Before people can lead others they first need to learn how to lead themselves, said Tony D’Angelo, motivational speaker and leading contributor to “Chicken Soup for the College Soul” as he addressed the Association of Big Ten College Student Leaders Saturday morning at Pfahl Hall.
The speech was part of the Association of Big Ten Students Conference. The conference, which is held three times a year at participating Big Ten schools, unites students within the Big Ten to discuss mainstream issues affecting their respective student bodies. The last time Ohio State hosted the conference was in 1997.
Bursting with energy from beginning to end, D’Angelo led the 60 student representatives through three hours of introspection to enable them to find their “vision”.
“What we’re going to discuss is you, and I promise that your morning is going to be fabulous,” D’Angelo said in his introduction. “You can never, ever, ever effectively lead other people until you learn to lead yourself. When we begin to lead ourselves, we have an amazing ability to lead others.”
Using the example of a flight attendant’s safety speech, he explained the difference of being selfish and self-full. “We ask that you take the time to secure your own oxygen mask before helping others. That just makes sense, doesn’t it? But how many of us can honestly say that we take the time to help ourselves,” D’Angelo said.
Having a personal vision, D’Angelo explained, helps people achieve what they truly want in life. He used a quotation from Benjamin Franklin: “Most people die when they’re 27, but aren’t buried until they’re 77.” He used this to illustrate the point that when people aren’t doing what they love in life, they get burned out early in life.
He challenged the audience to look at their educational pathways to see if they were truly happy with where they were going in their lives and to make the appropriate changes if they weren’t.
“Our educational system, our world, teaches us to look ahead to the weekend, and in those two days, do things to our body that will make us not remember what we did in those days. You spend 85 percent of your time on earth working. Make sure it’s something that you love. If it is, every day can be hump day – if you know what I mean,” he said.
Throughout the seminar, D’Angelo used colorful illustrations and anecdotes to keep the pace. He cited examples such as Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. for their visions. He also quoted Benjamin Franklin, Robert Frost and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Key points were driven home by fill-in-the-blank audience participation and repetitions.
“I wasn’t expecting as much out of this as I got,” said Erin Moran, a senior in political science from Indiana University. “I’m about to graduate, and the activities we did gave me hope about my future,” Moran said.
“The thing I liked the most was that it was so action-oriented. I feel like coming out of it, a concept of what my vision is. Now I have to carry forward to accomplish it,” said Sarah Dafnos, a junior in English education and psychology at Purdue University.
Keller Blackburn, USG chief-of-staff, said that he first heard D’Angelo speak at a Conference of Student Government Associations.
“We’d love to have the opportunity to bring him back for more students to participate, maybe for homecoming or welcome week. He’s such an amazing speaker, and he’s got so much more material than what we heard here today,” Blackburn said.
D’Angelo attended Westchester University as an undergraduate student. He is the Chief Visionary Officer of the Collegiate Empowerment Company, and is the creator of the only seminar series designed exclusively for young adults, entitled, “What College Forgot to Teach You”.
