The Walk

Last week, I had the opportunity to provide keynote remarks at Rowan University’s Ric Edelman College of Communication, Humanities, and Social Sciences “Seniors of Distinction” Night. The event itself was impressive and worthy of its own write-up, which I am working on next.

Below is a copy of my remarks to those in attendance.

I graduated from Rowan in 2000. Upon graduation, I was a little lost. I didn’t really know which direction I wanted to go and where I wanted to take things. My intent had been to go to graduate school and eventually obtain a Ph.D. in History. But when I didn’t get into any of the schools I applied to, I really had nowhere to go after graduation.

Thanks to a series of conversations with a man who was one of my mentors, as well as my swimming coach at Rowan, Tony Lisa, he helped me realize that I had a passion for the sport of swimming, a sport I had been a part of since I was six years old. He also helped me see that I had a passion for coaching and a passion for mentoring athletes.

So, a logical path for me to take was to pursue a career as a professional swimming coach, and that’s the direction I headed in.

I had a few different jobs in a few different locations. Eventually I got my first head coaching position in 2004.

Then, in 2008, I was presented with the opportunity to start my own business: a swim team and swimming lesson program right here in Gloucester County.

Very soon after starting the business, I knew that the best way for us to make a larger impact on the community, serve more athletes, and generate more revenue for the business was to grow the swim school. For a number of years I concentrated on that aspect of the business.

Then, in 2016, we began a construction project to build a facility that would become the home of our swim school.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say that the construction project went horribly wrong. By the time 2016 ended, I was $800,000 in debt, the amount of the construction loan, with a facility that was not nearly finished. And, I had come to find out, that a lot of the work on the inside of the facility was done improperly and would need to be torn out and started over.

At this point I really didn’t have a choice, so I found an attorney and started the steps to file a lawsuit over the situation.

If I defaulted on the loan, we were in danger of losing it all.

Later that day, I went out for a long walk by myself in the woods. I needed to get out into nature, clear my head, and just go through some of the different scenarios.

On that walk I recognized two important things and made two important decisions that have shaped my life since then.

The first thing I recognized was that I was trying to control everything. I further recognized that there was very little that I could actually control in this situation, but I could influence a lot. I certainly couldn’t control the final outcome of the lawsuit. But what I could do was everything in my power, everything that was actually within my control, to make winning the lawsuit possible. So that is what I decided to do.

The second thing that I recognized was how alone I was, and not just because I was walking by myself in the woods. I had been carrying the weight of the business, the weight of the construction issues, the weight of the residual issues brought on by the construction issues, like the financial issues. I had been carrying them all by myself and I couldn’t do it any longer.

I decided that I was going to seek out the right people to surround myself with to help me through this process.

Not long after I took that walk, I was able to find that community. A community of people who weren’t just there to laugh at jokes and talk about the weather or last night’s game. This was a community of people who are really invested in what I was trying to accomplish and really invested in my success, as much as I was in theirs. People who could have conversations that go two or three layers below the surface, to figure out what is really going on, what you really want to accomplish.

People who would be there to help me stand up when I stumble, get me back onto the path toward my goals when I strayed off of it, and who are there to celebrate my victories, not out of obligation, but because they are genuinely happy for me.

Those are the kind of people you want to surround yourself with.

Nobody is successful on their own completely in isolation. It takes a whole crew of people around you for success to flourish.

The second thing is: find your crew. Find a group of successful people to surround yourself with. Fill this crew with people who are more than just friends, people who are really invested in your success. People who you trust and empower to push back on your thoughts and ideas to pressure test them, just as you are trusted and empowered to do the same for them.

If you can find these two things, you are going to lead incredible personal and professional lives.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this evening. I am looking forward to hearing more of the stories of what got you all to this point. Congratulations to the class of 2026, and have a wonderful evening.

Back in December, I was at an event where Philip McKernan provided a keynote talk. In that talk, he told us that everyone has a story to tell, and that story can serve to both educate and inspire. He further challenged all of us to find a place to tell that story in 2026.

This was my opportunity to take on Philip’s challenge.

I was grateful to be invited to give these remarks. Rowan wasn’t the place where my post-high school education began and wasn’t the place where it ended. But Rowan was where I finally learned to appreciate the learning process and dedicated myself to becoming a life-long learner.

As I drove home from the event through campus, I thought about how much has changed at Rowan since 2000. There are a lot of new buildings, improvements to old buildings, and a real energy on campus, even at 10 pm. The university has clearly grown into something significant.

It was an honor to be welcomed back.