Two Dozen Basic Management Principles (Pt. 13)

Posted by on Jun 2, 2014 in Blog | 0 comments

Part Three 2004 – 2008 Chapter 9 Norfolk State Lopez won the New York state cross-country final in his second year of high school in America. This enabled him to qualify for the national regional high school championship. He placed twelfth in the region. In 2004, his senior year, he did even better. After winning state again, he finished in the top six of the national regionals. This qualified him for the Foot Locker National High School Championships. Though he did not win this national event, he did well enough for college recruiters to come calling. Now a new problem rose up its ugly head. Lopez’ SAT scores kept him from qualifying for a Division 1 scholarship right out of high school. He had to look at a junior college or a non-Division 1 college. Having had his fill of the cold, Barb drove Lopez and his adopted brother Dominic (who had also just graduated) south. On their second day of driving, they arrived in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As soon as they drove on to the campus of Norfolk State University, Lopez thought, “This is the place for me.” The campus was beautiful. The school was just the right size, not too small and not too large. Plus, it happened to be a predominantly black school which appealed to him. He did not want to stand out in this new place. Barb arranged for him to meet the track coach but intentionally did not mention that Lopez was the number one cross-country runner in the state of New York. For her, academics and finding a place where Lopez would actually graduate meant more than anything else. Lopez still planned on running in the 2008 Olympics but he had to take care of first things first. That meant preparing to graduate college on time. Lopez chose not to run cross-country in his first semester at Norfolk State. Nevertheless, he trained harder than he ever had before. He ran down at the beach nearly every day with the senior star of the cross-country team, Tom Hightower. As they ran, Lopez told Tom about his big, Olympic-sized dreams. Tom was a little skeptical at first. After all,...

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