{"id":606531,"date":"2024-06-05T09:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T13:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/bio-2024-viola-davis-and-aaron-lazar-share-lessons-on-life-and-legacy\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T14:17:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T18:17:00","slug":"bio-2024-viola-davis-and-aaron-lazar-share-lessons-on-life-and-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/bio-2024-viola-davis-and-aaron-lazar-share-lessons-on-life-and-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"BIO 2024: Viola Davis and Aaron Lazar share lessons on life and legacy","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Viola Davis is a world-renowned actress, writer, and producer, holding the coveted EGOT status in Hollywood (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and two Tony Awards). But, as Davis explained on the main stage<\/a> at the 2024 BIO International Convention<\/a>, those awards don\u2019t mean much in the grand scheme of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can I fit on that headstone when I die?\u201d Davis asked. \u201cIt\u2019s not EGOT.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Davis values the deeper connections of life: her daughter, the advocacy work she does around food insecurity, her art, and her mother\u2014who is currently living out the end of her life in memory care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t bring my EGOT to the room when my heart is crushed looking at my mom and knowing she has no memory of me,\u201d Davis explained tearfully. \u201cShe\u2019s the love of my life. So every time I see her, I have to communicate that she\u2019s loved through Alzheimer\u2019s. I don\u2019t know how to keep my heart from breaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019s words illuminate an undeniable fact of life: all the accolades, success, and applause in the world can never keep you from experiencing the pain that time, disease, and loss guarantee. This fact of life is arguably a main driver for the biotech industry.<\/p>\n

As Dr. Ted Love, the current Chair of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), said earlier in the program, \u201cWe joined this industry to save lives, improve our society, and give each of us more time\u2014time to love one another, care for one another, and enjoy each other\u2019s memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biotech can make impossible dreams possible<\/h2>\n

Davis is not the only actor to learn that life is more than the awards you might win. Aaron Lazar, acclaimed actor, singer, and now advocate, had the trajectory of his life fundamentally changed when he was diagnosed with ALS two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I sit before you with ALS, a terminal disease that kills your nerves, takes your freedom, all before taking your life,\u201d Lazar said. \u201cThey say there\u2019s no cure. I say it is a disease that I firmly believe I\u2019m going to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Lazar explained, ALS taught him to live his life, something he was surprised to find he wasn\u2019t doing prior to his diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole life, I thought health was just physical,\u201d he said. \u201cPhysically, I may have looked really healthy, but under the hood, I was a bit of a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of living in every moment of his life, Lazar said he was only living for the highs and lows. But through ALS, he began a meditation practice and learned to live life directly. He believes his new outlook is the key to his future success.<\/p>\n

Lazar asked his doctor, \u201cHas anyone ever beaten ALS?\u201d When his doctor informed him that 60 people have successfully had reversals of non-genetic ALS, Lazar wanted to know how.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, Science doesn\u2019t know,\u201d Lazar began, \u201cBut the majority of ALS reversals have this in common: a positive mindset and mindfulness practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-four years ago, I dreamed of becoming an actor, and nothing seemed impossible because I believed in myself no matter the odds,\u201d said Lazar. \u201cAnd then 24 months ago, facing the scariest adversity in this diagnosis that I\u2019ve ever faced, I found courage somehow. And with practice, courage became hope, and hope became faith\u2013it was faith in myself. I started to have faith in life again. It\u2019s crazy, in this nightmare of ALS, I started to dream again. My dream to beat this disease has become so much more. It\u2019s become a dream to heal all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to leave something in people\u2019<\/h2>\n
\"Viola\"Viola
Viola Davis in conversation with former CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think that healed people become healers,\u201d Davis echoed in her interview. \u201cI say that because I\u2019m the person who needed the healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Davis and Lazar work in an industry far displaced from the world of biotech, there are undeniable parallels when it comes to what drives both them and biotech innovators to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to leave something in people,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to just leave something for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see life as a relay race,\u201d Davis added, \u201cwhere you have a bunch of really great runners and their job is to pass the baton to the next great runner until you get to the end. And life is that dash of time; you have to pass that baton.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just like in life, the forward progress of the biotech industry is built on partnership, learning, growing, and passing on the baton\u2014all with the goal of advancing medicine, food security, and human prosperity. And the progress of the biotech industry builds upon itself for the future success of the world.<\/p>\n