Veterans Care Today: Bob Taylor Of Alliant Enterprises On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over The Past Five Years
An Interview With Eric Pines
Never, never, never give up. This also goes with the saying, “things always take longer than you think.” While it was the most annoying advice I routinely received, everything does take longer than you think. If you give up, you will never know if you were about to overcome your challenge.
The daily headlines remind us of how countries around the world care or do not care for their military service members. How does the United States hold up with regard to how it cares for its veterans? We know in the past questions have been raised about the VA system, but it seems that a corner has been turned and veterans’ care has improved. How exactly has the VA system been improved? How does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries? What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes? To address these questions, we are talking to successful physicians, healthcare workers, veterans, or other VA employees and officials who can share stories and insights from their experience about the state of veterans’ care today and how the US has improved its care for veterans over the last five years.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Bob Taylor.
Bob Taylor, CEO/Owner of Alliant Enterprises, is a former Major in the US Air Force and B-52 navigator/radar navigator during Operation Desert Storm, and author of the upcoming book From Service to Success: New Mission, New Purpose, and New Journey to a Great Life. Alliant Enterprises is a verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business that was recognized by the Small Business Administration (SBA) Michigan chapter as the Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year for 2019. As a veteran owner, he has been a staunch advocate for legislative initiatives supporting veteran-owned enterprises and has spoken on Capitol Hill several times.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and a bit about what brought you to this specific career path?
I view myself as a typical Midwesterner from Michigan. I attended Michigan State University for engineering and worked throughout my time there to pay for school. My father died when I was 21 and my life was highly influenced by his battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease when I decided to enter Air Force Officer Training after graduation. My active-duty service included Operation Desert Storm where I flew eleven combat missions. I remained on active duty for another year and then decided to enter civilian life as a medical device engineer. We were trained in minimally invasive surgical techniques and worked directly with surgeons to develop instruments for newly developed surgeries.
I learned as much as possible about every aspect of running a small medical device business and pursued an opportunity to run the operations of a newly formed company. My primary responsibility was to create a vision for the future operations of that business, and it flourished. I sold my interest in that business to start my own and created a business that was built on culture first. We recently celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Alliant Healthcare Products. I’m proud of the employees I work with, and I work very hard to help them achieve their greatest potential.
Much of my success is from the relentless pursuit of my passions which is envisioning the creation of something and seeing those visions become reality. I truly believe that if you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hands. I also have a strong drive to overcome adversity. Sometimes, that has held me back as I tried to deal with some of my struggles by myself. At the same time, I have never given up on doing whatever I needed to do to find my path toward healing. It was this relentless pursuit of my passions that led me to write “From Service to Success.” I just felt driven to share my own experiences and those of other veterans to try to reach out to veterans as they struggle to help in any way I can.
I am married and have two children and two grandchildren. My daughter is an aquatic biologist, and my son is a documentary filmmaker. My wife and I were steadfast in our efforts to help them uncover and pursue their own passions. My wife and my children inspire me!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I think almost every entrepreneur has experienced a time when they either weren’t able to or didn’t know how they would make payroll. In my case, the company had been raising capital for growing our business, but the capital didn’t always come exactly when we needed it. This was our third year in business. I was in my office and had exhausted every morsel of money available to me including all my credit cards, friends-and-family, etc. I had nothing.
I didn’t want to panic anyone, so I hadn’t told people that I didn’t have the money needed to make our $16,000 payroll on the coming Thursday. Just about then, my receptionist walked into my office where I sat with my face in my hands and wanted to tell me something. I gave her my attention and she informed me that over the weekend she and her husband had decided to lend the company $20,000. I tried not to jump out of my seat and scream with joy, so I calmly and graciously accepted and drew up the loan documents. We made payroll!!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I try not to press my own faith on other people, but it is very important to how I live and deal with the trials in my life. My favorite verses in the Bible are from Romans chapter 5, 3–5 “… we also boast in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us.”
I have always been a hope-filled person. I tend to see the positive in life even when I’m faced with very difficult challenges. Nobody is promised an easy path through life. It’s times of great adversity when we can really shine. That’s where our true character lives.
Another quote is from Winston Churchill. “Never, never, never give up.” If there is anything one needs to be a small business owner, it is perseverance. Looking back at my career, I don’t know how many times I could have probably given up. But I didn’t. I will never give up. I have a responsibility to everyone who works for me and their families. How could I possibly give up on them?
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m always working to expand my businesses. We are bringing a new biotechnology product to market to improve blood flow in patients with wounds from diabetic ulcers. The product uses micro and nanotechnology to create new vascularization in critically important areas of the body.
My greatest new effort is what I’m trying to do with my new book, From Service to Success: New Mission, New Purpose, and New Journey to a Great Life. The book is aimed at reducing veteran suicides. In the ten years leading up to 2019, we lost more veterans to suicide than we lost during the ten years of combat in Vietnam. That’s staggering. Another statistic I read this morning was since 2001 we have lost four times more veterans to suicide than we did in all combat operations during that same period.
I want to get as many of these books into the hands of veterans and their families to help them find something that helps them begin to heal. We’re offering several programs to allow the public to purchase a book and then donate one, five, or ten based on their ability. I plan to travel all around the country to go to VA hospitals, veteran groups, or just outside of shopping areas and give From Service to Success to veterans in the communities where they live.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. Based on your experience can you please share three recent improvements to veterans’ care that you are really pleased about?
- The VA has integrated mental healthcare into its primary care. This makes it much easier for physicians to refer their patients for mental health assessments and treatments. This is probably the most important change to VA healthcare in the past 25 years.
- The VA has been spending money to improve its healthcare technology. I think it’s a misnomer that veterans are not getting access to some of the latest available technology.
- The VA continues to hire highly qualified mental health professionals. They’re investigating the latest treatments for PTSD such as psilocybin as a treatment for PTSD and depression.
In contrast, can you highlight three areas of veterans’ care that still need improvement? What would you suggest needs to be done to address those challenges?
- The VA is a complex and overwhelming place to navigate. While they’ve worked hard to help veterans navigate the system, it is still daunting. I think they should do more to introduce all veterans to the VA system. Make it part of each veteran’s out-processing from their time in service. Many veterans are missing out on necessary medical treatment because they’re just not getting into the VA.
- The VA has initiatives to purchase its products from veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. The VA fought for ten years against the Veterans First initiative until the US Supreme Court overruled them in a unanimous decision. As surprising as it seems, the VA still is not comfortable working with veteran-owned businesses. There is much more they can do, and they certainly should not be working against the initiatives. I wouldn’t be surprised if they really didn’t know how difficult they make it on veteran-owned businesses.
- There is a substantial gap between the number of veterans with mental health needs and the number of veterans getting help from the VA. This happens to be a concern of many VA mental health professionals as well. They don’t know how many are in need who are not getting the necessary help. Veterans can be their own worst enemy by trying to solve their own issues without help. We need to work on an effort to change the mindset of veterans to become more open to help. We need to remove the stigma of mental health. I think above all else, this is why I wrote the book From Service to Success.
From your perspective how does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries?
This is a very good question. I really don’t have any specific data or research about that. However, I do know that this is a worldwide problem. I’ve been in international meetings and discussed the needs of struggling veterans in countries such as Canada, Australia, and the UK, just as examples. Wherever there is combat and the possibility for trauma, there are veterans suffering. In fact, military service people don’t need to be exposed to trauma to struggle with their transition to civilian life. So, the problem is very pervasive throughout the world.
What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes?
I mentioned it earlier, but the VA is researching very rigorously to find ways of treating depression, anxiety, and PTSD. They are conducting clinical studies with psilocybin for the treatment of these maladies. I think the VA is on the leading edge of some of its mental healthcare.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
- There is no “knight in shining armor” out there to rescue you in every dilemma. Each company/person has it within them to solve the problems they face. You can’t just hope that one person can come along with the fix for everything that ails you. I’ve seen many examples of times when we put our faith in someone and then we ended up doing all the work ourselves anyway.
- Never, never, never give up. This also goes with the saying, “things always take longer than you think.” While it was the most annoying advice I routinely received, everything does take longer than you think. If you give up, you will never know if you were about to overcome your challenge.
- Study leadership. Great leadership is a critical ingredient to every organization. While I don’t consider myself to be a great leader, I am a student of it. I’ll make mistakes and learn from them. I’ll ask for forgiveness and try to improve. Most importantly, you have to learn leadership from every source available. Even if you follow, that is a form of leadership. Don Mercer wrote a book called “Follow to Lead.” We are all leaders
- Find your passion. Pursue something greater than one’s self. If you can discover your passion, you will find joy in what you do. And you’ll be good at it. Try things. Don’t be satisfied with just getting by. Look for things in life that really excite you.
- Always put forth more than what you are compensated for. If you want something in life, you can’t wait until you’re paid to do it. Just start doing the things you want in your career in addition to what you’re paid to do and those efforts will be recognized. You can and must create your own success. Envision where you want to be in life, believe in it, pursue it with passion, and you will attract it into your life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
First of all, I hope I can inspire as many people as possible to reach out and donate as many From Service to Success books as possible. All donations will go directly to getting books into the hands of veterans and their families across the country. Go to patriotpromise.org to buy a book and donate books for veterans.
In addition to trying to inspire people to help veterans, I have two things that I think would change the world.
- Corruption is the number one negative/evil in the world. Corruption protects criminals. Corruption causes starvation. Corruption causes poverty. It doesn’t matter what county, part of the world, or political party — there is corruption and the impact on humanity is staggering. Corruption comes in all forms. A country’s leader could be corrupt. Corruption can exist in legal systems around the world. Local leaders who are corrupt can interrupt food from getting to people in need. Whatever can be done to eliminate corruption would have profound changes in the lives of the world’s population.
- We need to eliminate childhood trauma. If I could have a superhero power, I would travel at the speed of light and rescue every child from their trauma just before it happened. The reverberations throughout their lives and the lives of people around them are so injured from the trauma they experienced as a child whether it’s from physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. As a father and grandfather, I just can’t imagine how much pain is brought upon these young minds. There are no easy solutions, but that shouldn’t prevent us from coming together to make a positive impact on these young lives.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Please go to patriotpromise.org and learn more about what we’re doing to save the lives of veterans. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets. If you are able, I would greatly appreciate it if you would donate at least one book to a veteran. I do not benefit anything financially from any of the donated books.
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Veterans Care Today: Bob Taylor Of Alliant Enterprises On How The US Has Improved Its Care For… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.