Lost and Found

Coming across the story on Yahoo today about the man returning the $1M purse full of jewels, reminded me about how Sara and our friend Collin found a wallet on the subway this weekend. Its owner had apparently dropped it by the turnstile as she put back her metro card. They tried to get in touch with her immediately. But in the rat’s nest of a wallet, they couldn’t find any useful contact information.

So they brought it home. Later, they realized the non-driver’s license might have a current address, which wasn’t too far from the 59th St. subway. But the easier solution was for me to call one of her credit card companies. I left my number with them and asked them to call her and tell her the wallet was safe. They did, she called me back soon enough, and a few hours later, this woman had her life back.

Which only goes to show, you should put some sort of contact information in your wallet — an "if found, please call this #" card — especially in NY, and even if it means only getting some stuff back (she, of course, got everything, and a bit more organized than she left it, thanks to Collin).

But it also goes to show that people will often do the right thing for the right reasons, at least the kind of people I’d want to hang out with. I can think of a number of people who found things and kept them, or rode the Internet bubble to super-wealth and let their investors ride it back down, which, in my mind, is much the same thing.

Actually, had I stayed and vested and sold high in a certain billion-dollar dot-com back in 1997, I might have "found" up to $18M bucks too (well, at least $1M, worst case). But I’m pretty sure given the sliminess of the source, I would have probably given it to charity. I don’t need that color money. And I still cringe when I think about those days; how depressed I was; the raw greed and lies I saw in former friends. Certainly, what I learned and did after I left did a lot to help shape the person I am today and I’m far better off this way. Building the product that became Google Earth taught me that we don’t only get one shot at making it the right way.

On the other hand, I did once find something and keep it. Sort of. When I was 9, my family didn’t have much money to spare. I wanted to see Star Wars for my birthday and take a dozen or so friends. And I had to choose between that and presents. I chose the movie.

But on the subway ride over, I found a billfold in a dark subway corner with $33 in it and no identification. I can’t imagine why there was nothing in there but the money, but there it was. And, yes, we could have brought it to the booth, but you can guess where the money might have gone.

It took a bit of deliberation, but we decided on a plan. After the movie, we headed to Toys-r-Us and bought about a dozen Star Wars action figures, one for each of my friends. It was one of the best days of my life.

I guess this is to say that there are times where you do take advantage of opportunity, and times when doing the right thing may mean losing out on $1M dollars worth of jewelery or $18M worth of stock. The key is knowing which is which. In the process, you can lose yourself, or you can be found.