Early this year, my youngest son and I had to decide which magnet high school he was going to accept. He had applied to five and was accepted by four. Of the four, we were torn between a brand new Robotics and Biomedical Engineering school and a well known, top 20 high school. On one hand we had the visionary school. On the other hand, we had the name, credibility and reputation of a top high school…what to do?

“D” Day came. Our signed acceptance letter had to be in the school of choice by 4 p.m. After weighing our options, we chose the new unknown school. It offered fields that my son loved and was truly excited about. I remember when going to sleep that night; it felt like a ton was lifted off my back. The decision was made. There was no going back now…or was there?

Summer came and we could not get transportation to the new school. If I had to drive him, it would had meant about 3 hours a day, every single day, for 4 years going back and forth to take him and pick him up. I began to question our decision. About a week before school started, the other school called. There was an opening and they wanted to know if I would consider taking my son there…what! People fight to get their kids in this school, there is a huge waiting list, this school DOES NOT call you back…but they did, and I had until 3:00 p.m. that afternoon to make a decision.

My son was at his friend’s house. I rushed to pick him up so we could discuss our options. After all, we only had a couple of hours to decide. During our conversation we realized the only reason he wanted to attend the new school was because of the Robotics Program. So the decision was made, if the top school does not have Robotics…why not bring Robotics to the top school? After all, my son was accepted by the Engineering Magnet. Now the mission was clear. Accept the application, attend a top school and work our butts off to help implement the Robotics Program.

School started, we waited a few weeks to make sure he adjusted himself to this new environment and as soon as it was feasible I was going to bring this issue up. I knew from my meeting with the engineering lead teacher, the reason there was no Robotics in the Engineering Program was because of lack of funds. So our mission was to raise funds to buy the Robotics kits.

The opportunity presented itself a few weeks into the school year. The Engineering Booster Club was having its first meeting and asked parents and students to attend and participate. The meeting started slow but as the night progressed, things got exciting and we ended the meeting with lots of goals set. Amongst them was my responsibility to set up our social media channels to bring in sponsors to raise funds…and yes, the ROBOTIC KITS never left my mind!

The weekend after the meeting I spent the entire two days implementing our social sites. By Sunday night, our YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Page, LinkedIn and Blog were ready to go. Then it dawn on me…why not just pick the phone and call a few places to see if we can get the kits? It took me exactly 48 hours to have a non-profit offer us an entire kit and additionally I raised $4,000 to buy more kits.

Business works exactly the same way. Aim high, get off your comfort zone, challenge yourself, adapt, have a clear actionable goal in mind, take action and just do it!

Market Leadership