Welcome to Our American Stories, where we champion the incredible journeys of everyday Americans. Today, we meet Paul Blavin, a man whose path took a remarkable turn. From the high-stakes world of Wall Street finance, Paul built a hugely successful career, driven by a deep desire for independence and achievement. But an unexpected encounter with a powerful story shifted his entire perspective, setting him on a new course away from the daily grind and towards a profound purpose.
That turning point was rooted in a heartbreaking truth: the pervasive issue of child abuse and the urgent needs of children in foster care. Paul couldn’t ignore what his heart told him, so he took decisive action. He moved from managing investments to investing in lives, dedicating himself to giving back and creating opportunities. This led to the creation of the transformative Blavin Scholars Program, empowering vulnerable youth through college scholarships and comprehensive support, proving that one person’s commitment can truly make a lasting difference.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And we love your stories, our listeners’ stories. Please send them to OurAmericanStories.com. Click the “Your Stories” tab. You’re about to hear from Paul Blavin, a man who had a cause put on his heart and who wasted no time responding to it. You’ll hear the story of how he went from workaholism on Wall Street to retiring to do the kind of work that he felt could truly make a difference.
Here’s Paul.
I grew up in Southfield, Michigan, which is a suburb right outside of Detroit.
My community was a middle-class, predominantly Jewish community that was very focused on education and careers.
We were on the lower socioeconomic side of our community. My father struggled with mental illness which manifested in criminal behavior, and he was actually arrested for the first time when I was eleven, and I was the paperboy. I delivered newspapers in my community, and it was on the front page of the paper I delivered. So it was really traumatic, and it also had a big impact, obviously, on our family in terms of finances. And so the impact it had on me was that I decided that I really wanted to be independent, that I didn’t want to be a burden on my mother, and that I wanted to establish myself as a reputable, accomplished person. You know, I’m sure my thoughts were a little different at the age of eleven, but that was the direction I put myself on. So that was highly motivating, and I was driven a lot by fear. I got my first job delivering newspapers when I was about eleven, and then started my first business when I was fifteen, and then my first real business where I had a business card and I was entering into contract for corporations and things like that when I was sixteen, and that was renting out movie theaters and promoting midnight-movie shows. I wasn’t going to go to college, but through guilt and logic, my mom convinced me that that would be an important step, and so I decided to go to college. I applied only to one university, the University of Mission in Ann Arbor, and fortunately it was granted admission, and I treated that like a job. My friends still make fun of me. I mean, I was in the library all the time, because in my mind, I could either be working and being productive in that way, or I could be focused on my studies and performing there. And so I ended up towards the top of my class there at Michigan, near-perfect grades, and was fortunate to get an opportunity because of that, I think, to work on Wall Street. And so I was able to go to Wall.
Street right out.
Of University of Michigan, and I was an investment banker, and that changed the trajectory of my life in a significant way. Like many things in my life, like the most important things in my life, in hindsight, it wasn’t my will. So what I mean by that is I was a workaholic. I had my own business and was still very driven to succeed on behalf of my investors and myself. And I was on a business trip, and uncharacteristically, I decided to read a pleasure book. And the pleasure book I picked up was a book called “A Child Called It,” an autobiography written by Dave Pelzer, and it’s his life story from the age of zero to about twelve. And in the book, it is harrowing to read about the incredible abuse that he endured at the hands of his mother, who was mentally ill and also an alcoholic. And I was just floored by it. And, you know, it opened my eyes to child abuse. And, you know, gratefully, it opened my eyes to how grateful I am that, you know, I was blessed to have two loving parents, imperfect as we all are, and loving. And I was never abused—and I was never abused verbally or physically. And I came to realize after reading Dave’s story how lucky I was, and, “thereby the grace of God, go I.” And what really, you know, broke me up reading the book was when Dave said that, you know, the best day of his child is when he went to school and the police were there, and the principal told him, “You don’t have to go home anymore,” being placed into foster care. And I just couldn’t handle that. It just struck me to the core. And I ended up finishing the book, arriving back home from that business trip. And in the newspaper—we were living in Phoenix at the time—The Arizona Republic, was a story about a kid just like Dave Pelzer, and he was twelve years old, and he was in foster care because his mother had kept him locked in a closet and abused him. And he was eighty pounds, and he was in foster care. And it said, “If you want to help kids like this that are in foster care, here’s a local organization and here’s their phone number.” So I immediately called that number, and within a couple of weeks I was officially on the board of the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation. And in that organization, we would give out small grants, on average about two hundred, two hundred fifty dollars, for things that my children took for granted, like karate lessons or tutoring, or a trip to Disney or a first bicycle, things like that. And after about six months on the board, I realized that the foundation also had a scholarship fund for college, and I started looking more closely at that fund and came to see that very, very, very few of those scholarship recipients were actually graduating college. And that’s what opened my eyes to the whole need for a more comprehensive program. So that’s where how the seeds for the Blazan Scholars Program were planned.
And you’ve been listening to Paul Blavin share his story: his early life, early traumas, his father being arrested, his entrepreneurial spirit tapped. Early independence is what he wanted, his success at the University of Michigan, at Wall Street, where this is one book—what he thought was a pleasure book, but was a transformational book. When we come back, more of Paul Blavin’s story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we’re asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy-six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That’s OurAmericanStories.com. And we return to Our American Stories and to Paul Blavin, former Wall Street workaholic turned founder of the Blavan Scholars Program, which all started because of a book Paul read about a child in foster care. Let’s return to Paul with more of his story.
Let’s return to Paul with the rest of the story.
Because I had left the business world and was more open to engaging in a hands-on way with our Blavant scholars. My wife and I have developed relationships with many of the scholars because we were on campus fairly frequently, and we get to know our scholars. And it just so happened that there were a few that we’d get much closer than others. The first Blavan scholar to express interest in becoming a medical doctor was a young man named Joseph Sedlak, who my wife and I met thirteen years ago as a freshman. And we stood in awe as Joseph went four years as a biomedical engineering major with near-perfect grades, graduating summa cum laude, sitting for the MCAT in 2013 and scoring the hundredth percentile, top in the country. And this is a young man who overcame incredible obstacles, very similar to Dave Pelser, really, so it was a miracle that even got to the University of Michigan, let alone performed so strongly. We got to know Joseph right away. So as a freshman, and, you know, over the subsequent years, Joseph was with us for family holidays, and, you know, he just he came into our hearts. It was sort of a natural progression to want to adopt Joseph. And Joseph was with me for many important, very important things of my life, including coming to faith on August seventh, 2016, in Kenya, and traveled the world with our family. And we decided to formally adopt him, and Joseph, of course, is also my business partners. Really remarkable. Our son, Joseph, came to me in April 2018 while he was an MD/PhD student at Harvard with an idea that was—he thought—very compelling, and he wanted to share with me. And that idea was a novel approach for the early detection of cancer with a blood test. And Joseph had dedicated his academic career and his career in general to serving those with cancer and helping relieve suffering and saving lives. And he had determined that in order to have the biggest impact, he believed focusing on early cancer detection, when cancer can actually be cured, had the greatest promise. And so Joseph had an idea for a novel approach for the early detection of cancer, and he discussed it with me. And I had had a life science class since tenth grade. For my career, I was a disciple of Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham and others who practiced value investing and staying within a circle of competence that, in my case, definitely excluded technology, biotechnology—you know, the exact type of thing that Joseph was proposing. But fortunately, I had retired and was different; you know, it changed. And so I encouraged Joseph to take an authorized leave of absence, if he could get it, from Harvard Medical School to pursue this idea, and I backed him financially. Joseph was courageous enough to take the authorized leave and go for it. And Joseph and a team of two scientists turned Joseph’s—literally Joseph’s—idea, a hypothesis, into a practical test. And we now have a team of about twenty-five people just outside of Boston, and we have a patented approach that is novel and is powerful for the early detection of cancer. And this really is a David versus Goliath story, because Goliath in this case is—there are several companies that have raised billions and billions of dollars to pursue a blood test for the early detection of cancer—and they’re all using…
Here’s Paul.
I grew up in Southfield, Michigan, which is a suburb right outside of Detroit.
My community was a middle-class, predominantly Jewish community that was very focused on education and careers.
We were on the lower socioeconomic side of our community. My father struggled with mental illness which manifested in criminal behavior, and he was actually arrested for the first time when I was eleven, and I was the paperboy. I delivered newspapers in my community, and it was on the front page of the paper I delivered. So it was really traumatic, and it also had a big impact, obviously, on our family in terms of finances. And so the impact it had on me was that I decided that I really wanted to be independent, that I didn’t want to be a burden on my mother, and that I wanted to establish myself as a reputable, accomplished person. You know, I’m sure my thoughts were a little different at the age of eleven, but that was the direction I put myself on. So that was highly motivating, and I was driven a lot by fear. I got my first job delivering newspapers when I was about eleven, and then started my first business when I was fifteen, and then my first real business where I had a business card and I was entering into contract for corporations and things like that when I was sixteen, and that was renting out movie theaters and promoting midnight-movie shows. I wasn’t going to go to college, but through guilt and logic, my mom convinced me that that would be an important step, and so I decided to go to college. I applied only to one university, the University of Mission in Ann Arbor, and fortunately it was granted admission, and I treated that like a job. My friends still make fun of me. I mean, I was in the library all the time, because in my mind, I could either be working and being productive in that way, or I could be focused on my studies and performing there. And so I ended up towards the top of my class there at Michigan, near-perfect grades, and was fortunate to get an opportunity because of that, I think, to work on Wall Street. And so I was able to go to Wall.
Street right out.
Of University of Michigan, and I was an investment banker, and that changed the trajectory of my life in a significant way. Like many things in my life, like the most important things in my life, in hindsight, it wasn’t my will. So what I mean by that is I was a workaholic. I had my own business and was still very driven to succeed on behalf of my investors and myself. And I was on a business trip, and uncharacteristically, I decided to read a pleasure book. And the pleasure book I picked up was a book called “A Child Called It,” an autobiography written by Dave Pelzer, and it’s his life story from the age of zero to about twelve. And in the book, it is harrowing to read about the incredible abuse that he endured at the hands of his mother, who was mentally ill and also an alcoholic. And I was just floored by it. And, you know, it opened my eyes to child abuse. And, you know, gratefully, it opened my eyes to how grateful I am that, you know, I was blessed to have two loving parents, imperfect as we all are, and loving. And I was never abused—and I was never abused verbally or physically. And I came to realize after reading Dave’s story how lucky I was, and, “thereby the grace of God, go I.” And what really, you know, broke me up reading the book was when Dave said that, you know, the best day of his child is when he went to school and the police were there, and the principal told him, “You don’t have to go home anymore,” being placed into foster care. And I just couldn’t handle that. It just struck me to the core. And I ended up finishing the book, arriving back home from that business trip. And in the newspaper—we were living in Phoenix at the time—The Arizona Republic, was a story about a kid just like Dave Pelzer, and he was twelve years old, and he was in foster care because his mother had kept him locked in a closet and abused him. And he was eighty pounds, and he was in foster care. And it said, “If you want to help kids like this that are in foster care, here’s a local organization and here’s their phone number.” So I immediately called that number, and within a couple of weeks I was officially on the board of the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation. And in that organization, we would give out small grants, on average about two hundred, two hundred fifty dollars, for things that my children took for granted, like karate lessons or tutoring, or a trip to Disney or a first bicycle, things like that. And after about six months on the board, I realized that the foundation also had a scholarship fund for college, and I started looking more closely at that fund and came to see that very, very, very few of those scholarship recipients were actually graduating college. And that’s what opened my eyes to the whole need for a more comprehensive program. So that’s where how the seeds for the Blazan Scholars Program were planned.
And you’ve been listening to Paul Blavin share his story: his early life, early traumas, his father being arrested, his entrepreneurial spirit tapped. Early independence is what he wanted, his success at the University of Michigan, at Wall Street, where this is one book—what he thought was a pleasure book, but was a transformational book. When we come back, more of Paul Blavin’s story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we’re asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy-six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That’s OurAmericanStories.com. And we return to Our American Stories and to Paul Blavin, former Wall Street workaholic turned founder of the Blavan Scholars Program, which all started because of a book Paul read about a child in foster care. Let’s return to Paul with more of his story.
Let’s return to Paul with the rest of the story.
Because I had left the business world and was more open to engaging in a hands-on way with our Blavant scholars. My wife and I have developed relationships with many of the scholars because we were on campus fairly frequently, and we get to know our scholars. And it just so happened that there were a few that we’d get much closer than others. The first Blavan scholar to express interest in becoming a medical doctor was a young man named Joseph Sedlak, who my wife and I met thirteen years ago as a freshman. And we stood in awe as Joseph went four years as a biomedical engineering major with near-perfect grades, graduating summa cum laude, sitting for the MCAT in 2013 and scoring the hundredth percentile, top in the country. And this is a young man who overcame incredible obstacles, very similar to Dave Pelser, really, so it was a miracle that even got to the University of Michigan, let alone performed so strongly. We got to know Joseph right away. So as a freshman, and, you know, over the subsequent years, Joseph was with us for family holidays, and, you know, he just he came into our hearts. It was sort of a natural progression to want to adopt Joseph. And Joseph was with me for many important, very important things of my life, including coming to faith on August seventh, 2016, in Kenya, and traveled the world with our family. And we decided to formally adopt him, and Joseph, of course, is also my business partners. Really remarkable. Our son, Joseph, came to me in April 2018 while he was an MD/PhD student at Harvard with an idea that was—he thought—very compelling, and he wanted to share with me. And that idea was a novel approach for the early detection of cancer with a blood test. And Joseph had dedicated his academic career and his career in general to serving those with cancer and helping relieve suffering and saving lives. And he had determined that in order to have the biggest impact, he believed focusing on early cancer detection, when cancer can actually be cured, had the greatest promise. And so Joseph had an idea for a novel approach for the early detection of cancer, and he discussed it with me. And I had had a life science class since tenth grade. For my career, I was a disciple of Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham and others who practiced value investing and staying within a circle of competence that, in my case, definitely excluded technology, biotechnology—you know, the exact type of thing that Joseph was proposing. But fortunately, I had retired and was different; you know, it changed. And so I encouraged Joseph to take an authorized leave of absence, if he could get it, from Harvard Medical School to pursue this idea, and I backed him financially. Joseph was courageous enough to take the authorized leave and go for it. And Joseph and a team of two scientists turned Joseph’s—literally Joseph’s—idea, a hypothesis, into a practical test. And we now have a team of about twenty-five people just outside of Boston, and we have a patented approach that is novel and is powerful for the early detection of cancer. And this really is a David versus Goliath story, because Goliath in this case is—there are several companies that have raised billions and billions of dollars to pursue a blood test for the early detection of cancer—and they’re all using…
Discover more real American voices.
