As often as possible, it is a good idea to seek business leadership lessons from non-business leaders, especially those for whom profit was not a motive. Here’s a great one.

One hundred and ten years ago today – October 28, 1914 – Dr. Jonas Salk was born in New York City, where his parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents lacked a formal education, but certainly no vision for their son. He went on to NYU Medical School, where he stood out from his peers not only because of his intellect and academic excellence, but also because he chose research rather than going into private medical practice.

Almost exactly in the middle of his life – 1955, to be exact – he introduced his vaccine, the Salk vaccine, which made polio – considered at the time the most frightening public health problem of the day – a thing of the past. In fact, in 1952 there were over 300,000 confirmed cases and 58,000 deaths, mostly children.

Immediately after the introduction of his vaccine on April 12, 1955, the world changed.

It’s been three-quarters of a century since Dr. Salk’s vaccine was introduced, and almost everyone reading this has never met anyone with polio. Can you imagine the impact that had?

Dr. Salk has spent the last 40 years of his life in continuous research. He founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (California), wrote countless studies, several significant books, and spent the last years of his life searching for a vaccine against HIV. He was a selfless humanist of the highest order.

Right thing, right time, right reasons

For example, he never patented his polio vaccine, refusing to profit personally from his contribution to humanity. When development was nearing completion, he was visited by a legal team from the University of Pittsburgh, where he worked day and night in the research lab that bore his name. They asked who owned the patent, only to find they had no interest in it. But he asked what was involved, now that they brought it up. When they detailed the trial’s extended year or so, a mortified Dr. Salk immediately refused the trial, reminding them how many people would be crippled—or worse, killed—by this terror, delivering this moralistic lesson:

“There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

And so, apart from his regular salary, Dr. Jonas Salk never made a dime from his vaccine, perhaps one of the ten most impactful scientific discoveries in history.

In the mind and heart of the leader

To understand this unusual commitment, we must first understand its moral, ethical and intellectual basis and the sense that the individual does indeed have a responsibility for the welfare of society. “Our greatest responsibility,” he said, “is to be good ancestors.”

But that noble promise probably doesn’t go far without a persistent curiosity that rides on a strong intellect. Ever self-aware, he explained, “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.”

And now, a personal note

In the first human trials of the Salk vaccine (1954), children across the country were selected to be in two groups: one that received the actual vaccine and one that received a placebo. I was one of the first in the entire world to receive the herd – and I still have my Pioneer Polio card to prove it. It is perfectly conceivable that my life has been changed without being changed.

I think about it often.