-: You know, I started off,
I didn't have the greatest credentials when I came here.
And I recall that first meeting I had in orientation
with my guidance counselor.
I'll just refer to him as Mike.
But I met him one time in my life
and I still remember his name today
because of what he said to me.
But Mike, he said, "Young, man."
He said, "What would you like to do?"
I said, "Well sir, I'd like to be a lawyer."
He looked at my undergraduate index,
my grade point average and my SAT scores
and he said, "You know, not real good."
He said "You've probably got about a 98% chance
"to fail and a 2% chance to succeed,
"you wanna rethink this?"
And I leaned up on my chair and I said, "No, sir."
He said, "Well what do you wanna do?"
I said, "Well, I'm gonna become part of the 2% club."
And all the while I was thinking
that I was scared to death, okay.
But here's my point in even telling that story.
Any time you come to a place like Ball State,
or any institution of higher learning,
you have a goal.
And to have a goal, you have to have a plan.
A goal without a plan is nothing but a maybe.
So you got this plan and you execute this plan
to achieve the goal.
And the way I explain it is that
everyone has this mountain to climb.
Some mountains are taller and steeper than others,
but whether you're successful depends on how much grit,
how much determination and how much work
you wanna put in it.
I feel like Herb Hamilton said, 98% of success
is perspiration, it's only 2% inspiration.
So that's what I got at Ball State,
serves me to this day.