I recently exhibited at the South Regional Conference of the National Association of College Activities. This conference allows vendors who have a lecture, act, or other form of
entertainment suitable for a college campus to all come together in one place. Students, who represent the activities committees from colleges large and small, public and private, come and meet, listen to, and book speakers, musicians, magicians, and more. After doing a couple of college gigs, I felt strongly that the message of Grounded was perfectly suited for encouraging young people, especially those that are about to leave education and enter the workforce.
Not knowing what to expect, I bought a booth space and set up shop with Chris Petersen, a good friend and fellow keynote speaker. Then, in came the flood of students, and the reality set in that the students were overwhelmingly interested in musicians, comedians, and DJs, not motivational speakers. After several sessions, I was feeling like maybe the investment in this conference had been a mistake, as there were only a few college delegations that had even stopped to speak to us.
I was talking with two students from Georgia State University when one of their classmates came up to the booth to join them. He was not really paying attention to our conversation until I said the word shipwreck. His head snapped up and he looked at me, then at the large poster I had in the booth of a picture of me with my book. He became very animated. He said, “You’re David Peterson, I read your book!” I was initially taken aback. The book had only been available on Amazon since May; how would this student have even known about it? I had to know this story!
His name was Chioke, and he told me his mom had purchased the book from Amazon. She sent it to him with the message, “You have to read this book!” I immediately pictured a student getting a book from his mother with instructions to read it, and thought, “Oh, great,” with disdain. But Chioke said that he had read the book, and it had inspired him to get more involved from a leadership standpoint at Georgia State. In fact, he had so changed his attitude that he had gone from just showing up to class and not much else, to being so strongly involved in the past months that he had won a leadership award. Amazing! He told me that his professor had asked what had made the difference in his attitude towards leadership, but since he had given the book back to his mother, he couldn’t remember the title. All he could remember was that the author was named Peterson. So he was so excited to see me at the NACA conference.
I autographed a book for Chioke, and he said that the very next Monday, he would be taking it to his professor to show him the book that had so motivated him. Now, I am not sure if I will wind up speaking at Georgia State or any other college I spoke with at NACA South, but my interaction with Chioke reinforced that there is a powerful message in Grounded, and that my interest in bringing this message to college campuses is worth pursuing. At the very least, I know one person who was moved to increased leadership because of Grounded. Who knows what Chioke will accomplish in his life, or in his career?
I like to think that all we can do is plant seeds with the hope that, with good soil and care, they will grow into mighty acts of service for commerce or for our communities, even though we may never know what the fruit our seeds will bear.