I often get asked four really interesting questions:

Where are you from (meaning why are you not black, brown) or wait, are you?
How old are you?
Why are you doing VumaTV?
What is the one thing that you’ve done that you enjoyed the most?

As you can imagine, my responses to these questions are all very cleanly rehearsed. They are delivered flawlessly. But one is more emotional than the others: number four by far. That answer comes easy for me because of the impact it had on me and the families we were serving. Given all of the amazing, challenging, hard, and unfair things that I’ve seen, this one will always stand out in front of the others.

The most amazing thing I have ever been a part of was running the International Children's Heart Foundation. Think of Doctors Without Borders but we focused on children with congenital heart disease globally (from the middle east to eastern Europe and beyond). I remember the first time I met with the founder, who I mentioned in one of my previous posts as someone I trusted and respected, Dr. William Novick. I called him the most sophisticated redneck I knew. Why? For two reasons: because I respected him (and it’s hard to earn my respect) and he had the biggest heart of anyone I knew (oh, and he would often spew things like “Roll-Tide”). It was no coincidence that he founded an organization that was fixing little babies’ hearts all over the word instead of making all of the money he should have been making. You see, Bill was one of the world's top child cardiologists. He could have been living the egotistical heart surgeon lifestyle but instead was caring for children that didn’t have anyone else to care for them in parts of the world where many choose not to go to.

I met Bill at an event in the Dominican Republic when we were seated at the same table. Bill was one of those guys who knew most of the world’s presidents or high level cabinet personnel by first name and they knew him as well (I am serious, he did and does). The guy has logged in more miles than anyone I know and I happen to know a few interesting people. Bill had a cane that night, as he had just had knee surgery. As expected, two big guys with big personalities started speaking to each other, finding common ground, and hours later I was committing to helping get Bill and the organization in front of some of my corporate contacts in Minneapolis. He mentioned that he was going to Iraq for a surgical trip so he would be gone for a few weeks but that when he returned back to the US he would reach out to me.

Weeks passed. I was in Miami visiting my family when I got a call from Bill. I remember I was at GNC doing my monthly protein shopping. He started with, “Hey Alberto, I am back”. We had a lengthy conversation; all the while I still had not paid for my merchandise (I made myself comfortable in the stockroom - I’m serious). Next thing you know, Bill and I had a trip scheduled to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/Saint Paul. When Bill arrived he still had his cane, as he had not healed completely from his surgery, but this was the type of man he was. He should not have been traveling while trying to recuperate from knee surgery, but he found it more important to travel to, of all the places, Iraq (not the safest place at that time) to help others. The president of the board, Brett Rodrigues, who was in the Bacardi family and another board member from Connecticut joined him.

I picked them up at the airport and started on our day full of introductory meetings. It was an interesting sight, me, 6’4 and Bill (with his cane), 6’6 or taller. The others were not as assuming as we were (and Brett had a short man’s complex). We went to Starkey, one of the world's largest hearing aid companies and headquartered in Minnesota, and US Bank before lunch. For lunch we had a closed meeting between the four of us. The bread and water came and the conversation started. Brett leaned over during one of his monologues and said, “You know, we are looking for a CEO”. A weird silence covered the room as if someone passed gas and the next thing that came out of Bill’s mouth I will never forget. You see, Bill, or Dr. Novick, is about six feet six and was the type of man who always finished all of his food, if you know what I mean. He has this intense, serious, and extremely powerful stare. He looked at Brett, positioned himself on the chair in a stiff way, put both of his elbows on the dining table, and stared at Brett. “Brett, do you know what you’re saying? Do you know that this guy has diesel fuel running through his veins?” That guy was me and he was right…

Part of my administrative team at the International Childrens Heart Foundation.

It was as if he knew who I was because we were so much alike. Men that did not know how to take no for an answer, men who would find the yes in anything, and men who have big shoulders and who were not afraid to put the weight of the world on them. As flattered as I was that the president of the board of this international organization was courting me to be CEO of this company, I responded with, “Well Brett, thank you for considering me for something like this, but I may not be the right person for this assignment. You see, I know nothing about cardiology”. Bill responded with, “We don’t need another medical director (that was him), we need an administrator that will be able to do things to help us become sustainable long term”. They asked me to think about it. I said, “I will, but I may have someone more suitable for this position”.

A few days later, I found myself with Bill in Memphis where the organization was headquartered. I flew out to meet with him and to see their offices, not even sure how I got there. We went out to dinner and during dinner Bill asked where I was with my decision and said that they had some immediate tasks that needed attention. Still reluctant to take the position, I said, “Look Bill, I will give you three months of my time to conduct my proprietary discovery process that will help me get a lay of the corporate land and what the organization’s immediate needs are”. I asked to stay with him at his house during those 90 days to aid in the knowledge transfer and because that would help us continue to build a relationship. We shook on it that night.

I went back to Minneapolis to pick up some clothes and headed right back to steamy Memphis. I started interviewing all team members privately and conducting my analysis. It had been no more than two weeks when the organization needed me in Guayaquil, Ecuador, as they were gearing up for a medical trip. Each trip consisted of anywhere from 25-40 heart surgeons, anesthesiologists, ICU staff, and so on. We would take all of the technologies and supplies we needed and the hospital that we were going to operate in (many of them had limited capabilities) would welcome us with open arms. Ecuador, here I come. My travel experiences were a little different than what I am doing now at AfroLife.TV. These trips were all government approved trips, where the administration of the country knew were were coming: the Vice President, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Finance, the First Lady, so on and so on. I, as the lead administrator of the organization, got to see many private and back room areas of airports and government offices. So the plane landed and three gentlemen came onboard to escort me off the flight before anyone else. They ushered me through a VIP area of the airport and off I went, getting customs clearance in an SUV on my way to the hotel. What?...

The next day, I arrived at the hospital, met with the hospital director, and got to work. The team started to arrive group by group at the hotel and hospital. There was an energy that was unmistakable and new for me. Day one of surgeries came; the medical team was prepping the OR and the ICU and I was doing the press tour with the hospital director (yes, like CNN style press tour/conference) in both English and Spanish (I mean it was Ecuador after all). The children who were on the operation list for this trip were getting checked in and examined and the joyfulness in the air suddenly turned very serious.

After the cameras left and the first day of surgeries ended, I got to go into the ICU to see the first children that had just come out of life-saving open heart surgery. I walked in and saw this:

This little girl opened her eyes, looked at me, and looked around the room. We were both struggling with tears; as I was fighting them off, hers were flowing. One of our team members from London walked over to me, as he was studying my reaction, and whispered to me, “Children don’t know how to be sick, they don’t know how to act because it is not common to them so they just cry”. It was at that point that I forfeited the 90 day discovery analysis and committed myself to this amazing organization that was saving children’s lives all over the world.

I certainly was not a doctor but I knew how to find Waldo in an organization and how to fix and run a business. I also quickly learned the difference between ASD and VSD disease in the heart.

Impact and innovation drive me to keep pushing in life and at work. Dealing with fake investors and other challenges here have nothing on being responsible for someone’s life and fixing their heart, so don’t think that the challenges I have faced launching VumaTV will ever amount to other things I’ve done in previous lives. I’ve said this before, I am built for this.

Have you ever seen a heart beating? Here you go. You are welcome.

Miles logged