Figuring Out The Elusive ‘WHY’…

We have talked about it before, the randomness of showing up and never knowing where the path will take you…or sometimes wondering about the “why” of where I am and how did I get to a particular spot.

As the semester started we talked to our students about having the courage and the curiosity to go down a random path, or a hallway, or an alley, just to see where you end up and who you may meet. Without the curiosity you miss a great deal, and sometimes the universe tells you the why after the journey is over.  Sometimes the path chooses us, and we have to be open minded enough to take a risk and go down the road. Sometimes it leads to a dead end, sometimes to an off ramp, sometimes to the yellow brick road. We don’t always know, but unless we try the path, and that does take courage, we will never know.

There were some grand examples of this in the past few weeks. During my Michigan trip my longtime friend and colleague “Mex” Carey at Michigan State  brought me by the MSU basketball offices, and I got to talk for a while with a guy who I share a lot of friends with, associate head coach Doug Wojick. While that time with Woj was outstanding, Mex made sure I got to meet and spend time with Head Coach Tom Izzo, another special experience. However that wasn’t the actual “why.” The real “why” was a few minutes later, while chatting with Coach Izzo in his office we heard a knock at the door and in came a former player…his name is Greg Pedro.   

While this should make perfect sense, he was a player at Michigan State, how this became my “why” is that Dr. Greg Pedro from Staten Island actually left MSU and starred…at Fordham just after I graduated. He now returns to MSU…he hasn’t heard from Fordham in over 20 years but that’s another story…every year and is part of Sparty family.  Now there was no plan for me to go to East Lansing and run into Greg, it never even entered my mind, but when you show up…

Point two less than 24 hrs later in Ann Arbor. My mentee and I Will Conley were at Zingermans Deli. Who sits down two tables away but my longtime friends and business colleague David Schwab. Two tables away at the end of a long day around UM. Now David is a big Michigan guy…his daughter is there…but the chances at a deli away from campus at the same time? Not planned.

Point three earlier this week. I had coffee with a Jersey basketball legend…the winningest girls basketball coach in the state…Jeff Jasper. Coach Jasper is the ultimate free spirit away from the court, but is a teacher and a big thinker and I just wanted to meet for a bit in a local shop and listen to him as to how he has navigated this unique journey. Naturally he is known after all these years by generations of families he has touched…and maybe I could have thought that was my why for the day, but in walked a recent college grad and his mom who said hello to Jeff and was about to move on, when I noticed she had an MSU sweatshirt on. Turned out her son stranding quietly was a graduated Spartan and was interested in…sports business…and had just worked at the US Open under a longtime colleague of mine, Karin Buchholz. So was he actually my why that day? It was random we happened to be sitting by the back door not the front and she came in with her son that way, but we were aware enough to realize that there was a moment that the universe was saying maybe this was the reason we showed up on a place.

I’m not saying it happens every day and often times there is not that aha moment, but I do believe if we listen, if we are curious, if we take the path a little further, it is amazing what you come across to help round out your why.

Now I do agree that time is often money, and sometimes random wanderings don’t work. I also know of many who will not do random meetings unless there is a dollar figure attached, but sometimes those meetings can be priceless learning experiences. Sometimes, sure they are a half hour you don’t get back, but there are usually ways to extract oneself if need be politely, and correctly.

The wide net catches lots of stuff.