cassandra lived life on unusual principles.
everyone around her couldn't understand where she founded such firm principles from, but there was inspiration for everyone to take away.
cassandra was the first and only child to a traditional christian family. she was loved, celebrated and cherished for she was believed to be the golden footing to her parents fortune.
she was the sole inheritor of two wealthy families and everyone had plans for her. she was expected to be highly educated, self sufficient to take over the family empire and make it reach new heights.
she was prepared to take on the world by 19.
one night, she had a dream.
in the dream, she saw herself in the mirror. in the mirror, she could see herself surrounded by misery. she was clad with the best jewels and clothes, but around her was nothing but ruins.
people with tattered clothes and severed limbs crawled to her, asking her, begging her, crying out to her for help.
she was mortified.
she tried to run but she was paralyzed.
the more she tried to drown out the voices, the more they seemed to claw into her head. she tried to scream for help but her voice was rendered mute.
the hands clawed at her, now clutching at her chanel suit. she shrieked with fright and pulled apart the pearls around her neck and threw it as far apart as she could.
some of the claws lessened.
as though on cue, she started tossing away all the riches she had access to.
the burden reduced significantly.
the more things she threw, the more the weight lessened. after the certain time, the voices stopped.
as though on dare, she finally opened her eyes.
the lands of ruin had turned into a sufficient civilization. The same people in ruins and tatters were now richly clad, happy looking and able.
there were pastures and houses around the place while in the distant corner she could be the smoke from what she could assume was civilization.
the pastures all around now nurtured the choicest fruits, vegetables and animals while the industries far, far away found their share of gold, aluminium and every precious.
the land had boomed from ruins to riches.
she look at herself and realized that she'd stripped herself of everything and had become a simpleton, looking alike one of the crowds.
but it didn't horrify her.
to her surprise, it immensely gratified her that she was capable of bringing such fortunes to the destitute.
she seemed not to be the golden child of her parents alone.
she was made for much more.
when she finally slipped out of her dream, it was as if she'd been introduced to her destiny for the first time.
there was an insurmountable hope that swam in her heart, her soul more alive than it had ever been at the thought of the power and resources she had to make it happen.
when she announced her intention to her parents, the first thing they did was book her an appointment with a therapist.
her friends had similar reactions.
nobody could understand why she wanted to throw away the life of undivided riches and go mingle with the poor and empower them.
but cassandra was determined, the same determination that her forefathers used to create the empire they had.
she would create an empire too. only of a different kind.
her father threatened to cut her out from the will if she chose to continue with the tomfoolery but she wouldn't have it another way.
her mother begged her to see sense, to marry and have a secure future. maybe she needed a husband to give her life purpose, not the poor.
cassandra didn't bother hiding her scoff at the statement.
finally realizing that she would not see sense, her father designed a trap for her. it was genius, and he was sure his daughter wouldn't see beyond it.
he put forth a proposal.
"cassandra, i am willing to give your cockamamie venture my blessing, but with a condition.
i will allot to you $20 million in liquid cash right now to go ahead and put your money into any investment whatsoever. if you can make this sustainable in a year, i will pull my hands back and let you do as you please. if not, you will come back to the family business and continue things as originally planned. do we have a deal?"
cassandra, unlike her father's expectation, could sense the trap from a mile apart.
she had done her research well in advance to know that in order to make her philanthropy sustainable in a single rural village of africa for a year, she would need a lot more than $20 million.
and without the backing of her father, no bank would let her land without collaterals she had none to keep. no friend would invest in the venture and neither would the humanitarian bodies without wanting to pull the venture under their cap."
but $20 million dollars were a start.
she took up the deal and smiled.
something better than nothing.
the next six months, she put her heart and soul into setting up basic necessities in a remote village of ghana. she tried to build infrastructure and educational facilities that would atleast set the ball rolling.
but there was only so much she could do without bureaucracy, government intervention and rapidly drying funds.
she knew she had achieved nothing by the end of it except wasted money.
but she was far from accepting defeat. what started out as a whim had now turned into passion.
she had the plans and the strategies in place for where and how she wanted to expand.
but for that she needed money.
on the last day of her stay, an idea struck her.
she wanted to help people.
why did that mean that she had to do it the traditional way?
she returned back home the next day to her father and told him she was ready to join the business.
her father was please with the decision but was heavily surprised at the speed with which she'd ceded defeat. he'd expected a better fight, a more passionate resonance of reason.
when he found none, he knew one of two things - his girl had either lost her whim for the project or had come up with something even more concrete.
he decided to wait.
in five years, he got his answer.
his empire dealt with the polishing and processing of diamonds.
they had most of the diamonds imported from africa, the regions mostly too poor for expansion.
within five years, cassandra had facilitated a proposal that involved a lot of the processing work to be carried out locally there so that the cost of labour could go down even further while they enjoyed subsidies.
the proposal was met with initial skepticism but the costing was lucrative to ignore. competing companies were looking at similar strategies.
in another 3 years, the factories were fully functional. they'd trained labour in the thousands across 25 villages to work under the dire circumstances required.
in another 2 years, the reach had gone up to 37 villages. the labourers earned their wages enough to generate employment, which in turn helped them generate more livelihood.
development soon took place.
by another year, these villages were infused with more funds for the establishment of basic infrastructure that eased logistics.
families started to grow and so did the working hand growing crops. soon, as initiatives of corporate social responsibility rolled in, these villages were equipped with schools and hospitals.
cassandra visited the same village back after 10 years. what she had once seen in ruins was today standing strong, thriving as the backbone of their international operations.
as her father stood behind her, he sighed and smiled softly before putting his arm around her.
"it was a good thing those $20 million dollars fell to waste, eh?"
cassandra smiled. she knew her father had seen through her patience and diligence for what was still her true motivation in life.
"what can i say, pa? i guess whatever happens, happens for the best."
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- a girl having taken the leap of faith on her hope of making a difference
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