A woman went from jail time and failing grades to Harvard Business School after a wealthy couple she met at her diner job offered to pay her tuition. Steve and his wife befriended her without revealing their wealth, then Steve told her to drop financial aid to strengthen her application before covering the full cost himself.
How'd you get into Harvard Business School? I became somebody that you would not want your kids hanging out with. I was partying all the time. I went to jail. I got my shit together very quickly after that. From there, I got all A's because I wanted to boost my average at least to a 3.0. I'm working at this diner and this couple would come in all the time. They never had kids and we just got along. This couple, I had no idea they were extremely wealthy. I always thought rich people were at fancy restaurants, but this couple's coming in going to a diner, getting cheeseburgers each week. I had no idea, like, they're worth a lot of money. Steve said, "You need to take yourself off of financial aid because these schools, they're gonna take that into consideration when evaluating your candidacy." And I said, "How am I gonna take myself off aid? I have no money and this school is so expensive." And he said, "We're gonna pay for your school." Wow. It's hard for me to not get emotional talking about it 'cause they changed my entire life.
