Purpose 43
brother, Jacob. Returning from the hunt famished, he traded his birth-
right as the oldest son for a pot of stew his brother had cagily simmered
for him. No amount of rage or revenge could reclaim that birthright.
Samson was a man whose main purpose was pleasure. Here was a
person of great physical strength but of total selfishness of purpose. His
largest pleasures were sex with various women and his ability to best
others in often pointless physical combat. Samson’s first action when
we meet him in Judges 14 is an act of pure lust (an affliction that has
sidetracked many a leader, both biblical and modern). Samson said to
his father and mother, ‘‘I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now
get her for me as my wife.’’ This was not the ‘‘nice Jewish girl’’ Sam-
son’s parents had in mind, nor was this to be a union based on mutual
respect and love. It was the beginning of a series of affairs that led to
Samson’s betrayal and death.
Samson was not a leader of his people. The Bible says nothing of his
organizational or inspirational abilities. He left no legacy except revenge
and destruction. He killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass, and
after his betrayal by Delilah and subsequent blinding, he brought down
the temple on the heads of thousands of his enemies. Even his last act
was one of self-destruction, since he also brought the temple down on
himself.
A modern-day Samson is ‘‘Chainsaw Al’’ Dunlap, who specialized in
‘‘saving’’ companies by destroying them. At Sunbeam, Dunlap pursued
one purpose and one purpose only: maximization of the bottom line.
To do this, he chopped personnel with the same enthusiasm that ‘‘Jaw-
bone Samson’’ had knocked out 1,000 men. Like Samson, Dunlap left
no unifying legacy of purpose on which Sunbeam could build and con-
tinue, and no team to carry on his work. He simply moved on to the
next company to pursue his own individual glory and gain.
Michael Milken is a more complex character than Al Dunlap. Al-
though to many of us the purpose of Drexel Burnham Lambert may
have seemed to be based largely on the enrichment of Milken, he was
sustained by the belief that he was increasing the wealth of all who
bought the stocks he was proffering. And when he was found guilty of
insider trading, he paid the financial price and served a prison term,