Influenced by...

My high school football coach, Aaron Beck, influenced me more than anyone else. He convinced me to play football when I had convinced myself I didn't want to play anymore and for that I will always be grateful. Through football, he taught me how the amount of work I put into my goals will be paralleled by the joy I receive from the results of my work. However, we would have a one-on-one meeting once a week to discuss what was going on in my life. It would help me vent or brag about what was affecting me personally. He truly expressed an interest in all of his players lives. He would make us read a quality of a famous leader out of one of his books and the night before our game, we (as seniors) would each have to explain what that quality meant to us and how we changed ourselves over the week because of it. It really helped me understand what it meant to be a leader.