With Purpose Success, part 38

Here's how used-car math typically works: the dealer takes an old car with 90,000 or so miles in a trade, paying, say, $1,000 for it. The dealer spends $500 to give the jalopy a face-lift, and then places it on the lot with a $5,000 sticker price. The sales staff is offered a $1,000 incentive to sell it. So that car, which is certain to start costing the new owner big money in repair bills within months, nets the salesman a hefty bonus and the dealer a profit of $2,500-double or even triple the profit on a new car that may sell for $25,000. Meanwhile, the unsophisticated buyer may have been put in a high-rate auto loan as well and stands a chance of defaulting on it and tarnishing his or her credit rating. That, in turn, has the effect of furthering this individual's downward financial spiral. 

Seeing this happen time and again, Chambers recalled the faces of those poor Philippine children he saw as a sailor. Before his eyes, unscrupulous salesmen were preying on the working poor in his hometown. Not only were these problem-beset people buying even more problems-they were also certain to suffer additional economic pain when their car broke down and they were unable to get to work, missing out on a day's pay. 

So Chambers took matters into his own hands. He decided he would quit the car lot and start a service that would negotiate fair car prices for the working poor, help them with their overall finances and see to it that they get fair loans. It was a leap of faith. In five years as a car salesman 

Chambers had learned plenty about wholesale and retail prices-and how to spot a lemon. But he was in over his head when it came to partnering with banks and offering financial counseling to the poor. 

But Chambers charged ahead anyway, calling to mind the words of Ernest Hemmingway in The Old Man and the Sea: "Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." Chambers talked a few banks into backing him and in 2001 launched Bonnie CLAC (Car Loans and Counseling; www.bonnieclac. org), a nonprofit dedicated to getting the working poor of New England into reliable vehicles and helping them shore up their credit rating. 

Since launching his firm Chambers has underwritten more than $10 million in car loans, and his clients have each saved an average of $7,000 over the life of their loan. The banks are thrilled because Chambers's referrals collectively have a better-than-average repayment record. "It's a win-win," Chambers says. "I get people who come up and give me hugs, saying, 'I never thought I could get out of debt.' I believe that most individuals really do want to do well. It's just that the system has built a circle around them that they can't escape." 

Chambers takes a comfortable annual salary ($72,000) for his do good efforts. But that's a small reason for him to be in the game. "It's changing people's lives," he says of his loan and counseling service. By making reliable transportation affordable, he helps clients hold a job and also build their credit. If more folks can afford to get to work, more will, he reasons. That's how he's living with purpose and making a difference. 

Teach about the World's Needs 

Just out of college, Katie Ginsberg began a promising career on Madison Avenue, where she worked in account management and served clients, including