With Purpose Success, part 55

He dedicated himself to finding a cure for ALS, even though with his rapidly deteriorating condition he fully understood that such a thing was not likely in his lifetime. His new goal, he told me, was to create and endow a businesslike operation that would become self-funding and stay on ALS research long after he had passed-or until a cure was found. 

I'm happy to report that just such an operation is now in place, thanks to "Augie's Quest," which he describes in detail in his 2007 book by the same title. 

As I was formulating my own thoughts for this book, I spoke at length with Augie in November 2007, when he had become wheelchair bound and ALS had rendered his speech almost unintelligible. He was a gentleman and took great pains to carefully enunciate so that I would understand his words. Virtually every sentence he uttered was a gem, and 

I could hardly believe the extent to which he had turned away from physicality and materialism and toward this larger more spiritual purpose. It occurred to me that this previously frisky caterpillar was transforming himself into a soaring butterfly right before my eyes. "At first, I had no idea what ALS was," Nieto confessed. "It's known as Lou Gehrig's disease. But Lou Gehrig died a long time ago. A lot of people don't remember him." Believing that the disease needed a face in order to attract funding for research, this very proud man went public with an illness that was killing him an inch at a time and robbing him of his ability to perform the simplest tasks, like walking, bathing, or feeding himself. He pledged much of his personal wealth to the cause as well and took every opportunity to speak on the subject and draw attention to the illness. 

Because of his entrepreneurial and team-building talents, Augie approached the usually disjointed and tedious process of global medical discovery with an intensity and ingenuity previously unseen. In a short time, Augie's Quest has been producing meaningful results, yielding clues from collaborative teams of researchers worldwide that should help to more quickly identify possible treatments. He has set in motion incentives, networks, and funding mechanisms that are literally speeding up the scientific process while ensuring that it will not slow down even after he's gone. This singular mission has brought great purpose to his life at a most difficult time. It's also taught him valuable lessons about not wasting time and living life with urgency, lessons that he freely passes on to those who will listen. "When you're healthy, life is like a marathon with no end in sight," he told me. "You can't see the finish line, so you slow down and pace yourself. But when the finish line is in view, you speed up because there is no point in saving your energy. This disease has taught me to run faster. I can see my finish line now, and so I run at a fuller tilt."