An ad was placed in the New York Times fifteen years ago, stating that an investment firm was in search of a Chief Executive Officer for specialized medical centers.

When I went to be interviewed, I was led into an office.  It was there I met Lindsay Rosenwald, and we talked for nearly 6 hours.  During the interview, Lindsay handled many calls simultaneously, met briefly with a limitless parade of visitors, and placidly executed trades from his observation of four screens displaying market activity.  When the day ended, I was told I was hired.  I was to return next morning to talk over details with him.

I called my brother Tom that night to share my interview with him.  He all but yelled into the phone, “You met with who?!  Do you have any idea who Lindsay Rosenwald is?!”

It’s a vast understatement for me to say that interview changed the rest of my life.

Through Lindsay Rosenwald, I found an opportunity that very few would have presented to me.  My background was in offering basic nutritional advice, but I had no grasp of finance and public markets.  Lindsay Rosenwald took the risk though, and I was brought into the universe of venture capital, merchant banking, public corporations, and finance.  This ended up being an amazing, fast-paced, intense educational experience.  My life had changed, and I was excited.

As a valued mentor and lifelong friend, I am very thankful to Lindsay.  Lessons I learned from him that I come back to time and again:

Choose a path and remain focused on it.

Pioneers get the arrows; settlers get the land.

It’s much better to own ten percent of the mine than one hundred percent of the shaft.

Don’t concern yourself with idle gossip if it is in regards to you.  In reality it’s idol worship.

Lindsay Rosenwald is highly intelligent, works tirelessly, and is relentless.  I have great admiration for those qualities.  However, I mainly will always remember that when I was chosen to join, it was based on him seeing potentiality around him that others seem to miss.  In most regards, I had been the most longshot of candidates for the position.  Lindsay Rosenwald cultivates the potential he sees and is the architect of an environment allowing for growth, thinking, creativity, and free thought while developing technologies.

Lindsay Rosenwald has done this, started and nurtured countless successful careers, more often than can be counted.  He is rarely acknowledged and thanked for it.  Everyone he chose was talented, but though we may be hesitant to admit so, we were able to express this talent because of the selfless efforts of people like Lindsay.