War and Peace
Dean Frieders
General Counsel & Executive Leader | Navigating Billion-Dollar Deals, Complex Compliance & High-Stakes Litigation | TEDx Speaker & Published Author
Today, we continue the discussion on finding our purpose.
I'm currently watching Painkiller, on Netflix--a dramatic miniseries about the company/family that invented and popularized Oxycontin. I mention it because they had a reference to a great historical excerpt recently, which brought it back to the front of my thoughts. The story may be apocryphal or exaggerated, but it's a great story nonetheless.
In the 1800s, there was an individual who invented an amazingly powerful chemical substance. It was invented for industrial purposes, and had incredible abilities. Based on the unparalleled power that could be generated from this substance, the inventor was able to start what became a very, very successful company with over 100 factories churning out his creation. He amassed a very large fortune as a result of his successful commercialization of the invention.
Very quickly, governments realized that the powerful chemical had applications far beyond business and commerce. This powerful chemical invention could be used in military applications, where it exponentially increased the lethality of weapons. The invention allowed for a significant advance in the modernization of armies of the day, making them fearsomely efficient killing machines, capable of wiping out masses of people in one fell swoop.
The inventor piled his earnings and became wealthier and wealthier, living every aspect of the good life. He was worth the modern equivalent of about $300,000,000. He paid little attention to the consequences of his invention, focusing his attention instead on continuing to grow the sales of and profits from his concoction. He continued on this pattern until 1888, when a freak event occurred.
The inventor's brother passed away from an unexpected heart attack. Due to carelessness or otherwise, at least one popular newspaper of the time reported that the inventor himself had died (not his brother). The obituary they published was not complimentary; it called him a merchant of death who had grown rich by inventing new ways to maim and kill innocent people. Imagine the shock that comes with: 1) losing your brother; 2) reading your own (false) obituary; and, 3) realizing that your legacy will be so terrible.
From the story, the inventor was so shaken that on the very day he read the obituary, he went to his attorney's office, and rewrote his will. He bequeathed his the vast majority of his estate and net worth to the founding of a series of prizes for people who "during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." These were cash prizes designed to recognize and reward people for doing good in the world. These prizes were the creation of a man who had been previously recognized only for the death and destruction he had wrought upon humanity.
Yes, this man was Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also the inventor of a myriad of new types of explosives and gunpowders, many of which were used in the military applications that caused him to be labeled as a merchant of death.
This was truly a man who contemplated his purpose and who came to terms with the disturbing reality that he didn't like what his obituary was going to say. Through the sheer force of his accumulated wealth, he was able to largely rewrite his epitaph, and today, he is most commonly associated with the Nobel Price that bears his name...not with death.
As we think about our own purpose, it's important to realize that few of us will have the resources to buy a positive legacy, or to write over a negative one. We have to earn our reputation through our actions.
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