There was once a little boy named Jack who was very poor and had a family who barely got by even though his parents worked very, very hard. To help out, Jack got a job helping out on the neighbor’s farm. With all of the hard work, the boy’s family did a little better each year and they were happy.
When he was eighteen, Jack signed up to be in the armed forces. In the military, he became an incredible swimmer, a deadly marksman and was trained in the art of hand to hand combat. He had superior training, equipment and weapons and was lethally proficient in air, sky and ground missions.
After the military, Jack went to Stanford to become a doctor. After residency, he opened up his own practice. Jack was an amazing physician and people came from far away to see him. He even gave his services for free to people who couldn’t afford it. In order to manage his practice, Jack went to Harvard to get his MBA.
One day, after Jack had finished his MBA, the river in Jack’s town overflowed its banks. Everyone looked to Jack for leadership. Jack devised a plan to patch the dike. Jack financed the emergency measures himself because he didn’t want his business to be flooded. The community recognized him with a big article in the paper.
Soon after that, there was a domestic dispute two doors down in Jack’s neighborhood. None of the neighbors knew what to do, but they knew Jack was proficient in all forms of fighting. His neighbors said, “Jack, please break up the fight. We’ll be right behind you.” Because of his superior skills and equipment, Jack was able to successfully break up the fight. Again the community was glad they had Jack.
Jack was also a philanthropist. He donated his time and money so that a boy in his neighborhood could have a special surgery to help remove some scarring on his leg.
Jack was very proud of all he accomplished. He held an MBA from Harvard, was a Stanford trained physician and was trained and equipped by the best military minds. His access to the best medical supplies gave him great personal satisfaction and his business and investment generated obscene amounts of wealth. Jack also had a beautiful family with his lovely wife Jennifer, his little boy, Jeffrey and his little girl, Brianne.
Jack become known around the community as the “go to” guy for intervening in disputes, paying for projects or paying for medical procedures for needy individuals. Jack felt a certain expectation to do everything in the community even though there were plenty of other capable individuals who could do the job. However, Jack’s pride wouldn’t let him defer to anyone else. After all, he was the number one economic producer in town.
In one particular crisis, Jack was called upon to provide expensive medical supplies to an outbreak of a deadly disease. He couldn’t actually afford it, but he didn’t want to hurt his pride so he just borrowed some money from his daughter’s college fund to finance the supplies.
One night, there was a particularly violent domestic dispute in the neighborhood. Per their custom, the neighbors got Jack out of bed to diffuse the dispute. Jack broke down the door to the dispute and found himself in a bad position - a man had a gun pointed at Jack’s head. He was in a bit of a quagmire, but he knew that he could simply buy his way out of the mistake. He gave the man a large sum as a ransom for coming into the man’s house with no exit strategy.
In order to pay the ransom, Jack sent Jennifer to work full time. It would only be temporary that he would run at a deficit in order to pay for the ransom. Even after sending Jennifer to work and stealing from his daughter’s college fun, Jack kept taking on responsibilities he couldn’t afford. All the responsibilities he took on were detrimental to his family, but he had to maintain his image and be consistent with his rhetoric that he was the strongest person in the community.