Thursday, July 19, 2007

What Has Five Hats and a Hundred Thousand Hands?

So I’m with my family and 50,000 of our closest friends at the Live Earth concert near New York City when these five college aged guys with backward hats start whooping and hollering like they had found gold or were giving birth to those little creatures in Alien. I was hesitant to turn around and inquire “Are you ok? Have you been invaded?” Soon I noticed that the noise level was way beyond five guys, in fact it had started to spread in a pattern. Great, I thought, we’re all being invaded.

Soon the noise was way away from us and we could see it and it was…The Wave…

Let’s just say those five guys were pretty proud of themselves for moving 50,000 people to follow their lead. Five hats moved 100,000 hands. Go figure. We understand that challenge at FasterCures. We have been trying to move a $100 billion research enterprise in this country on a budget of only a few million dollars a year. Now, with our grant from Sumner Redstone of $35 million, we have a chance to start a real wave. But, it is still a huge challenge for even $35 million to move $100 billion. And, that is why we are gathering our “five hats” -- smart friends and advisors to help us determine how to create a wave that will move $100 billion to accelerate the discovery of cures. Seems impossible, but then again…I was at a concert the other day and there were these five guys with backward hats…

Greg