Selfish Ambition
Greg Mortenson, an explorer, a philanthropist, and a keen out outdoorsman, traveled to Pakistan in 1993 to climb the world’s second tallest mountain, K2. After multiple attempts to summit, Mortenson finally admitted defeat and headed back down. He took a wrong turn and, while lost, stumbled upon the village of Korphe. Dehydrated and exhausted, he was shown hospitality and care. While taking time to recover, he noticed the village needed a school. The lack of education and opportunity experienced by young girls in the region touched Mortenson’s heart, and he resolved to spend his life helping build schools to give these girls a step out of poverty. He founded the Central Asia Institute to advance the vision of educating young women in the remote parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson, who indicated he was captured by the Taliban and eventually released, recorded his story in the book Three Cups of Tea, which spent at least 220 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Along with his coauthor, David Oliver Relin, Mortenson wrote a kids’ version of the book. It sat on the New York Times bestseller list for 97 weeks.
Mortenson went on to become the darling of the philanthropic world, touted by celebrities and politicians as a hero of a rare kind, meeting some of the most pressing needs in the hardest places on earth. By every conceivable metric, Mortenson and his organization were crushing it–until the accusations began to leak out. It turns out there was no capture by the Taliban, and portions of the book were fabricated. Also, Mortenson used his platform to take exorbitant speaking fees for himself. And some of the schools he claimed to have built didn’t exist or sat in disrepair. Although Mortenson has done some good regarding education for women, his need to succeed bent his philanthropy toward himself. The nonprofit he founded for others began to profit him. But that is not the most tragic part of the story. When you are crushing it, someone has to be under your foot. In Mortenson’s case, it was the people closest to him. His co-author, David Oliver Relin, committed suicide by putting himself in the path of a train, and Mortenson’s daughter tried to take her own life. He was order to repay sums of money and suffered from major heart issues.
When we focus on what we can accomplish rather than the people we are called to serve, we become victims of our own ambition, and so do they.