Ever wonder why they call surgery rooms operating theaters?
That’s easy, Kelvin, they are called operating theaters because back in the day, surgery was a spectacle, and people would gather to watch, thus the name operating theater.
Okay, smartypants, I bet you don’t know the answer to this one: do you know about Robert Liston?
Ah, you’ve gone all quiet now, huh?
Okay, I’ll tell you then.
Robert Liston was a Scottish surgeon from the early 19th century. Robert Liston was especially skilled at amputation. This, of course, was back when they operated without anesthesia. So, to minimize the death rate, surgeons had to operate quickly. The quicker the surgeon, the less the patient bleed out, the less pain they had to endure, and the odds of a patient surviving increased.
Well anyway, Mr. Liston was the quickest surgeon of them all.
Thus, his nickname:
The Fastest Knife in The West
End! (he operated in London)
Here are some interest facts about the man (I swear, they are all true)
Interesting fact #1
Not only was Robert Liston greased lightning with the knife, but he was charismatic as hell. He didn’t just operate, he performed. Remember, these surgeons operated in front of large crowds.
Liston treated each operation like it was a Broadway show. He wanted to please the crowd, and please them he did. For each show (operation), he would wear a bottle-green coat with wellington boots. He would leap out from behind a curtain to greet the crowd, and then saunter over to greet the poor bastard whose leg he was about to saw off.
By the way, these willing victims (patients) had to be strapped down and were given, well… nothing.
So anyway, right before Liston started hacking away, he would whip the crowd into a frenzy by raising his knife above his head like Thor with his hammer, then put his blood-stained knife between his teeth, a’ la John Rambo, tie on his blood-stiffened frock coat, take out the knife and yell: “Time me, gentlemen, time me!”
The bloodthirsty crowd (eager-beaver medical students and members of the public) sitting in the galleries would whip out their pocket watches and time him like Olympic officials.
While working on a patient, Liston would prance around the blood-stained floor like David Copperfield performing the double sawing illusion trick, the only difference, Liston would make someone’s leg disappear for good!
Interesting fact #2
Whilst Mr. Linton had the showmanship of David Copperfield and the speed of Bruce Lee, he also had the enthusiasm of Steve Irwin discovering a South China Tiger.
This enthusiasm and pride in being the quickest surgeon sometimes caused a little collateral damage. And by “collateral damage” I mean the cutting off of testicles.
That’s right. During an operation, Mr. Liston was going so freakin’ fast he accidentally cut off a patient’s nuts!
Oy vey!
Interesting fact #3
His fastest leg amputation was a lightening 30-seconds flat.
Interesting fact #4
Robert Liston had a hair-trigger temper and was sometimes a little too confident. This caused many argy bargys with the house-surgeon. One such argument was over whether a young boy’s lump on his neck was a straightforward abscess or a dangerous aneurysm of the carotid artery that… if cut off, blood would gush out from the boy’s neck like a broken fire hydrant and the boy’s death would be certain.
Robert Liston, thumped his fist on his desk, stared down the house-surgeon and snarled, “Listen to me you schmuck, whoever heard of an aneurysm in one so young?”, and proceeded to cut off the boy’s lump.
Liston was wrong.
Oops-a-daisy!
Interesting fact #5
He once removed a scrotal tumor that was so big the owner had to carry it round in a wheelbarrow.
Interesting fact #6
Other surgeons at the time were losing one patient out of four. Liston only lost one out of ten patients, thanks to his speed of operation. Hordes of patients swarmed his clinic in the hope of getting the best in the business to operate on them.
Interesting fact #7
But even the best have bad days. And one certain day at the office was a very, very bad day for ol’ Liston.
Here’s the story:
During one of his operations, the flamboyant Liston accidentally cut off his assistant’s fingers. He must have had a little too much coffee that morning because not only did he cut off his assistant’s digits, but he inadvertently slashed through the coattails of a distinguished surgical spectator who was so stunned by this that he dropped dead from shock.
The results of that operation were this:
The patient he was operating on died of gangrene. His assistant died of gangrene. And the old chap whose coattails got slashed up died from a heart attack.
That’s a 300% mortality rate, and one helluva bad day at the office.
Well, that concludes our little history lesson.
If you’re not much for history, stick around, cuz now I’m going to lay on you 4 business lesson from today’s history lesson that if you apply to your business, well, you might just get hordes of customers clamoring at your business’s door, too.
Let’s hit it.
Lesson # 1
Branding.
Because Liston was so good at his job, people in need of surgery flocked to him because his excellence at surgery made them feel safe!
The best branding is simply to be damn good at what you do. Listen: branding is nothing more than how you or your product or service make people feel. Coca-Cola makes people feel happy. Louis Vuitton makes people feel wealthy, Walmart makes people feel like they’re getting a fair deal.
How does your product or service make people feel? It’s a good question to ask, dontcha think?
Lesson # 2
Robert Liston was a natural performer. He took a serious occupation and made it a spectacle. He literally drew crowds, that in turn, brought in a flood of new business. (clever marketing) Look, I’m not saying you should start actin’ the clown or start strutting around your law firm like you’re David Copperfield, but at least have some style and flair, Chico.
I don’t care if you’re a professor or an accountant, show some personality. If you’ve had a personality bypass, at least be boring with some style, okay?
Lesson # 3
Speed!
I think it was Dan Kennedy who said, money likes speed. I think what he was saying is that in business, you get rewarded for speed of implementation and speed of customer service.
How quickly do you implement new strategies and ideas? How quickly do you get back to customers? How quickly do you perform your service? How quick can you send out your products to paying customers? How fast can you deliver a result for your clients? How quickly can you establish trust and credibility with new prospects?
Remember this little ditty:
If you’re slow, you blow! If you ain’t fast, you won’t last!
But…if you’re swift, your sales will lift!
Howz that for corny, huh?
Lesson # 4
Confidence is great in business but only if it’s kept in check.
Listen, you could say that Liston could have saved that boy’s life had he not been so confident. That may be true, but think about this: had he not been so confident, he probably wouldn’t have saved so many other lives, either!
I guess the lesson here is simply this:
Be confident, but don’t get too big for your boots.
There’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness. You’ve crossed the line from confidence to cockiness when you can no longer consider anyone else’s opinion. At least that’s what a very successful man told me once, but I told him that he’d confused me for someone who gives a crap. After I said that, I sat down and thought to myself, you know, what would that guy know anyway!
Your friend,
Kelvin
Email Marketing Maverick
P.S. Hey, you ready to get serious and start making more sales with your marketing and sales messages? Then proceed here: The Black Book
Peace.
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