The year was 2020, a mysterious illness was sweeping across the globe. Almost overnight, countries began closing borders and closing down. Individual economies sagged, then the world economy seized and hung in the balance. ICUs were packed, morgues were overflowing. The situation was grim. Then the doctors and nurses began to fall ill. The makeshift PPE they had been forced to resort to failed to seal out the deadly pathogen. But trash bags, scarves and snowboard goggles aren’t designed for that sort of work so the outcome was to be expected. The various elements of the government charged with foreseeing such catastrophes failed to prepare, did not restock national stockpiles of PPE and did not put in an emergency order in the early stage of the contagion. This tragic oversight set the country back, but America is a fighter, never down for the count.
The government rebounded from their initial failure, and pulled out all the stops to mass produce the critical gear that would keep our healthcare workers in the fight and slow the spread of the novel virus. It was Apollo 13 meets the Manhattan Project. The brightest minds across the country were brought together in real time with the miracle of the internet and provided an unlimited budget and a simple mandate: GET IT DONE!
Before we proceed with the big reveal, meet the competition:
Now for the big reaveal:
SO… All that up there was sarcasm, none of it happened. The surgeon general put a t shirt on his face and that’s all. If you literally have NO OTHER OPTIONS, click the thumbnail to learn how to make your own t-shirt face mask.
What actually happened is FAR more amazing than the previous work of fiction. Without any government directive, an entrepreneurial outfit in LA called Suay Sew Shop with 30 staff decided to re-purpose their entire operation with the goal of finding a replacement for the N95 masks. They bought a particle counter capable of testing down to 0.3 microns and did REAL science. They tried multiple stitch patters, different cloths and different inserts. The story is HERE and I hope you’ll click the link and read what they accomplished, it’s inspiring. The miracle ingredient turned out to be blue shop towels! They managed to make a mask that filtered 93% of particles down to 0.3 microns in size, a homemade N93 mask if you will. Visit their Go Fund Me to help them in their effort to get these much needed masks to the healthcare workers on the front lines.
There’s a few important lessons.
- We’re on our own, don’t trust the government, don’t rely on the government.
2. An extension of the first, the market has the answers, empower the market and trust the free people of this once free country.
3. I sure am glad this little business wasn’t ordered to close.
Why trust the market? Consider this: there is one government, populated by people that think and act… the way government workers do (for those lacking extensive experience in Government, think DMV). And on the other hand, there are 30.2 small business populated by tough minded people who necessarily think and act very differently. You have to if you are going to be an entrepreneur! Quick example: in the single category of “Restaurants”, there are millions of small businesses and they survive by all thinking just a little bit differently. From my experiences with government, thinking differently in that line of work is a liability and a career killer.
So I ask, 1 or the 30.2 million, where will the innovation come from? My bet is on the Suay Sew Shops. Every. Damn. Time.
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