A Purpose in Life

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. --Morrie Schwartz

By salary standards, Dr. Bob Paeglow may be the least-successful doctor in America. Paeglow takes absolutely no salary and survives mostly on donations. Every penny he makes goes back to his patients in one way or another. Fortunately, Paeglow didn't go into medicine for the money. He went into it -- pretty late in life -- because he kept having a vision of himself in old age that he didn't like: "That the world was no better because I was a part of it than if I'd never been born." At the age of 36, Bob gave up his career as a quality control technician, went to medical school and set out to improve the quality of the planet. He opened his office in a neighborhood where most doctors wouldn't open their car door, and welcomed in all the people mainstream medicine would've otherwise likely ignored. [ more ]

Charity Focus