CHAPTER 7Recognize and Harness Your Champions: Champions Are Larger-Than-Life People Who Give You a Boost
Show me a successful individual and I'll show you someone who had real positive influences in his or her life. I don't care what you do for a living—if you do it well, I'm sure there was someone cheering you on or showing the way.
—Denzel Washington
Mensch. It's a Yiddish word that means a person of integrity or honor.1 I've heard the term a few times in my life, but I finally understood the true meaning after meeting a man named Donald L. Ashkenase. May he rest in peace. Don was a revered leader of the New York healthcare community for several decades. There was not a hospital executive around who did not know his name. Not a single healthcare executive had anything but kind and positive words to say about him. I would soon learn why.
Don graduated from Brooklyn College in 1965 and went on to serve four years in the U.S. Air Force as a hospital administrator. After serving his country, Don received his master's degree from Wagner College. He started his career at New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the largest American municipal healthcare system, today generating more than $7 billion in revenue. This hospital served the most vulnerable of New Yorkers—the homeless, poor, and destitute—those who simply could not afford quality health insurance. While there, he fortified his passion for serving the have-nots and became a vocal advocate for health equity many ...
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