Nelson Mandela — What 27 Years in Prison Could Not Take

Nelson Mandela spent his prime — twenty-seven years — in prison, entering at forty-four and emerging at seventy-one, his eyesight damaged by forced labor in a lime quarry. Such years should leave only hatred.

Yet on release in 1990 he chose reconciliation over revenge: negotiating with the very government that had caged him, steering a country from the brink of civil war through dialogue, and becoming president in 1994 in South Africa's first all-race election.

He built the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, choosing confession and forgiveness over punishment; at the 1995 Rugby World Cup he appeared in the jersey that had symbolized white South Africa, uniting a divided nation. His attributed words: "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

Prison took his time but not his greatness — he even used those years to learn his jailers' language and understand his adversaries. When we say the bottom is a starting point, this man stands at that truth's farthest height.

What do you work for?