Rupert from Survivor

I attended a monthly meeting last night for the project management organization I am affiliated with and left the meeting pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the speaker's presentation. I was initially a little disappointed to hear that this month's speaker was going to be Rupert Boneham (the fellow Hoosier and winner of 'Survivor - All Stars'), but it had been a few months since I last attended one of these meetings and decided to go even though I really didn't see the correlation between Rupert and project management.

I entered the room and saw Rupert in the back of the room autographing pictures and books. I proceeded to walk on by not giving much thought to actually standing in line to get an autograph. After eating dinner at my table and patiently waiting for the meeting to start, I saw that the line had dwindled so I decided to go meet Rupert. We had a a brief conversation and he grabbed one of his books ("Rupert - Just Being Me") and wrote..To Joe: Arrgh! Rupert

I walked back to my table thinking: "wow, that guy's a character...and beyond the rugged exterior, what a super nice guy". [check out the youtube video below to see for yourself]

About 5-minutes into his talk I was glad I had the chance to meet him in person. He talked about his childhood, his family, and how he started a non-profit organization to mentor kids that were abused, abandoned, and given up on that were heading down a path toward becoming lifetime criminals. One comment he said that opened my eyes was, "no child left behind doesn't apply to bad kids". His non-profit organization taught these troubled kids how to work and make an honest living. His organization also recycles old furniture, fixtures, appliances, concrete, etc. They would take great care when doing a remodel jobs for customers and turn around and donate and install what would have otherwise been thrown out to those in need.

He also talked about both of his stints on the Survivor reality game show on CBS and about how he told anyone that would listen that he was going to be on that show for 2-years after it originally aired until he submitted his application and was selected to be on the show.

One of the lessons that I took away from the talk was around the importance of setting life goals for yourself. Goals that are so big that it may take you your whole life to achieve them. Goals so big that you may never achieve them in your lifetime, but you do end up accomplishing much more than imagined along the way. When I think about this I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes: "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. - Michelangelo

The meeting ended with a standing ovation and I drove away feeling inspired and uplifted.

Be sure to check out Rupert's Kids at www.rupertskids.org and a quick youtube video here.