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Julius Erving
The Great and Wondrous Dr. J
I always had to keep in mind that I'm here because I do have a talent, and some aspects of it are unique. I should keep that in my mind, not feel that I'm here because people just like me, and because I'm a nice guy. Sometimes I will be treated differently by a lot of people because of that talent, but don't let that become a distraction, and don't be deceived by that. See if for what it is, and then play the hand out. So much of becoming a good athlete involves bringing other things to the table, other than physical skills. It involves intelligence, it involves many of the things that you learn during the process of being educated. How to analyze, how to assess, how to equate, how to reason. This is what the whole elementary, and secondary, and even the college educational process is all about -- teaching you and preparing you to be able to deal with what you ultimately have to deal with in life. Even though I was dealing with sports, which many people feel is totally physical, that people don't have to think, everything is done for you and you're catered to, I found that to be so far removed from the truth that it's almost a joke. The ones who become stars or superstars are the ones who have a head on their shoulders and know how to use it.
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Julius Erving
The Great and Wondrous Dr. J
I think as a youngster the work ethic was there, practicing hard and being dedicated and not, by nature, being a complainer. My teammates have always related to me in that way. I think probably the best compliment I've ever received from a teammate was what Henry Bibby told me after we had played together for two seasons in Philadelphia. He said, "Of all the guys that I've ever played with, I don't know if you're the best that I've ever played with, but I know you come to play every night. And because of that, I feel like we always have a chance of winning." I thought it was a great compliment.
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Paul Farmer
Founder, Partners in Health
Paul Farmer: Haiti's been my best teacher. In 2005, I went to Rwanda, and along with other people at Partners In Health. There are projects in Malawi and Lisutu, with a partner institution in Burundi. So from 2005 to now, I spent most of my time -- field time -- in Africa. But if I hadn't learned those lessons, and we hadn't learned those lessons in Haiti, then how would we know really what to do in rural Africa, because those are not culturally similar places, but they're structurally similar. So there's no cultural or linguistic tie between Haiti and Rwanda, but they're very poor, agrarian societies, much disrupted by political violence and with a history of heavy post-colonial burdens. So there are very significant structural similarities between those places. So of course, one hopes that the lessons learned in Haiti would be -- I guess the word is "transferable," and most of them are. So Haiti's been my best teacher in that sense. But I wouldn't want teachers at Duke and Harvard to think that I was saying that I didn't have the book knowledge that I needed, that I got that in Haiti. Really, I got that in the universities. But understanding its strengths and limitations of book knowledge, if I can -- or analysis in general -- you learn that in a place like Haiti. You find out how far that knowledge can take you, and where you need to generate new knowledge, and that comes from working with lots of other people, as I've said a couple of times.
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Paul Farmer
Founder, Partners in Health
The doctors and nurses who are delivering mediocre medical care are not doing it 'cause they want to. They're doing it because they don't have the tools of the trade, the system behind them that they would need to provide good medical care. You know, in all the years that I've spent working in Haiti and Africa -- which is now 25 years, and Latin America -- versus, say Harvard, I tell you, I don't think that these young professionals in Africa are any less committed, even though I would have said that 15 or 20 years ago. They're not less committed to medicine and to people's health. They just don't have the systems and tools that they need. One of the biggest epiphanies for me in working in these different places is, if you can set it up so that young African professionals, nurses and doctors and social workers and people in Haiti, et cetera -- if they can actually do their work, they're happy to do it. People talk about the brain drain. One of the best ways to respond to brain drain is actually give these young professionals the tools that they need to serve the poor, 'cause they're surrounded by the poor. I think that's a big part of what we need to do in global health, is to make sure that we don't make the mistake, say as young Americans -- I'm not young any more, but -- of saying, "Oh, it's all about us going in and saving the day." It was never about that. It's always about building systems, and building teams, and building partnerships that will last.
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Suzanne Farrell
Ballerina Extraordinaire
I used to love to play dress-up, where you get your mother's or your grandmother's dresses and high heels. I had two sisters, and we would love to get dressed up and pretend that we were chic, sophisticated ladies. And I think that was a great sort of preparation, in a way. Rather theatrical, and something that was a lot of fun to do, and in a way it translated into getting on stage, where you dress up and you become someone other than who you are. We used to put on little shows in the basement for the neighborhood people, and of course no one would come. Who would want to see what we had to offer? But we took them very seriously, and we gave these performances.
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Suzanne Farrell
Ballerina Extraordinaire
I would rehearse it differently each time. Maybe it would be awful, but it would be an option, so that when I got out on stage, if the dictates of the moment required it, I had what I called my bag of tricks that I had been through, and you just store them up for the time when they will come in handy. Otherwise, you are rehearsing an opinion, if you do it the same way all the time. If you rehearse the ballet the same way all the time, if you write the same essay, if you draw the same little ponytail, if you do everything the same, you are rehearsing an opinion, and before you know it, you can't change.
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