Dearest reader, I want to dedicate this article to a very important man, Mr. Bruce Padian, because I did not realize how important he was until recently.
The story goes like this.
Bruce Padian was my principal at Madison High School in Madison, NJ. When I attended MHS I did not think it was a great school at all and I did not understand what exactly a principal did. As far as I could tell Mr. Padian’s job consisted of getting CRT TV’s in all the classrooms, which we rarely used, and installing atomic clocks that worked half of the time. I simply did not like the guy but everybody else liked him.
It wasn’t until graduation day that I realized what a wise man he is. He told us that my graduate class is the smartest class the school has ever seen in its history. My guess is he says that to every graduating class during graduation. But that’s not what changed my thinking about him. What made him wise and admirable to me is the story he told to us, the class of 2003.
On the last day of his summer job as a teenager, Bruce Padian received a check from his boss. He took the check and saw that it was $100 too many. Back then $100 was a lot of money and even now $100 is a lot. Young Bruce did not know what to do. Should he cash the check and keep the $100 for himself or should he go to his boss and report the accounting error? As any gentleman would have done, Bruce went to his boss and confessed he was overpaid.
Because young Bruce was honest, his boss said, “no, there is no mistake. That $100 is yours.”
“How could that be? I did not earn it.” Replied Bruce.
His boss looked into Bruce’s bewildered eyes and said, “This $100 is for you so that you can buy what you need. When you are well off give another $100 to someone else in need.”
Mr. Bruce Padian said that he had saved this story for the graduates of 2003 because only a smart and intelligent class would understand its meaning.
After he told this story my respect for him went up ten folds and that is why it is worth repeating now to you, the reader.
Today Mr. Bruce Padian is no longer the principal of Madison High School. I think he retired when we, the class of 2003, graduated. But his story is inked in my mind because I plan to follow his footsteps and give to the needy and expect them not to give back to me but keep on giving to others.
So far I have helped one person in this way so she may have a new life in California. I hope I can do more until we can solve all of world’s problems.
Reader please note the following:
- The story of young Bruce Padian is paraphrased. In my memory it was $100. It might have been a different amount. The story is also a little embellished but it still captures the gist of the tale. Perhaps Mr. Bruce Padian himself can correct my mistakes by commenting on this post.
- This is also essentially a Ponzi scheme with good will, not with greed. But I don’t like to call this a “Ponzi scheme with good will”, I like to call this the “Bruce Padian Effect”, or simply the “Padian Effect”.
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