A Prophecy That Changed My Life

That question came to me years ago when I received a letter from my father.

He had been in prison for a time by then, but he’d made his confinement into a place of wisdom, sending me letters that were part mentorship, part challenge, part confession. At that moment, I was a troubled teenager, on a fast downward path, kicked out of every school I’d been in, and going nowhere with all the stubbornness and arrogance that I embodied.

After yet another set back, I wrote to my father, asking, “Does it really matter if I don’t get my act together?”

He shared with me an ancient tale from the Talmud, the story of the Tzadikim Nistarim - the 36 hidden righteous ones:

“For the world to survive,” he wrote, “ there have to be at least 36 righteous people in every generation. People don’t know who they are, and they may not even know it themselves. But they keep the world in balance. If the number of righteous leaders falls below 36, the world will be destroyed.”

That letter was one of the stranges ones I ever received. I was expecting a warning that I won´t find a job if I don´t get my life in order, not that the world might fall into chaos.

Eversince, I have been obsessed with studying the great leaders of history—examining the architecture of their beliefs, the anatomy of their behaviors and the characters they managed to forge. But there was always a part in me that felt that the truth my father wanted to convey was more metaphoric than based in a threat based in reality.

The leadership crisis of 2024 changed that, where the west and the east engaged in a multi-fronted proxy war with each other and global nuclear exchange was openly discussed. During countless sleeplesss nights, I understood that the fate of the world hangs on the psychology of our leaders.

Thus, the mission of Chieftain 36 is delay the point of where humanity destroys itself. If we go extinct, not by our own hands and not in this generation.

We are going to do that by empowering as many individuals as possible to become rightous leaders and to protect our protectors and support them any way we can in their great task. And to do our part in making sure that the number of rightous individuals does not go below a point of no return.

The story of mankind may end one day, but no under our watch. We will not drop the world handed to us by our ancestors, and we will not rest until we pass on a world to the next generation that is more equipped to survive than we were.

Yours
Daniel Karim
Chieftain36 Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Ad Mortem Et Ultra - Serving Till Death & Beyond