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Seeing an opportunity in life is the first part, what a person does with that opportunity is what defines a life, Rod Smith told a packed Moore Auditorium of Mars Hill students, faculty, staff and the public during SLAM. Smith is the epitome of making the best of life’s opportunities. He has had a successful career as a professional football player, student, entrepreneur and philanthropist. The middle child of five children and raised by a single mother in poverty in Arkansas, Smith determined by age 12 he would rise above his condition. A standout high school athlete, Smith made sure any college he chose was in a totally different area than his childhood home, so drew a 200-mile radius on a map around his house in southern Arkansas. He wanted to “shake up his environment, learn to adapt.” “Small schools appreciate teaching. The teachers appreciate teaching. Small schools not only provide learning, they provide structure,” Smith said. The self-proclaimed “nerd” chose a small school, much like Mars Hill College, called Missouri Southern University. This made Smith’s advice and experiences even more relevant and appealing to MHC’s student body. He received three degrees -- economics and finance, general business, as well as marketing and management. Smith also encouraged forming long-time relationships while in college and said he met some of the closest people in his life in college. Smith gave tips on how to make a small college life successful, such as taking advantage of small class sizes and not answering the phone when skipping class, which he did once and got called on the rug by a teacher. “Everything that you will become starts right now,” Smith explained. In addition to being a successful student, Smith excelled in football during his time at Missouri Southern. Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic conference records in receiving yards (3043), receiving touchdowns (34), breaking the schools reception record (153). He was named first team All-American by AP, Kodiak, Football Gazette, and NCAA Div. II sports information directors his senior year, 1993-94. The collegiate accomplishments keep coming for Smith. He recently was inducted into the Division II Hall of Fame by the NCAA. Smith emphasized seizing opportunities and duplicating lives of people who are accomplished or successful. An opportunity he seized was presented in 1994 when, after being overlooked in the NFL draft, he was given the chance to tryout for the Broncos. Smith joked that he still can’t watch the draft. He earned a place with the Broncos as a free agent and played with arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, John Elway. His extremely successful 14-year NFL career included many awards and accomplishments -- from being the first and only undrafted player to reach the milestone of 10,000 receiving yards, and the 24th in history to eclipse that figure, having the most catches (849), receiving yards (11,389) and touchdown receptions (68) of any undrafted wide receiver in NFL history. He holds Denver Broncos franchise records in career receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches, ranks first on Denver's all-time yards from scrimmage list, along with many other franchise records. He was honored as an All-Pro and All-AFC, as well as many other NFL honors. The lecture from Smith was an inspirational event. He explained that life is not about getting mad at about situations or misfortunes, but about getting ahead of your competition. The insight he gave students was far more relevant than just making a small campus life easier; it was about on how to go about making our lives as successful as possible. His advice on “robbing and duplicating,” his idea of R&D, was to look at an accomplished person’s life and use that example to achieve. “Just ask your peers how they went about being successful, then rob their idea, and copy their steps as closely as possible,” said Smith. He didn’t want to discourage people from doing things their own way but to try not doing everything alone. Trust advice, he said, because excuses and results don’t go together. “How you do anything, is how you do everything.”
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