When I was an associate editor at Sports Illustrated, I was part of the team that covered the steroid scandal that was ruining Major League Baseball as a generation of batters who, only a few years earlier, had normally athletic bodies transformed themselves into hulks and began annihilating the home run record books. They weren’t just hitting more homers, they were belting them into different zip codes. That there was a problem in baseball was not up for debate, for all we had to do was witness the remarkable speed with which players acquired their bulging, Popeye-like forearms. I felt it was important to shine light, because I loved the game and still do. But it was painful.

GJ Hart watched his parents take risks. First, as immigrants who left their native Netherlands for a better life in the United States, then as nose-to-the-grindstone workers who made the most of opportunity. Their lessons taught him that to find a better place he had to be similarly willing to take chances. Hart says he can barely remember a time growing up when he wasn’t working at some small job, always with the goal of advancing.