on a human clinical trial, I said, “No problem. I can raise $11.5 million in a heartbeat. All I need is myself and ten other rich guys.” I plunked down my million dollars and started calling my friends. I didn’t get too far, although I am thankful for a good friend who anonymously joined me at the $1 million level and to many others who contributed. But I realized that my friends had their own causes. I had to remind myself once again that the important stuff is never easy.
What did I do? I returned to the playbook I used to raise money for the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Commission. I went to the people. We started a campaign called Join Lee Now, and asked Americans for small donations. They came pouring in—the average gift is $75—and since the beginning they have contributed more than $2 million.
Then I got really creative. I made a deal with Chrysler to film four commercials for $1.5 million, with the money going to the foundation. As part of the deal, Chrysler and its dealers agreed to donate one dollar for every car they sold between November 2005 and December 2006, and they raised $3 million.
The commercials were part of a campaign to woo young buyers to Chrysler. The one that got the most attention paired me with the hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg. It was called “Golfing Buddies,” and they put us on a golf course in a souped-up golf cart during the shoot. It was 102 degrees that day and the shoot took almost eight hours.
Snoop Dogg seemed like a nice kid, but I never understood a word he said.
I got a kick out of how Chrysler used my famous pitch line from the eighties—“If you can find a better car, buy it”—and translated it into Snoop Dogg–speak: “If the ride is more fly, then you must buy.” What I’ll do for the cause!
I still enjoy a challenge, and I always feel as if I get back more than I give. That’s what I’d like to pass on to the younger generation—the rewards of being involved. I’ve started with my own grandkids. I want them to know how lucky they are to be in a position to give back—because they have been given so much.
I’ve been heartened lately to read that young people are getting involved in volunteering again. The “9/11 generation” experienced a jolt of reality, and their response has been to reach out. Applications for the Peace Corps are at record levels. I hope the trend continues. Who wouldn’t want to live in a country whose leaders have altruistic, charitable hearts? In the race to determine who will own the twenty-first century, I’ll place my bets on the givers, not the takers.