Success is rarely as easy as it appears.
People often forget that those at the top, those perceived as important, started at the bottom and worked their way up.
This is the message Arizona Cardinals general manager Rod Graves tried to convey as he spoke to ASU students in a Sports Business Association meeting at the John W. Schwada Building on Tuesday night.
“Stay committed,” Graves said. “Stay committed to your career paths or at some point when you find something that you truly love, just stay committed to it and the results will happen.”
SBA, an on-campus organization, makes events like Graves’ presentation possible and provides students with numerous opportunities to enhance their resumes while exploring career options.
“It’s an organization to help students learn about sports business and have the opportunity to see firsthand what it is and have internships and really learn about SBA and sports business,” SBA Vice President Benjamin Levy said.
As someone who started as an area scout and has achieved the status of an NFL general manager, Graves appears to be an ideal candidate to inspire students and help them realize how possible it is to achieve their goals.
“I have been very fortunate to travel the path that I did,” Graves said. “I’ve had the privilege of working with fantastic people (and) talented individuals.”
While his current success is well documented, Graves wanted to make sure students realized the effects of hard work, and did so by detailing his time driving players to airports, lining fields prior to practices and games, folding socks and doing whatever other odd jobs were available in an attempt to show his commitment to success.
“I was willing to do anything and everything for that opportunity,” Graves said. “It takes commitment. It takes a willingness to start at the bottom and work your way up. If you really want to be good, you have to spend the time.”
While the GM spends the majority of his time in elaborate business rooms talking to wealthy NFL personnel — and is rarely in classrooms with chalk stains on blackboards in front of students — he does appreciate and enjoy his time with the young crowd.
“It’s certainly an opportunity for me to shed light on my experience and (anytime) I can do to help students in terms of their career endeavors, I’m happy to do it,” Graves said.
ASU’s Sports Business Association affiliates were certainly happy with Grave’s appearance as well.
“I think it went really well,” Levy said. “I think we had a great turn out. I think the students were well engaged. The questions were well informed. I’m really happy that Rod stuck around to talk to students and inform them.”
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
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