Page 195 - The Power to Change Anything

184 INFLUENCER

Risk. As you might expect, among all the influencers we have
studied, those who faced the biggest risks also drew most heav-
ily from the power of social capital as a means of reducing that
risk. Toward the top of this list, of course, would be Dr. Silbert,
whose job it is to transform hardened criminals into produc-
tive citizens. Think of what Silbert’s wards do as a matter of
their daily work, and you’ll appreciate just how much risk she
and her organization face.
Every day about a hundred of Silbert’s San Francisco resi-
dents invade people’s residences across the Bay Area and
remove their valuables. This is something many of them did
before joining Delancey. The difference now is that they are
doing so as part of the Delancey Moving Company. That’s
right, people who had once made a living moving furniture
and other goods illegally are now doing so legally. You’d
think that this business strategy was far too risky, given the
employees’ job histories. Nevertheless, every single valuable
Delancey movers remove shows up at the new residence.
Delancey is the largest privately owned moving company in
the Bay Area for a good reason. The company has never had a
loss or theft. Imagine what would happen if even one pearl
necklace came up missing? Delancey’s reputation would be
lost, and the moving company along with its 100 jobs would
simply disappear. In spite of huge risk, Delancey has no
problems.
Equally astounding is the fact that in the Delancey restau-
rant, residents still reeling from alcohol or drug withdrawal
serve alcohol to customers as part of their daily job. Hearing
about this obvious incongruity for the first time, we asked
Silbert how she deals with “relapses.” Without hesitation, she
answered, “We don’t have relapse.” When we pressed her, she
thought back to the last instance of abuse and acknowledged
that a year earlier one person had “gotten dirty.” To fully appre-
ciate what this means, we need to consider that the average
rehab program has a very low success rate.