Speaker inspires student-athletes

Professional speaker inspires student-athletes

Nov. 4, 2019 LA GRANDE, Ore. – Comedian, host, actor and motivational speaker Alex Weber had inspirational advice for Eastern Oregon University students.

“If you don’t set a peak for yourself, you are going to give your heartbeats away to climbing someone else’s mountain,” he said.

On Oct. 30, Weber presented “Lessons from a Life Pursuit” at the Leadership Speaker Series hosted by EOU’s Center for Student Involvement. The speech aimed to encourage students in the audience to give the best of themselves to something they care about.

Presenting to a room of EOU student-athletes, Weber related to them as the youngest person ever named Lacrosse Coach of the Year. Outside of lacrosse, Weber presented on TedX and hosted American Ninja Warrior on NBC.

Weber shared lessons about personal success, too. He reminded students that success is subjective based on each person’s goals, methods and starting point.

“If you’re about it, be about it — own it. If you like it, if it fires up your system, if it is in your realm of what you view as success, do it,” Weber said.

Audience members shared their perceptions of success, which included starting a family, graduating college, winning the volleyball national championship, leaving a mark and being a role model.

Weber discussed how success increases as individuals build support systems and block out toxicity. He said supporters are catalysts to success while negativity can inhibit it.

Finally, Weber highlighted the importance of self-confidence.

“How we talk to ourselves and respond to setbacks is massive,” he said. “We need to be more positive, be in our own corners, and look out for our self interests.”

Weber stressed positive voices people should adopt, such as confidence, hopefulness, curiosity, optimism, self-assurance, open-mindedness and treating failures as experiences. He stressed that failure is part of a learning process.

“Challenges, fears and failures are constants in life,” Weber said. “It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, how fit you are or how smart you are. It is what you do about it that is everything.”

After the show, Athletics Director Anji Weissenfluh thanked Weber for coming. She said his talk encouraged student-athletes to find their place in sports and outside of them. Many student-athletes waited after the show to speak with Weber and get their photos taken with him.

For more information on the Leadership Speaker Series, contact Le Bailey at lbailey@eou.edu.

Written by PR intern Briana Rosenkranz.