One of my most memorable experiences from when I was an investment banker in New York (and one of the things that really turned me off from banking, now that I think about it) happened one year at our team holiday party. 

One of the associates I worked with was going bald . . . all except for one spot on the very front of his head, which he refused to cut off despite it looking ridiculous - a wispy clump of hair in the middle of his otherwise bald forehead. We made endless fun of this hair over the years and that night, after much drinking, the group took up a pool to try to get him to shave it off for good. As I recall the pool got up to some absurd number - $15,000 - $20,000. Amazingly he didn’t shave it off (although it did, of course, eventually fall out). Looking back, this was a silly display of ego from the heads of the group to throw around that kind of money (clearly to impress the rest of us, who were in no position to offer more than a few bucks up).

I was reminded of this story when I received a note from my friend Usher saying that he was going to shave his head in support of a charity that funds childhood cancer research. I wish I could have gone back in time and taken the money on the table at the banking party to give to Usher. Not able to do that, I thought I’d blog about it in hopes that some of you might consider supporting him in his cause along with me.