Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, along with co-hosts Startup Aggieland and The Association of Former Students, recently served as the host for Entrepreneurship Saturday. The day-long event at Mays featured lectures from entrepreneurs emphasizing presentation skills, marketing strategy and financing for over 100 business-focused Texas A&M graduates.
During the event, keynote speaker Chris Valletta credited his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with teaching him invaluable lessons about entrepreneurship . Though later cut from the team, Valletta emphasized the importance of “emotional intelligence” that became clear to him as a professional football player.
“I was an NFL player. I had the talent to be there,” Valletta said. “Talent was no longer sufficient. I certainly had the motivation to be there, but motivation was no longer sufficient. As a matter of fact, it clouded my ability to be clutch. It clouded my ability to perform in the moment when the moment mattered the most. It clouded my emotional intelligence.”
Now a co-founder of MISSION Athletecare and a regular independent news network contributor, the lessons Valletta learned in the NFL stayed with him through startup companies, Harvard Business School, and an appearance on TV’s ‘The Apprentice’.
Texas A&M students such as Matt Kinsel, a winner of Startup Aggieland’s business pitch competition “Shark Frenzy”, considered Valletta’s lecture a sobering but beneficial lesson in growing your own business. “We get caught up in the big picture and the moment and the emotion of it all, where we need to slow down, discern those emotions and what matters most, pay attention to the little things and let that decide our decision-making” Kinsel stated.
Another Texas A&M graduate, Brett Farrar, discussed positive company culture, and the importance of leadership. “Just like moths go to light, people go to leaders,” Farrar said. “Leader is not a title, it’s not a box on a word chart, it’s a way of working.”