I saw one of my heroes fall last night.
I’ve often been asked how to deal with a hero falling from grace. I’ve advised as best I could, but never really had an experience to draw from. I do now. At this stage I’m feeling pure disappointment, so not sure on the advice yet.
Last night, 60 Minutes aired the summary of an investigation into Greg Mortenson and the non-profit he started, The Central Asia Institute (CAI). I heard about the story a few hours before it aired and immediately hoped it was a hack attack piece aimed at getting ratings. I was disappointed. I now have one less hero.
Mortenson gained fame from his book, “Three Cups of Tea”. In it, he told a story in which he came down from a mountain close to death and stumbled into a village where he was saved. In return, he promised to build the village a school. This was achieved after numerous setbacks and confusing requirements. The villagers loved it and Mortenson was asked to build more across Afghanistan and Pakistan. He started CAI and more schools were built. You can read his entry in The Gallery of Heroes here.
Here’s a summary of the accusations brought forth by 60 Minutes:
- The story of stumbling into Korphe was false.
- The story of being kidnapped by Taliban was false.
- Less than 50% of funds spent last year were on schools.
- Many schools CAI claimed to have built don’t exist or are empty.
- CAI spends around $1.5 million a year on travel expenses – primarily for Mortenson who often travels on a private jet.
- CAI pays for all marketing of Mortenson’s books (more than $1.5 million) and receives none of the proceeds from sales.
- CAI pays for all of Mortenson’s travel to speaking events and receives none of the $30,000 per event Mortenson is paid.
The last three were the nails in the coffin for me. I can see explanations for the first four. The fact that Mortenson uses the nonprofit he started to fund his money-earning author lifestyle is inexcusable. I donated money to CAI. I’ve seen Mortenson speak. I didn’t realise I had paid to see him speak with that donation. Integrity is missing. As is his response.
Let’s be clear though. Greg Mortenson has had a positive impact on the world. His work with the CAI has directly impacted kids (and adults) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has raised awareness of the importance of educating girls in places with poverty. His books have even been adopted by the American government to advise on how to communicate effectively with people in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan without using guns.
This all comes down to ratios. Look at how much good has been done versus how much bad has been done. Right? I’m not so sure. I’ll write about that on Thursday.
In summary…
- I feel cheated because I felt CAI was one of the few nonprofits where I could be confident that my money was going on projects. It’s why I feel Charity:Water is so special.
- I feel embarrassed because I used Greg Mortenson as an example of a true hero to thousands of people over the last few years.
- I feel sad that human frailty has robbed me of a hero.
Have you ever lost a hero? Did you read “Three Cups of Tea” and/or donate to CAI? Did you see the 60 Minutes piece?
Regardless of what you think of Greg Mortensen’s books, the principle of “three cups if tea” is true. That he got right.
I totally agree, despite your appearance as a spammer.
It appears that the allure of money, power, and follower masses knows no bounds and its corrupting effects extend far beyond the realms of politics and Hollywood. Has good been done? Indeed, but such a silver lining. Once moral integrity is compromised and these sorts of concessions are made, it is a slippery and dangerous slope toward total and outright corruption. Sad, indeed.
Thanks Dave. The cult of personality seems to have claimed another victim.
Partly yes Matt, but then again, I think we both missed the critical part of the story: the beginning. His lies began from the onset, so it wasn’t just a matter of these problems settling in after he had written a truthful book. It was a lie from the beginning.
That’s an interesting aspect of this. His first published piece after the attempt on K2 contained no mention of Korphe. It did mention another village and a promised school.
So, imagine your publisher reads your manuscript and says, “We need a better story for this to sell. What if we said the villagers of a town saved your life?”
Clearly that’s a test of integrity, but if your main concern is to raise money for schools rather than become a famous author, you might take that bait.
Just a thought – no evidence on that one. My take on what I’ve seen of Mortenson is that he’s seriously naive. I hope we find out what’s really going on.
Wow, this is sad to hear. I read his book a few years ago (and almost picked up his new one a few weeks back) and had him pegged as one of my moral heroes as well. It is really sad in the bigger picture because of his selfish motives and actions will once again make people less willing to donate to worthy causes.
Two things I guess we can learn or remember is that
1) All heroes are human and imperfect in some way. What makes them heroic is their focus on doing their best even after they fail
2) Heroes work best in groups, because in groups we are less likely to become self-indulged, misdirected and let things like greed catch us up.
I hope for his sake and for the many of us whom he let down, that he becomes transparent and open about his wrongs and begins to take steps to repair the wrongs and continue down the heroic path once again.
Jensen, I’ll be writing about point 1. The more the internet grows, the less likely we are to find a perfect hero.
I too hope he’ll do something about this, but it seems like the best time to do it was before the story went out. My interpretation of his releases about this is that he’s doing damage control but failing to acknowledge some of the worst parts – my points 3-6.
Your second point about teams is vital, but it needs to be teams of equals, not one leader with followers. That seems to be the problem here. Bozeman, Montana seems to have beatified Mortenson already.
I read Three Cups of Tea and was thoroughly impressed with a normal person doing so much good and being so incorruptible….. I guess the truth comes out. Such a huge wave of disappointment. Though Mortenson is no longer on my hero list, I refuse to give up the belief that there are heroes out there. People are good and can do good things.
Thanks for dropping in Amanda. Seeming incorruptible is maybe the problem we give our heroes.
Hi Matt,
We passed by each other at WDS – happy to find your blog. We’re writing / exploring similar issues. Here is the post I wrote about Greg around the same time. Hope to see you next year at WDS or before. http://jenniferlouden.com/greg-mortenson/
In my work with prisoner resettlement I dealt with the issue of a fallen hero last year. A young exprisoner worked with me for four years, becoming in many ways the son of my life. He and I had many discussions about a couple of issues relating the your topic. The first was the reality of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde split in our personalities. He had been a violent drug dealer, gang leader, and pimp during his Hyde periods. Like many other men and women coming out of the street life, he overestimated the power of his will to keep Mr. Hyde in check. His Mr. Hyde ultimately killed him during one of John’s relapses.
Protestant theologian Paul Tillich wrote about God in terms of Ultimate Concern. Anything that is an ultimate concern becomes god for us, demanding complete surrender and promising ultimate satisfaction. According to Tillich, only the Divine as Ultimate Concern delivers ultimate satisfaction; any other concern becomes demonic and leads to our destruction. The problem here is that we can sometimes delude ourselves into thinking a demonic concern is divine, rationalizing our lust for power, sex, fame (for example) and allowing Mr. Hyde to stay out of view.
John thought he could dress his demon whose street name was J. Bizzo in Christian Rap garb. But he still had a dangerous preoccupation with “prosperity Gospel,” which I saw as rank materialism and magical thinking. I tried to talk to John using the Dedalus/Iccarus myth, but alas, he flew too near the sun.
Yes, there will need to be some balanced assessment of your hero’s life. But absent a personal acknowledgement on our parts that Mr./Ms. Hyde is real in each of us and working to ensure we have transparency and accountability structures in place to protect our work against him or her, this can happen to any one of us. We’re never out of the woods, and this is reason for concern but not cynicism.