With all due apologies to McGeorge Bundy, considered by many to be one of the architects of the Vietnam War, I’m struck by the fourth of his lessons learned from the book “Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam”:

• Conviction without rigor is a strategy for disaster.

Bundy’s point is that having strong beliefs alone isn’t enough. Hard work, analysis, etc. is required to turn that conviction into successful action. Who among us doesn’t share the conviction that the Internet holds awesome promise as a tool for effective marketing and operational efficiency? The question then becomes who among us is willing to exert the rigor necessary to realize that vision? As many of you have heard me say before, the only difference between a vision and a hallucination is the number of people who can see it. Based on registrations for the Healthcare Internet conference, which are right on track with last year, it looks like a lot of you can see the vision quite clearly, and are willing to exert the rigor necessary to turn that vision into reality. WikiPedia defines lifelong learning as the "self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. As such, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and employability.” We think it says a lot about our industry that in these tough times, so many take that so seriously. If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time.  And if you are coming, please join us for the Greystone.Net Client Conference.  If nothing else, you’ll want to see the outstanding award winners to be announced at the Best in Class awards luncheon.  And we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you to start connecting now on the Healthcare Internet Conference social networking site. Those connections are half the benefit!