As for Travis, I kept my word. He became the head of our new Pro Bono Financial Literacy department, a division I created at Oakmont. His new job was to help low-income families and victims of financial abuse manage their money for free.
He hated it at first, but over time, something shifted. He started finding real satisfaction in helping people who truly needed it, not just making the rich richer.
I used the money to start the Martha Gable Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting seniors from financial exploitation and funding creative arts programs for kids – the two things she cared about most.
I learned that money doesn’t change who you are; it just magnifies it. If you’re greedy, it makes you greedier. If you’re cruel, it gives you more tools to be cruel.
But if you have a little bit of good in your heart, it gives you a chance to put that goodness out into the world on a scale you never imagined. My aunt didn’t just leave me her fortune; she left me a responsibility. The real inheritance wasn’t the money, but the opportunity to live a life that would have made her proud.
