Saturday, August 10, 2019

World: Lesson from Jeffrey Epstein Saga: A Simplistic Take



Saw a piece of news from USA that Jeffrey Epstein has committed suicide inside his jail. 


I had not heard about him but out of curiosity, searched the web for his name. Got to know that he was a multi-millionaire before being accused of child sex trafficking charges and sent to jail. And the Wikipedia article tells more about his background:



Jeffrey was son of a gardener, grew up in working class locality and attended public schools.
As his first job, he taught physics and mathematics at a school, and it is there that he impressed CEO of Bear Stearns who was father of one of his students and got a job offer. He joins Bear Stearns as a low-level junior assistant; shows great talent and rises up the ranks; and in just 4 years he becomes a limited partner. But then he got fired for some policy violation. Then he starts his own consulting firm; achieves great successes; and becomes a multimillionaire. He also did philanthropy through his own foundation.



Then he is charged with taking a girl below age 18 for prostitution. Hells breaks loose and he is accused by dozens in child molestation cases. Serves a jail term and comes out. Then he is arrested again recently on July 6, 2019, on charges for sex trafficking of minors. And today, he committed suicide inside the jail.



From his humble background and struggles in early days, one could think that he was a great success; until his true reality came out. All his financial successes would be ignored; and his personal fallacy would always be remembered whenever his name would be remembered. That is tragedy. This is why in India of earlier days, elders always gave higher priority to character and lower to the financial success. If a person has lots of money but no character, the person is sitting on a ticking time bomb. 

This is the lesson from the Jeffrey Epstein saga. 

- Rahul Tiwary

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