Those who knew John Sage in high school and
college saw him as a golden boy. He was an All State high school football player
in Houston. At Louisiana State University, Sage was a stand-out defensive
tackle, starting 33 straight games. The LSU Tigers ranked in the Top 10
nationally for two of Sage’s three years at LSU. He was named defensive captain,
earned first-team All Southeastern Conference and second-team All America
honors, and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sage passed on the
opportunity to play professional football. Instead, he earned his MBA at LSU,
returned to Houston, and became a principal in the Sage Land Company,
specializing in raw land investment and development. He was a millionaire by age
36.
“I was a deal junkie,” Sage says. “When it was all over, I couldn’t
believe the number of deals I’d done.”
Sage’s 12-year run from MBA to
millionaire hit a major snag in 1984. “I was on a burnout pace,” he says. “Some
deals went bad, some partnerships went bad, and we faced major challenges from
the IRS. That’s when I had my first encounter with clinical depression.”
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“I thought overcoming the feelings I had was
just a matter of willpower. But I learned that it isn’t.”
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Sage’s depressive episode lasted about 90 days,
and the after-effects lingered for another nine months. “I lost 25 or 30
pounds,” he recalls. “I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t really function at all. I
felt like I wanted to die. I realized that people commit suicide not because
they want to die, but because they want the pain to end.”
Sage lingered in what he describes as “a dark
place between life and death, with no energy and no hope.” He thought the
depression was his fault. “And I thought overcoming the feelings I had was just
a matter of willpower,” he says. “But I learned that it
isn’t.”
His encounter with
major clinical depression changed Sage’s priorities. “It made me slow down and
focus more on my family,” he says. “And I vowed to do everything I could to
ensure that I never experienced depression again.”
The next several years brought continued
financial upheavals. Sage closed his business in 1987. The IRS and legal
challenges consumed his life for the next several years. “During those years of
difficulty, I lost most of the money I made. In 1993, I still had IRS problems,
and was contemplating bankruptcy when my younger sister, Marilyn, was
murdered.”
Sage and his
sister had been inseparable since they were toddlers. He learned that she had
been stabbed with at least three different knives, bludgeoned with a statue, and
suffocated with a plastic bag. Sage’s rage and grief were too much for him. “I
remember waking up two or thee mornings in a row,” he says, “and thinking, ‘Oh
my gosh, it’s back.’”
Sage’s
depression had indeed returned. “I went back to my psychiatrist and started
taking medication again,” he says. “It was tough, but I didn’t have the same
desperate lack of hope. I felt as bad as the first time, but I knew I’d get out
of it eventually.”
It took
Sage about six months to get through the most dysfunctional stage. Full recovery
took around two years, and he had to go on part-time
disability.
By the late1990s,
Sage had lost his desire for doing business deals. At a friend’s suggestion, he
visited a prison where a project was under way to link victims and family
members of victims to inmates who were similar to the offenders who had caused
them injury. The experience proved to be life-changing. Not only did he begin
the process of forgiving his sister’s murderers, but also, in 1998, he founded
Bridges to Life, a faith-based nonprofit organization that brings groups of
crime victims into prisons across Texas to meet with
inmates.
“It helped me heal,
and I could see how it affected others,” says Sage. “We had about 260 volunteers
in 15 prisons last year. It helps people who’ve had depression as crime victims
or crime-victim families. And it helps the inmates.”
Besides providing a healing experience for crime
victims, Bridges to Life is focused on reducing recidivism for the inmates. So
far, more than 1,800 have graduated from the program. For this work, Sage
recently received the 2004 Social Entrepreneur Award by the Manhattan
Institute.
The challenges
continue, but the reward of helping others has given Sage a new kind of riches.
“Depression is a lot about anger turned inward,” says Sage. “It’s hard to be
angry when you’re
grateful.”
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