“I’ve got my thumb stuck in the dike,” says our Binder and Binder® Power Person, Nik Agharkar. He is referring of course, to the famous story of the kid who saved his city by sticking a thumb in a hole in the dike that was holding back the ocean. “We’re working in a system that desperately needs an overhaul,” he says…and you can hear the anger in his voice when he says it.

Here’s a typical quote: “I remember a client who had to come to a hearing in a wheel chair and was using an oxygen tank. She had to wait two years for a hearing,

and barely survived the wait. The hearing took three minutes before the judge awarded her benefits. Why did there have to be a hearing for someone like that in the first place?” He is keenly aware of how difficult it is for someone who has worked all of his or her life, to admit, “I can’t work anymore.” Nik puts it this way: “So much of a person’s self worth comes from working…the camaraderie and sense of ‘being in it together’ that you have is so important…and it’s all missing when you can’t go to work.”

When he’s not fighting the government bureaucracy for our clients, Nik roots for the New York Rangers, and the New York Yankees. “I played hockey for 14 years. That’s about the best fun you can have in upstate New York,” he says. He grew up in Syracuse, N.Y. and Princeton, N.J. but he lives in Greenwich Village now, because he says, “It’s so alive.” In his free time, he enjoys exploring everything New York City has to offer. You can often find him in Central Park with a book by one of his favorite writers like Dickens or Cormac McCarthy. He enjoys classic films like “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane, and “Almost anything by Hitchcock.” Musically, “It’s the blues and Classic Rock…artists like Clapton” are right up his alley.

Nik “takes the job personally.” “When things get bad, everything turns personal.” is how he puts it. And that’s one of the reasons he’s so popular with our clients. He often mentions Michael Jordan’s perspective…“I can stand failing, I can’t stand not trying.” But he’s not some kind of working drudge. He has an easy laugh, and a friendly smile. When asked how he can stay so positive, and keep his sense of humor doing such a difficult job, he quotes Lincoln: “I laugh because I must not cry.”

What does his future hold ? His answer is, “I’d like to look back on my life knowing that I made a difference in people’s lives. I want to affect real change.” For now, lots of our clients whose lives are in danger of being drowned in an ocean of bureaucratic problem are a little safer, because Nik has his thumb firmly stuck in the dike.