FOR THE GREATER GOOD: The story of the Holleeder family


The Holleeder family produced the most violent and notorious gangster, Willem. Everyone in Netherlands, I mean everyone, knew him for his vicious acts. People were scared of him and what he could do. Everyone was scared of him, everyone except Astrid his younger sister.

Astrid Holleder was Willem’s confidant.  He trusted her to the extent of creating sign languages with her. Willem murdered all his rivals and anyone connected to them. Anyone that looked like a threat he killed including his brother –in-law who he felt started snitching to the cops.

Astrid however had other plans for her brother. She wanted him to stop but there was only one way, Jail. Astrid was a criminal lawyer in Netherlands and due to her first hand exposure of crime, she was able to put her brother to jail. She put him there so that he would stop; she put him there for the greater good.

As leaders, do you sometimes feel that you need to let some people go? Physically and mentally? Well you need to. Some people are just poison in our lives and all they can do is intoxicate the joy we once had. As a positive person, you deserve more than what the people around you are giving, not because you are too big but because you have a big role to play in the society. Leaders never emerge from taking every body’s mess, that’s why every leader has a hater and a critic.

Do like Astrid and let those holding you down go. That might mean deleting their number, sacrificing lunch space at work, or even loosing work but don’t settle for people who do not move you forward. Do like Astrid and send them to jail, take them away from your life, cut the bond between yourselves and set yourself free.

In the Bible Abraham had to disconnect from Lot to enjoy more blessings. In life you have to consciously and unconsciously disconnect from negative individuals. You need to do so for the greater good. For the people you have been created to impact, for the children you were created to help, for the schools you were created to build. If you do not do it now, those people that have been tied to your success might never succeed. If you allow the negative people reign in your life, they would just cause frustration and stagnation and that is surely now a way forward.

Can you be an Astrid right now and cut off all the negative people in your life? Yes? Then you have helped the greater good, you have helped the homeless boy who needs you, the farmer who can’t afford the rent, the community that has never seen light.

You have helped them on, congratulations.


You can read other writings from Musa here

Photo by Ashley Whitlatch on Unsplash

Author: Musa Obed

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