{"id":15836,"date":"2020-02-27T19:10:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=15836"},"modified":"2020-07-24T19:16:51","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T19:16:51","slug":"almost-killed-40-years-ago-alumnus-went-from-wheelchair-to-outrageous-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2020\/02\/27\/almost-killed-40-years-ago-alumnus-went-from-wheelchair-to-outrageous-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost killed 40 years ago, alumnus went from wheelchair to outrageous success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013By Alexandra Pecharich, for FIU Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Carlos Sabater \u201981 lay broken in a hospital bed some four decades ago, just months before he was to start classes at FIU. The summertime boating accident threw him immediately into survival mode and would alter the course of his life forever.\u00a0And all for the better,\u00a0he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it was awful,\u201d he recalls of the terrifying ordeal that left him partially paralyzed. \u201cBut at the same time, it was that moment when the cockiness and the I-have-arrived kind of mindset that I had, that I-don\u2019t-need-anybody sort of style, just evaporated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning to rely on others turned out to be a blessing, he says. Doctors, family, friends, even another patient at the hospital offered support to get him through a dozen surgeries over 14 months. Once at FIU, the wheelchair-bound Sabater remembers shakily starting the accounting degree that would eventually see him through a remarkable career.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically, I wasn\u2019t doing very well,\u201d says the man, fit and fully ambulatory today. But the chance to make a difference in others\u2019 lives, just as so many had in his, soon forced a turnaround. He began serving as a teaching assistant in an accounting course he had previously aced, and he delighted in answering students\u2019 questions and showing them how to navigate assignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis began to give me so much energy and enthusiasm,\u201d he says, \u201cand it really began to bring the life back into me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate, Sabater established an accounting lab in which dozens of students gathered regularly to go over material. The experience launched his lifelong dedication to bringing up those around him, among them plenty of FIU graduates whom he hired over the years at the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, where he spent close to 40 years before retiring in 2019 as senior global partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look back on my life, and I think a lot of my success has not been with what I\u2019ve achieved but what I\u2019ve actually been able to help others achieve. I have mentored, from start to finish, people who are partners today at Deloitte from all around the world,\u201d says the man who in his last position oversaw nearly 100,000 employees in 28 countries. \u201cI would recruit someone and I would stick by your side and help see you through,\u201d says Sabater, who himself continued to take advice from mentors throughout his career.<\/p>\n

That spirit of selflessness came full circle when friends, family and colleagues surprised Sabater at a retirement party in his honor.<\/p>\n

In a celebration of his legacy as a leader and mentor, the group together invested $1 million to establish an endowment in his name.\u00a0The Deloitte Foundation-Sabater Scholars Program\u00a0will provide FIU business students with financial support in addition to training opportunities that will cover various aspects of the industry as well as topics such as ethics, work-life balance and community involvement.
\nEven as he leaves behind work responsibilities, Sabater, who serves on the\u00a0FIU Foundation\u00a0Board of Directors, has no plans to stop paying forward lessons learned, experiences lived and help received.<\/p>\n

In a direct link to his darkest days, the father of two adult daughters has made a mission of helping young men free themselves from drug addiction. For decades his own debilitating pain was treated with opioids, which took him years to quit. Now Sabater serves as a rock to dozens of others in various stages of sobriety. It\u2019s a 24\/7 commitment that has him answering calls in the middle of the night and meeting almost daily with individuals he hopes will overcome their challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to freely give what was freely given to me,\u201d Sabater says. \u201cEverything is a gift from someone else, and I\u2019m ready to hand it over.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of thinking, Sabater explains, took hold as he lay in a hospital bed so long ago and realized how much he would need from everyone around him to succeed. It has informed his every move since then. \u201cIf I had to come back and be reborn,\u201d he says, \u201cas difficult as it would be, I\u2019d say, \u2018Please, don\u2019t change a thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013By Alexandra Pecharich, for FIU Magazine Carlos Sabater \u201981 lay broken in a hospital bed some four decades ago, just months before he was to start classes at FIU. The summertime boating accident threw him immediately into survival mode and would alter the course of his life forever.\u00a0And all for the better,\u00a0he says. \u201cYes, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[368],"tags":[480,453,415,96,12,441],"class_list":["post-15836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philanthropy","tag-fiunext-horizon","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-association","tag-college-of-business","tag-fiu-alumni","tag-next-horizon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15837,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15836\/revisions\/15837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}