Who lit the fire in your life?

Dr. Jerry Gustafson is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Beloit College and the Founder of the Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education at Beloit, known as CELEB.

Jerry was also my faculty advisor when I was an undergrad, and the person who, without question, lit the fire in my life.

CELEB is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The difference that it has made in the lives of the students that have passed through its doors and benefited from its physical and emotional infrastructure is enormous.

Beloit is a small Midwestern college with a very big heart, just like the town after which it’s named. I wound up there on the back of an edict from my father, after my repeated academic disinterest produced a string of exam results that no British university would accept. For a man who valued academic achievement, my intellectual failings were disappointing to my father.

I use the word ‘disappointing’ in the British sense. The American translation came with an ultimatum. Go to Beloit or get a job. Luckily for me, Beloit fit like a glove. Even luckier, it brought Jerry Gustafson into my life.

I’ve always said that by the time I graduated, Beloit had taught me two things. First, that in the grand scheme of life, I knew nothing. And second, how to find the answers to almost anything. I can think of no more valuable foundations.

But there was a third lesson that I received from Beloit that I hadn’t fully appreciated until years after I graduated. The details of the story you’ll hear in my conversation with Jerry. But the headline is that there is no greater gift than having someone who sees what you’re capable of before you do.

For me, Jerry was that person. He lit a fire in me that I’m happy to say burns fiercely today.

Helping people doesn’t always happen in real time. Sometimes the embers that you stoke don’t fully ignite until later. But don’t let that stop you.

Light fires wherever and whenever you can. If you see greatness in someone, tell them. The chances are, they haven’t yet seen in themselves what you have.

And above all, as Jerry suggests, help them to start thinking, about what it is that for them, makes life really great.

Be their fire starter.

It’s the best job there is.

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