it's only money
Grigori Perelman won the Millennium Prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving a problem that had stumped mathematicians for a century. When told that the prize came with a $1 million award, Grigori, a reclusive genius who lives with his elderly mother in Russia, said that he would need to think about whether to accept the money.
Grigori may…
be on guard
Last year on Christmas Eve, a New York cab driver found more than $21,000 in cash and jewelry left in his cab by an Italian tourist. He drove more than 50 miles to return the possessions to an address he found in the purse. The woman wasn’t home, so he left a note that contained his phone number. The tourist…
what matters most
I’ll never forget the time a friend phoned me after he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He was so pumped about all the things that were becoming clear to him, and he wanted help in writing a book that he could share with others.
My friend could hardly contain his excitement. He was so stoked that it was…
one, two, three . . .
When my son was a toddler, I played a game with him that made a big splash—literally. As I stood in the water, just a few feet from the edge of the pool, I would reach out my arms and encourage him to leap from the safe terra firma to me. I would count, “One . . two . .…
count the cost
When world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti was a youth, he became the pupil of a professional tenor in Italy. Later, he studied music education in college. Upon graduating, he asked his father, “Shall I be a teacher or a singer?”
“Luciano,” his father replied, “if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must…
beware
David Wayne Sharpton, 54, has won the Georgia lottery three times—raking in $350,000 in 2004, $1 million in 2005, and $2.5 million in 2007. The repeat winner continues to work at his job as a restaurant-oven repairman, even though his winnings have provided more than enough money for him to retire. "Am I the luckiest man alive?" he asks. "I…
