—
All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific. – Jane Wagner
Undoubtedly you know the story of the Titanic, or do you? It is common knowledge that the “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg and sunk in the early morning of April 15th 1912, killing over 1500 people. But do you know why the boat hit the iceberg? Because no one saw it in time.
At the last minute Second Officer David Blair was removed from the crew of the Titanic. In his haste he left a very small, but very important detail unchecked. Officer Blair forgot to leave a locker key behind. The key that he failed to leave was the only key that opened a locker, which housed a crucial piece of technology. It was the locker containing the binoculars for the lookout person in the crow’s nest, the person in charge of watching for icebergs.
In 1999 Harry Markopolis, a financial analyst, had some very disturbing inclinations about a wildly successful investments firm. After looking into the numbers for five minutes, Markopolis said he knew something was wrong. He approached the Boston SEC and the New York SEC on several occasions between 2000 and 2007 trying to bring a scandal to light. In his book, No One Would Listen he outlines his frustrations.
It wasn’t until 2008 when Bernie Madoff was arrested that Markopolis and his suspicions about the former NASDAQ chairman were confirmed. Countless, uninformed, trusting people were swindled out of their life savings by a crook with a map. Madoff led people exactly where he wanted them to be. The amount of money that Bernie Madoff stole is estimated between $20 billion and $65 billion. The reason the gap is so big is because no one is exactly sure when the Ponzi scheme started, or when the first person began to follow Bernie Madoff’s map instead of their own.
Margaret Cargill is not a household name. She was a decidedly shy person who tried to make a difference in her life. She certainly did not want accolades or credit for her philanthropic work, though she donated around $200 million to different charities during her life. That remarkable number was dwarfed upon her death when she left $6 billion to different charities, placing her at #1 on the Chronicles of Philanthropies ranking of charitable donations at the time. She became the most charitable person you’ve never heard of.
Reshma Saujani’s parents were Indian nationals, living in Uganda. She tells the story of how her father watched the dictator Idi Amin, the butcher of Uganda, on TV informing any immigrant that they were to leave the country immediately. Her father moved the family to the U.S. giving her the break she needed. After graduating from Yale Law School, she went on to run for the Democratic nomination for the House of Representatives in New York’s 14th congressional district in 2010. She lost by a landslide (81%-19%). Despite the setback, she started the national, non-profit company, Girls Who Code. She has dedicated her life to building a bridge into the IT community for women. Her company understands that a huge majority of girls are interested in technological jobs, but the majority of those jobs are filled by men. Her goal is to help train and place those girls in the jobs of their dreams, and it is working. The company is twenty times bigger than when it started. Despite her setbacks, Reshma has found her life’s calling, in giving back.
Edward Moshole started his humble and meager life in Gapane, in the province of Limpopo in South Africa. By the time he was 16 he had lost both parents. He failed the eighth grade five brutal years in a row. After moving to Cape Town he became a cleaner for a larger company. It was there that Edward found his inspiration. He started a small cleaning business which he worked on the side that kept him very busy. But he wanted more. Edward took the small amount of money that he had saved and invested it in some large containers and ingredients to make his own, nice smelling cleaner. He would spend hours mixing his special blend in the containers in his back yard. With blistered hands he would then sell the cleaner door to door. This went on for three years until he started negotiations with a company that could teach him how to mass produce his product and launch his career. Today Mohole’s cleaner is mixed in his factory in Wynberg and he is a very humble millionaire.
Daniel Manville is the Associate Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at MSU College of Law. His resume reads like map to a great career in teaching law. He was honorably discharged from his military service and has worked at Wayne State University Law School, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Henry Ford Community College, Antioch School of Law and Washtenaw Community College. Daniel is a strong advocate for the rehabilitation of prisoners. Mostly because, he was one.
In 1973, Daniel pled guilty to voluntary (not a typo) manslaughter. He and his younger brother decided to help a mutual “friend” get back drugs and money that had been stolen by a man named Doug Edgar. As the two were strong-arming the alleged thief, along with the help of another man, two visitors walked into the room unexpectedly. Manville chloroformed the visitors as well as Edgar. One of the visitors died from an odd reaction to the chloroform. Manville spent almost four years in prison to emerge a changed man and a champion to the underserved.
James Harrison is a very usual looking man. He is Australian, was born on Dec 27th, 1936 and looks like he could be anyone’s grandpa. What sets James apart from most is that he is credited with saving over 2,000,000 lives.
When James was 14 he underwent a very serious operations that required he receive 13 liters of blood. After learning that his life was saved because of the donations of others, James vowed to donate as soon as he was old enough. (This was the early 1950’s and a person had to be 18 in order to donate.) After donating, James learned that his blood had a rare anomaly. It contained an antibody called Rho(D) Immune Globulin. This antibody fights a dreadful disease called Rhesus disease which, among other things can cause stillbirth. The number one way to treat this condition is to give pregnant mothers injections of the rare antibody that flows so freely in James’s blood. He has donated blood over 1000 times. He set a record for the most donations from one person, and to that he said,
“I hope it’s a record that get beaten.”
Big deeds don’t always come with fame, but they always come with results. What will your results be?
—
Photo: Getty Images
Each of them have their stories, which makes them very inspiring. It was actually nice to know all about them.
You write: “The reason the gap [between $20 billion and $65 billion] is so big is because no one is exactly sure when the Ponzi scheme started, or when the first person began to follow Bernie Madoff’s map instead of their own.”
In reality, the gap is the difference between the aggregate $20 billion actually invested and the $65 billion which Madoff’s account statements fraudulently reported were the aggregate account values.