| Editor’s Welcome |
“Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote in a notebook. In editing two of the principal articles in this issue, it occurred to me that the observation had a flipside. Fitzgerald could also have said: “Give me a tragedy and I will give you a hero.”
Bob and Katherine Shoulders may not be the first people who come to mind when the word hero occurs in conversation. They are an engaging couple, the husband-and-wife team who created the Fayetteville Athletic Club, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and friends and colleagues to many in this industry. But, in 2003, driven by their entrepreneurial spirit, and reassured by promising developments in their market, they undertook an ambitious expansion that, given the benefit of hindsight, was clearly an unfortunate miscalculation. The advent of the Great Recession, coupled with Wall Street’s failings, and the collapse of their own bank transformed it into a fatal one. It was a convergence of unforgiving factors
that pushed the Shoulders to the edge in virtually every imaginable way. But, as Contributing Editor John Halbrooks reports in “Strong Shoulders,” the tragedy proved to be less than their equal. The Shoulders did what needed to be done, all that was required, patiently, with dignity and grace, gradually surmounting the greatest chal- lenge they’d ever faced.
Now, having emerged from the long gauntlet
of their ordeal, they retain their optimism and enthusiasm, and are embarking, eagerly, on new careers in the industry they continue to love. The Shoulders’ tale is sobering, but Alejandro Martí’s is unapproachable, so horrific it seems emotionally, psychologically inaccessible—something dark hidden behind a high wall. No one can know, or would want to know, what this man has endured.
An eminently successful Mexican businessman, Martí was a founder of Grupo Martí, S.A., a holding company for more than 100 Deportes Martí sports stores and 42 Sport City health clubs, as well as of Fondo Opcíon, a real estate firm. His established, successful, secure, and relatively predictable life changed forever, though, in 2008 when his youngest son, Fernando, 14, was kid- napped, and, despite the payment of a significant ransom, was subsequently murdered. Now, Martí told CBI, “I am living an unexpected life: the course it has taken was one that I never planned.”
Since his son’s death, Martí has devoted his time, energy, and resources to aggressively fighting crime and corruption in Mexico. This month, in acknowledgement of his endless, untiring efforts, he’ll receive the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, one of the highest honors that can be accorded. CBI is pleased to be able to introduce you to heroes such as these. —|
6 Club Business Internat ional | NOVEMBER 2011 |
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VOLUME 31, ISSUE 11
Kerry Brett
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