The Man Who Changed His Life After Reading His Obituary

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It is quite impossible for any person to read his obituary while he is alive. This has happened to Alfred B. Nobel in whose name Nobel Prizes are conferred. And, that incident changed his life forever. The world’s most famous set of awards are the Nobel Prizes. Presented for outstanding achievement in literature, peace, economics, medicine and the sciences, they were created a century ago by Alfred B. Nobel who accumulated his entire wealth by making explosives. He also invented dynamite.

Incident that changed his life:

Alfred’s brother, Ludvig, died in 1888 and a French newspaper mistakenly thought it had been Alfred Nobel himself who died.  The newspaper published the obituary under the title: “The Merchant of Death is Dead”, going on to state: “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” At that very moment Alfred realized two things- this is how he is remembered and this is not how he want people to remember him. He thought how can he change this perception.

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Then, on November 27, 1895, he took action. He went to the Swedish Norwegian Club in the Marais in Paris, sat down at a writing desk — which is still there (the venue is now called simply the Swedish Club) — and wrote his last will and testament.

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Over four pages, he set out what he wanted to give to his relatives — he had no children — and to his staff. He asked that the rest of his estate be invested into a fund, “the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” The interest was to be divided into five equal parts and each part given to the person who had made the most important discovery each year in four fields and, finally, “one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congress” — the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Nobel was successful in his attempt, and today the name Alfred Nobel is not associated with death and destruction; it is associated with the prizes which reward the best of human endeavor.

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