Purpose and a Paycheck by Chris Farrell

Author:Chris Farrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 2018-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

7

Doing Well by Doing Good

Life teaches you how to live it, if you live long enough.

—TONY BENNETT1

Michael Butler, age 60, wants to make the world a better place. Specifically, he is creating Novocognia, the chronic kidney disease education specialists. Novocognia will help at-risk minority populations identify, manage, and achieve better health results for all stages of chronic kidney disease. “That is my elevator speech,” says Butler.2

Butler grew up in Florida and moved to New York in his early 20s. His career was in the health care industry, including EKG technician and sales representative for a pacemaker company. For the past nine years, he has been a kidney dialysis patient. Like many dialysis patients, he went through an early difficult period with the demanding three-times-a-week treatment. “Dialysis is an art form,” he says. “There is a steep learning curve for the nephrologist and the patient.”

The experience pushed the East Village resident to become a certified patient advocate. He also learned he had another skill—public speaking. Butler was in a nocturnal dialysis program. It’s a slower, longer treatment that takes place at night while sleeping. He was invited to speak at industry conferences and gatherings about living with dialysis and his experience with nocturnal dialysis. “I’m not a public speaker,” says Butler. “But this resonated with me. It all came together.”

Butler is concerned about rising numbers of minorities needing dialysis and well-documented disparities in their treatment. The people he sees at the dialysis center he attends in New York City seem younger to him, in their 30s and 40s. He was also concerned at how little people knew about dialysis when they came to the treatment center. “They know nothing when they come to the dialysis center,” he says. “I’m thinking, why aren’t they getting help? I felt compelled to do something.”

He was still mulling over what to do when he signed up for the entrepreneurship class at Senior Planet in Manhattan. “Immediately, I had my ‘aha moment,’” he says. “Let me start a business and address health care disparities felt by minority populations.”

He is working with lawyers to get his enterprise set up. The legal advisors are recommending a hybrid nonprofit and for-profit business model. He has two mentors from SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives. These veteran executives volunteer to help small businesses owners start and grow their enterprise. One of his SCORE mentors is knowledgeable about nonprofits and the other is well-versed in branding. He has signed up several board members. “I am surprised at myself,” he says. “I am not a business person.”

He is passionate about the project. When I talked to him in the summer of 2018, Butler was still refining the business plan. He was spending time trying to understand the nonprofit world better. The initial focus of the kidney disease education initiative to minority communities will be workshops, seminars, and (eventually) online education. He plans on starting the outreach efforts with minority churches, where he has good connections. He’ll also reach out to schools. His instructors will include his fellow dialysis patient advocates.

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