 Sean, thank you so much for joining us on the official University of Podcasts. We're thrilled to have you. Thank you So we'll start at the beginning way back I know that you grew up in Chicago. Yes, and then you know, obviously you found your way to Purdue But when did you first hear about Purdue University? November of 1977 I was a football player in high school and we were in the playoffs and And it was it was a Monday. It was a parent-teacher, you know kind of half-day and My mother and my best friend slash teammate its mother came up and Dr. Bell was on campus Visiting with just so happy. He got assigned to our high school counselor. Ms. Delores DZ Who I'm still in touch with And Ms. DZ told dr. Bell about Tony and myself And when she was escorting him out of the building Our mothers were in the hallway talking and so she introduced dr. Bell to our mothers Unbeknownst to either one of us at the time He had scheduled to come out Sunday of that week to talk to both of us and we live in different parts of town and Unfortunately that Saturday, I didn't know it Monday But that Saturday wound up being into my high school career because we lost gay So Sunday, I wasn't in a very good mood and We lived in raw apartments as opposed to the you know, the high-rises that you typically see in major cities and I was sitting in my mother's bedroom Looking out the window Re-playing almost every play in my head and you know, what did I do wrong? What could I've done better? And of course I did everything perfect, but you know but I just I really was in a foul move and Waiting for dr. Bell to come I didn't even know his name And dr. Bell pulls up in a Cadillac it was a Burgundy sedan deville four-door with a white vinyl top And I raise up and I look out the window And I'm like who is this and he gets out of the car I've told this story a thousand times And he's got on a fedora hat, which I didn't know that's what they were then a London fog trench coat and a three-piece Suit And my comment was to myself who is this brother? It was like Superman, right? And I yell downstairs my he's here And she said well come down and let him in and I go downstairs and I let him in the house He introduces himself and I had a big fro then and I was a lot smaller but muscular and I didn't I didn't crack a smile. I was Joe cool and he comes in the house and We had very little furniture In our apartment And my mom was cooking Sunday dinner she she was world-known for fried chicken and Was the first comment dr. Bell may was about can I have some chicken? She goes what's not ready yet? And we sit around the kitchen table was like being recruited for football And for three hours He dazzled me Sorry This always happens when I tell the story he talked about Sonia Winslet Cynthia Barnes and rolling parish and other students who had Starting on Bob years before me And I was just an amazement, but I was too cool. I wasn't showing anything And he started talking about the money that they were making Going to work for companies. I had never heard of And I still had some hope That I would get a scholarship to a major university at the time it was Potentially between the University of Iowa and Northwestern Unfortunately, both of those fell through And I remember calling dr. Bell in December and saying what do I need to do to be on your program? And he told me to get my transcripts and he had this little Trifold brochure that I'm sure your photographer took all the pictures for back then And it was that simple filling out this little application, which was just a personal data And I mailed it to them and the school sent my transcripts And a month or so later He called me and told me that I got accepted and would be on this program that summer And that was the first time I heard of dr. Bell little did I know That the program that is now named after him would change my life And the life of my family for generations to come and All because your mom ran into the high school guidance counselor in the hallway at your high school Even more random than that that he was assigned to my high school counselor could have been any other counselor Who I may or may not have had a relationship with I surely wasn't the smartest student at Chicago vocational high school But given you know my status as a really good athlete and I was on the National Honor Society, so I was a I was a decent student It made a difference And so Tony and I we were roommates on bop and roommates for two years here at Purdue and He even went as far as to twist my arm to major in accounting, which I was terrified of And I remember sitting in his office downstairs in Cranart. I Mean he was relentless and I said we'll tell you what dr. Bell. I'll cut you a deal This was a spring of my freshman year. I said if I get if I get a good grade in management 200 And my out was and I liked it I'd study a county and he goes well, what's a good grade? I said a beer better. He said you have a deal I fell in love with it And the rest was history I graduated in four years With distinction and top 10% of my class. I had 11 job offers coming out of school And ended up going to work for Arthur Anderson in Dallas And I've been in Texas ever since June of 1982. I reside in Houston now What was your mom thinking was she kind of pushing you towards Purdue and dr. Bell or she just kind of stayed out of it No, you know, it's kind of interesting. I grew up in the projects on the south side of Chicago. I'm the youngest of four Single mom and I was the first one to go to college my two brothers Decided to go into the military You know wonder of Vietnam the other after but he the second one made a career out of it And so he wound up going to college later in life While he was in the Air Force and then my sister Who's 12 years older than me? Had started working for Chicago Police Department right out of high school and data processing Which has she stayed with that who knows where she had gone with technology But she decided to go to nursing school years later and became a registered nurse and a modus brother Just he went and stopped and went and never finished. So I was the first one to go First one to graduate. So I didn't know what I didn't know and my mother didn't know what she didn't know But her famous thing was to all of us My job is to get you through high school and I'm done. And so when I came to Purdue I Was in culture shock first of all and then I was in complete fear Because studying for college was so much more demanding than studying for high school And so fear motivated me and so I'm like no you can't give up I need you for another four years and became a running joke for us You know so She became enamored by Dr. Bell Because he took good care of me what I didn't know until January of 2012 That Dr. Bell Dr. Alchisken who was my biology professor who's still alive and my mom Were in cahoots I wanted walking on for walking on to the football team in the spring of 79 My mother was worried about me playing college football. She thought it would interfere, you know with my studies Which I know Dr. Bell planted that seed And so the three of them triangulated on me To convince me to stop playing football I Did not learn that until I called dr. Chisken and let him know that my mother had passed and he said I'm going to tell you something that your mom swore me the secrecy back in 1979 and that was and he was the one that convinced me to stop playing football in February of 1979 so She eventually acquired an appreciation for what this place could do for me if I took advantage of it And I clearly did right and what and how did you fall in love with accounting and in Cranart? I'm sort of a visual guy You know mathematics It's not my strong suit, but this was arithmetic adding subtraction multiplication and division and what I learned real quickly is if I Can understand the principles of accounting and I did the homework I Got to a result and that felt good And and I fell in love it was sort of like an addiction for me To get to the result And it wasn't that difficult for me because I put the time in to study in and memorize and then things like that And one thing that was also helpful for me at Purdue was I took advantage of the TAs and the professors So I spent a lot of time especially first two years here Taking advantage of office hours And the other thing that was extremely helpful in my success was I had Bob students sophomore junior senior levels ahead of me and we always shared information And so I would go talk to them about classes and which classes to put together, you know my schedule mix And that was extremely helpful in helping me manage my My school low for studying and testing, you know not having multiple tests in one day or five tests in one week Which is extremely stressful So all of that Was a direct benefit of being a bop student or as we call ourselves boppers Tell us more about bop for some of the listeners who might not be as familiar with it. Sure It it is unbelievable how it was conceived and and carried the term After Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 The Dean and I believe it was four other professors here at Cranard who Honestly, we're all white Came together and said we've got to do something To help get more black students into the business school and So that was the creation of the business opportunity program, you know I didn't have an appreciation back then at the demands on an administrator of a school. I a Dean and So Dean Day Realized that this was not his you know his lane And that led led them ultimately to hiring dr. Bell out of the Geary independent school district and Dr. Bell came down here and his first class. I think was 1971 which Roland Parrish was on Who the Cranard Library is named after? And and dr. Bell took it from there and turn it into something unique and extra special It's over 50 years old now and You know some of my lifelong friends where people that I met in my class. In fact, my closest friend was in my class And some of the other classes before me and after me Have become extremely close individuals in my life at this point at 62 years of age So it's an amazing program. You start in the summer So I graduated on a Monday. I was on campus Friday and in class on Monday So I had less in a week of summer vacation and we took 12 hours and the goal was to help us Adapt to campus life Which it clearly did not do that and I didn't realize that till we came in in the fall when regular school was in But it gave us a base of support of people who look like me Which even to today there aren't a lot of people who look like me on campus And so it became a community community of the 78 class and the three classes before me like big brothers and big sisters We helped each other with studying so my biggest obstacle coming in as a freshman was my study habits. I Caught I wrote three buses In each direction to get to high school City buses not school buses So I'm up at 6 and I'm out of the house by 6 35. I'm on the bus at 6 45 And I'm in school depending upon the weather 7 30 7 45 and in football practice. I'm leaving school at 6 30 so if I didn't do my study and on the buses and Then if I got to school early finish it up It didn't get done because I was in bed by 9 o'clock every night I Thought that was pretty good study habits because it worked in high school. It surely didn't work here It's totally different. Totally different. I failed my first math exam on bop And I had a D on my psychology test and I started thinking army Air Force Navy Marines And then my friends kind of say hey man look we're gonna help you with this and and I caught on And it took me probably a year Before I figured out what I needed to do to be successful From a study in standpoint and that ultimately led me to Potter Library Where I spent the next three years in the mezzanine level or the basement level Basically doing all my study and I never studied in the dorms too many distractions too much noise And in Potter There were no windows on the lower level, so I had no perception of time And so I went you know I get in there today light and start getting I man It's getting dark. I've been here too long I'd leave there times I come up and I go because I didn't wear a watch I come up and go wow You know it's 10 o'clock And I'm walking back to the dorm 10 30 11 o'clock at night and that became my pattern Which contribute to my success as a student? I Can tell dr. Bell meant meant a lot to you as yeah, it was like a dad. It was like a dad to me I was I was honored Upon his death, and I didn't know any of this. I was I think there were Five or six of us who dr. Bell specifically wanted to speak at his service, and I was one of them And I almost couldn't do it because I Dr. Bell was the closest person to me in my life That was like family to me that had passed at that time, and I just I walked into the church and I literally locked up And it took a very dear sister of mine Cassandra A. G. Who was the first and only black homecoming queen? back in the day Who's like a big sister to me to kind of get me out of that by telling jokes And she spoke before me and I loosened up and tried to follow her act So so that was a huge honor for me to be able to share with the audience the impact that he had on my life and Lives of so many other people. Yeah, and he really impacted your path of between Purdue and after Purdue, right? Change of trajectory. He did he he taught me about the possibilities, and he was real smart about how he did it He would do by asking questions Dr. Bell never told me what to do He would question my decisions Or he would ask me questions that I did not have answers to but it made me think It made me wonder And I still use that same process today in my own life and when I'm talking with students And him, you know employees Well, you know, you've kind of followed in his footsteps Why why is you know Committing and being part of this Purdue community and you know, you've spoken at Craner You've gotten all these honors like what is what does that mean to you to follow a bit in his footsteps in that legacy? In part it's an obligation I'm obligated to do it because somebody did it for me. I Know the impact it had on my life I know how it changed me as a person and I would not have made a lot of the decisions that I've made that have benefited me As a student and as a professional Had it not been for Dr. Bell the people that he recruited to this program and in addition to that the people who he invited back as Professionals to talk to his students and talk about careers I mean, that's the the add-on piece of why I went into accounting and went to work for an accounting firm He had a master's student didn't go here undergrad Who went to work from one of the big eight accounting firms back in the day? Who came in and talk about what he did and I was sitting in the second row from the front and I was mesmerized He made it fun. He was funny cracked jokes, and I remember he just went through, you know The progression, you know at this level. This is how much you make is what you do You get promoted the next year That was the first thing they got me to get promoted after one year and you get promoted after two years and Well, blah, and you get up to this level as a partner You're making which I thought was all the money in the world right little did I know and so I literally sat in the classroom. I said, that's what I want to do And had it not been for him, I would have never known about, you know, the world of public accounting You know at some point I realized I didn't want to be an accountant That I and I didn't want to be in a big corporation Because I color outside the lines and again I learned that being here as a student and I learned that and being a bopper if you will And that ultimately led me into going into business for myself back in 1996 Yeah, what was that jump to entrepreneurship like were you scared to get out of corporate life and kind of start something new? No, I wasn't scared to get out of corporate life. I was I was actually thrilled You know as a as an African-American as a black man I got tired of running into brick walls And I knew I was better than what I was experiencing and again an upper-class bop student Kelvin Pennington Who kind of went through the same process in investment banking, which I had never heard of We were riding down. I met him and she lives in Chicago. We decided to ride down Together I was living in Dallas at the time and we're riding down in his car And I remember asking what said Calvin what what made you decide to leave, you know This big company he worked for to starting your own private equity fund And I've stolen his his statements. I I probably should patent it and whatever copyright He said I was convinced that the marketplace valued me more than the company that he worked for And I've used that a thousand times explaining Why it was easy for me to make that I was willing to bet on me it took me about a year to figure it out But when I figured it out, it was the best decision that I'd ever made Well, tell us about your career. Oh Yeah, that I'll just say I spent 15 years working for two different big companies One is a household name even today American Express and the other ones Arthur Anderson who's no longer in existence Because of what happened within Ron So I left there and became a Taco Bell franchisee I The one thing that I knew from working in the accounting profession and doing audit and consulting services Was I didn't want another job? So in other words, I didn't want to start with one restaurant and be the general manager and work in crazy hours And you know dealing with teenagers and customers and that's not what I wanted to do. I already had a good pan job But I wanted to be in a position where ultimately I could create wealth I've never had a desire to be rich. I wanted to be wealthy and My definition is I work because I want to not because I have to that's my definition of wealthy And so I wanted to to create scale And focus on what I'm really good at is infrastructure And so my first Taco Bell was 19 restaurants I had never bought a company or try to become a franchisee, but you know, who cares, right? I was actually trying to buy 50 52 restaurants initially all at once in three different cities And and and that didn't come in fruition. So my first acquisition was 19 restaurants in December of 1996 and interestingly enough I closed on December 20th And I had to unexpectedly The day before we were scheduled to close which was that Friday at the 20th I got called by the bank and I needed to fly up to White Plains, New York Because the documents were lost by FedEx because there was a big blizzard in New York at the time In the only way we were going to get all the Documents executed because there were some other documents that needed to be done was me flying up to New York So I dropped everything I was doing Saturday trying to get my office set up and I land in Newark at 1 30 in the morning and it was the last flight and I didn't get to my hotel till 3 in the morning because the driver was lost And we wound up getting all the documents done. I fly back Friday night, I think I get home about 11 and The next day Saturday 21st was when my was my birthday And I wake up 10 11 o'clock, which I never sleep that late unless I'm sick or something like that And I wake up by 10 11 o'clock. I'm like, oh, it's my birthday. Oh, I gotta go to work I was like, oh, I gotta go to work. I got a company now and so That started I had a I had two partners at the time initially 18 months later. I bought another 12 restaurants Ultimately I closed some low-performing restaurants or no performing restaurants built some more restaurants and My goal was to eventually be a 50 60 unit operator and an opportunity presented itself In 2006 I was at a restaurant conference and I'll spare you details, but one long and short of story is I went from refinancing like, you know, you refinance your house because I was ready to start doubling the size of my company and To I need to think about selling all because of this conference. I went to and I had the consultant I was using Send me a valuation of the company, you know, how much was it worth if I sold it? And we had a call two days later and I told told the two of them that the two owners I said, look, I just have one question and The one question is how real is the net number, you know, after all expenses and what I'd have to pay Taco Bell and all that and pan off my debt and He goes well, if we can't get you significantly more money than that because it's really conservative We won't charge you a fee and my fee was seven figures And I literally we're on speakerphone at home. I literally went Pack it up boys. I'm out of here And it took several months to just Position myself to be able to start marketing it And then that next year I sold in June of 2007 at the age of 46 and and retired But you're not really retired I've moved from what I would call I've moved from being successful to being significant Success is all about The individual was all about me in accumulation Significance is about what will be my legacy in life And you're really involved in your community and on board. Yes. Yes So tell us about that and how you were able to do that because We're tired Well, even before this so I've been involved in nonprofit boards since shortly after Purdue my first board When I was with Arthorandus and the partner I worked for asked me if I would consider Joining the board of the Dallas halfway house, you know, which was for transition for ex-offenders And that's where I got my first bite of the apple if you and I and I loved doing it And then it went on to other things probably the highlight while I was living in Dallas was the The the completion of a multi-million dollar building for the African-American Museum in Dallas. I was the youngest board member Because of some of the stuff that I've done and sort of my thinking I was put on the executive committee really quick Which was really cool And so it just it became more of a passion for me And I moved to Houston, you know, large Taco Bell franchisee The national charity for Taco Bell. I don't know if it still is it probably is was the Boys and Girls Club So I was asked to join the board in Houston. I did that for a number of years and YMCA and some other nonprofit organizations and then I decided to go back to work in 2013 To become a franchisee of another concept and did that for a few years and sold that a couple years ago That one didn't work out too good, but I learned a lot And so I decided at some point I can't kind of do the quilt approach With time allocation to because I was getting all kind of nonprofits calling me and I said what are the most important things for me? it's education for minority students and Healthcare for poor people Why because I know you're gonna ask me that Education made the life that I live today possible Healthcare because where I grew up in the projects we'd have to get on public transportation ride for an hour to go get basic clinic services Until dr. Gloria Jackson convinced the housing authority to give her a rural apartment to set up a medical office Which every day Monday through Friday was Pat from 8 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon And that was All these decades later a perfect model of how to serve Poor neighborhoods, and so I got invited to join the board of Memorial Healthcare System the largest healthcare system in Houston We do over six billion dollars in revenue And so I've started having conversations with the board chair and the CEO and some of the other Executives about how can we get healthcare to poor people and it has Two benefits one for the the healthcare system and one for the community and one for community. It's pretty obvious for the healthcare system I want to say about a hundred million dollars a year as an indigent care in our budget and a lot of that is through the Emergency room and we've done studies where fifty percent of At one of our hospitals in the city over the course of a year fifty percent All the emergency room visits were primary care physician related earache You know things like that It's frustrating for the patient because I've been there as a kid and it's frustrating for the medical staff Who are dealing with people who are dying? Who have Major major major injuries, you know a car accident or a gunshot wound And and it's a lot of friction between the patient and the caregiver and Our staff deserves to not have to you know Manage that and the patient deserves to get the treatment that they deserve and that is not the kind of vehicle That we need to have in place. So that's what I'm working on there on the education side I just speak to Purdue There have been very few years that I've not come back to campus whether it was through my former employers But for the most part it's been out of my pocket To come to speak to dr. Bell's class while he was here and now that Darren is running it I've been on the Dean's advisory council for the number of years and then a month ago Much to my surprise I received an appointment to the board of trustees, which was pretty intimidating to be honest Why it's it's an awesome awesome. I mean like awesome like wow Awesome by the magnitude Responsibility This is a big business. It is huge and it's very complex. It has a lot of moving pieces You know, it's like trying to steer multiple aircraft carriers at the same time and I spent the last 48 hours and More meetings in terms of meeting department heads Then I probably would in my business career. I probably wouldn't have that many meetings in a year And I was a little You know, like how am I gonna get through today? It has been so easy. I've been so impressed It's been invigorating And exciting to hear all the things that are happening here and the plans for the future and so When the chairman of the board when Mike called me and told me on a Thursday I was looking at a picture of me and dr. Bell that we took in his office down the hall many years ago And he goes, what do you think I? So Mike I'm pretty full right now and I said I'm looking at this picture with dr. Bell And my first thought is I wish he could be here for ten minutes just to see this And secondly, my life is now going full circle with Purdue University. So I'm honored. I Am now really excited to get to work. It's gonna take some time to get up the learning curve But my my my goal I was asked about president elect You know kind of what my goals are and I said well, I can't tell you right now But my focus is to figure out what Lane or Wayne's that I can run in that I can have a legacy effect On the future of the University That's amazing. Thank you. It's really powerful What you know when you're you're part of the board of trustees now You've won all these awards with Cranert. You're you know, you like you said you've come back every year What does that? Boilermaker spirit like what does that encompass and mean to you when you think about this place and being back here right now? You know, I can't answer that question I don't use the word can't or cannot very often My emotions right now are so high I'm not drinking from the firehose. I'm not drinking from the hydro I'm actually tapped into the water main right now and it is coming at me so fast and at such volumes that I'm gonna have to take a few because I got a board meeting in the next week I'm gonna have to take a few days just to hit the pause button and just start processing and Start trying to figure out Where I fit what value can I add because it's all about adding value whether it's adding on top of something or You know, the consultants like to use the word pivot help us pivot What relationships can I tap into to help the university? I'm It's bigger it's much bigger than I could have imagined You know, I give a lot of speeches And one of the things that I used to say is the vision that I have for myself Is much smaller than the vision that God has for me This is really tested me and it's really stretching me and stretching my imagination to the Unlimited possibilities that not only this university has to offer But what life has to offer in general and so I'm having to Reimagine and recreate my reality When you look back on your time at Purdue You're really involved, you know your relationship with dr. Bell. What's a story that just immediately kind of sparks something for you? I wish I could tell you it's one story, but it is my history with dr. Bell is so rich From literally hours that I would sit in his office and just talk to him and it wasn't it wasn't one way It was there were times when dr. Bell would confide in me when dr. Bell would talk about How much he missed his mother? You know because he didn't have her for a very long time or when he and his wife Mildred lost their child And could not conceive It was a car accident and couldn't conceive after that and so, you know She was a principal and administrator and Gary and so their students became their kids and that was dr. Bell's passion He really wanted me to stay in Chicago close to the school because he thought I would lose the connection which That was not gonna happen You know to his infectious laugh Which I was the photographer earlier I was doing it for him and and if you do it with a bop student all of a sudden laughter would erupt and You know when he would point his finger, you know, you and I would do like this and dr. Bell had large hands You know, but dr. Bell would use the birdie finger when he pointed which I won't do on camera You know, so that became a run-and-joke with the students You know him coming over to the dorms To have dinner with us Which was which was such an honor and it was so much fun because he would sit around You know for a couple of hours and we I mean we weren't talking school or grades Whatever the topic was he was engaged and he was funny and he was charming You know there were times where dr. Bell would give us a ride home if you know if we lived in Gary or Chicago You know just that gracious and that helpful So I you know, I honestly don't have one specific memory That I could say was better than other You know, I do have memories of you know, probably the last days of his life Which I cherish but we're also very difficult for me Not in a sense that you know, he's close to the end of his time But realizing that he needed a lot of help physically And I went through that with my mom about the same time and that was emotionally really difficult for me to see this giant I mean you couldn't keep up with him when he was walking and I wasn't really good shape back there You know, he I mean flew all over the place in his three-piece suits all the time and you know never out of Out of place and and then to see him in his final days Barely able to take care of himself was was really difficult So kind of gone from cradle to grave in terms of memories with him and and I spoke with him the day that he passed And we knew that that would probably be his final day on on this earth So they were all wonderful And I'll be eternally grateful for him and Dean Day for giving him the chance to fulfill his greatness on this planet Don't we see this is Barbara Walters moment. Yes, stop that It's the obvious stories are so so wonderful What about you know students coming to Purdue what advice would you give to someone? Maybe who was in your position who wasn't sure about Purdue? well I've not necessarily running people who you know, we're considering coming here. So I'll give you a good example last night Darren Henry who's over the program today And I think you know Myself and some other Bop alums who are Abbott golfers, you know would always tell stories about golf So he had all of Bob students this summer come out to the Purdue golf course And so there were a few of us that were supposed to be here and you know a couple people had scheduling conflicts So I'm out playing golf with three of the current students I mean they peppered me with questions the whole round we played eight holes And One young man was you know asking about well, you know, what have you seen over the years that has helped students be successful and and I would say whether it's Purdue or in life or a company you work for owning your own business a major chunk of Success however you define it and it's different for everybody You have to put the work in you have to show up every day Even when you don't feel like it But you really have to put the work in And not be a clock watcher And and understand and this is something that dr. Bell taught me Embrace change And I learned later in life that it is the most natural thing in life If you fight it you're gonna lose or you're gonna make your life that much more difficult So the two things that I tell people embrace it Learn how to make it work for you and start learning to be more observant so you can anticipate The change coming your way whether it's a good change or challenging change It can all be good for you because a challenging change is going to stretch you It's going to move you out of your comfort zone and help you be smarter and hopefully a better person So that's the message. I want people to hear you know Work your tail off and then probably the other thing is Learn to develop authentic relationships, I used to just say learn and develop relationships That meant all of them learn To develop relationships with people who are authentic who are real who are honest Who have your best interests and you may find that's not a big pool of people, but that is okay And and be quick to Quick the fire and slow to hire I use that at work, but even in your personal relationships, you know if someone is a taker They're constantly draining you. They always want something from you whether it's something tangible or emotional Those are the people you need to you know in a very nice way just Kind of fall out of contact with sometimes But learn to develop authentic relationships. I am who I am Because of relationships over my lifetime going all the way back to my mother, you know my siblings You know my football coaches miss DZ teachers, you know, it may be Something complimentary that I didn't realize about myself that gave me that spark It may be a hand up not a handout Yeah, I worked hard But working hard is not the equation. It's just a piece of it But learn to embrace people who have your best interests at heart because it'll make all the difference in the world So those are a couple of things that I share with students What would you say your next giant leap is? being a trustee Being a trustee it really is You know, I'm looking at some business ventures right now. I've been there. I've done that You know my role is more Trying to help the entrepreneur navigate through all the traps and opportunities in a shorter Length of time because I've done a lot of that but being a trustee of a prestigious university like Purdue is a whole nother level and Fortunately, I'll get to tap into everything my whole life experience not just the business or the school part but the things that have made me be who I am, you know The experiences that I've had on this campus as a student which were both good and bad, you know to be honest with you To you know, the things that I've done on all the boards that I can bring to add value here And then my work ethic. I was telling a fellow trustee earlier today You know, I knew it was gonna be a lot of work. I Didn't know it was gonna be two times So that's that's my next big aha is being a trustee and being entrusted, you know with one of the keys to the future of this historic place You've overcome a lot in life How do you keep going and looking towards the future and how did you overcome? All of these things to be sitting here where you are, you know, good question I Would have to say it depends on What phase of my life I was in? So I come to Purdue. I Was motivated by fear fear of failure I Didn't know what I didn't know and so I come here and I start meeting kids from walks of life that I'd never experienced let alone seen up close and personal and I start talking to them and I go you live where And your parents do what? And they make how much money You drive a brand-new trans am with the firebird on the hood and the tea tops y'all too young to know it they miss camera man, I'm talking to and There were worlds that I didn't know existed other than what I would see on TV and So I knew It's gonna sound terrible. I knew I didn't want to go back to the projects And so whatever it took I was gonna do it if it met I was gonna have to You know go to summer school I would go to which I fortunately I didn't have to do that if it meant I was gonna study all night I was gonna study all night but I was Fearful of failing not for the sake of failing but because of the end result would be I get kicked out of Purdue I can't get funding and I'm back in the projects on the south side of Chicago And that went all the way through Purdue. In fact, I didn't know I was gonna graduate now I had two C's in four years You know one in English and one in my advanced cost accounting, which because I slacked off on my final went from a B to C But until I was halfway through my first semester senior year. I'm like I'm gonna graduate And then as I started working and started getting exposed to more things I became more Aspirational so in my early to mid 20s, you know, man, what do these people do to afford a house like that? You know, what do these people do to you know fly first class? And so I started talking to people who were at those levels and oh wow, I didn't know that you could do that You know being an entrepreneur never entered my mind of owning my own business Until I started running a lot of people who were doing extremely well financially and they weren't working for big companies And so that transition for me psychologically was a lot easier and But if I could put it in and tag it with one word it's hope I've never lost hope And it gets me up in the morning and it keeps me up late at night when I have things that I have to do because I'm not focused on what I'm going through I'm focused on what I'm going through and how it's gonna get me to ultimately where I want to be and as you've probably heard Motivationless, it's it's it's not about the destination It's whatever that journey is right now. It's like flying if I'm trying to get home And I've got to connect to a city But it's gonna get me home and that's what I'm more focused on is getting home So hope is a pretty powerful word if you'll embrace it Thank you What else would you want to tell our listeners? Did I miss anything? One of the consistent things that that I've experienced with people throughout my life Is that people tend to put themselves? In a bottle and they limit The possibilities and they limit their potential and I like to say It's because they don't dream big enough dreams They remain comfortable Not realizing that remaining comfortable eventually is gonna decline We're seeing it today in today's economy, right? You know a lot of people because of the pandemic got big raises if you're not only working at a big raise, right? It's being gobbled up now Because a high fuel just high fuel prices alone and high food price the things that You know are a staple in your life cost you 20% more today in some cases more and And if you try to stay constant you're literally losing ground over time So I try to stress to people you know step out of yourself and Really stretch your imagination to dream bigger dreams and bigger possibilities of what you could do with your life Whether it's you know work or whether it's community or whether it's your family Think of bigger possibilities. I always say unlimited possibilities. I've never seen a computer and been a human being So think about that And it all starts with a dream or possibility in your imagination Second one is it takes a lot of courage to go against I used to say the naysayers and Was given this talk to some high school students and one students came up to me afterwards and said Now you should change that to haters mr. Taylor You got to learn to ignore the haters Because people will be envious and jealous And won't want want to see you succeed And so stay true to yourself true to your dreams and just keep on trucking and the other one is Murphy's law whatever can go wrong will go wrong And so you you have to be flexible you have to be able to adapt And you have to have pig commitment PIG point point If you eat breakfast food and chicken and eggs Chicken lazy eggs and go about their business in the yard cluck cluck cluck cluck What happens to the pig in order to put bacon or sausage or ham on the plate? They have to make the ultimate sacrifice. They have to die You know when I'm talking to high school students or college students I tell them don't go tell your parents mr. Taylor said I gotta I gotta die in order to be successful It may feel like that But you have to make sacrifices Sometimes that means less sleep Sometimes that means you know I hate to say it but there appears a time when I was in my 20s I was seeing I was working ungodly hours Where I throw a load of laundry in the washer when I got home at midnight And I get up in the morning I throw it in the dryer and by the time I've showered and shaved I'm going in the dryer. It was my dresser and I'm getting under clothes out or a shirt or whatever Or I was too tired to make up my bed and I'm sleeping on the mattress because the sheets are in the washing machine You know, it's it's inconvenient. It's uncomfortable But I was trying to stay true to my ultimate goal And so sacrifices are are required So big dreams courage, you know commitment And authentic relationships I love that. Well, we can't thank you enough for joining us. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you