Whistleblowers aren’t born—they’re made.

They take form when a company does not address a problem, illegal activity, or fraud occurring inside its own house or when investors or taxpayers are getting hurt, and no one is doing anything to stop it. A whistleblower’s initial motivation is almost always altruistic: They want to stop wrongdoing.

“If you see something wrong in your company, and they’re not following the rules, but they fix it, end of story,” said whistleblower attorney Michael Ronickher of the firm Constantine Cannon. “It’s when it escalates, if it doesn’t get fixed because someone with a financial or reputational issue doesn’t want it fixed, that’s what creates a whistleblower.”