Andrew East

Our team was terrible.

I didn't know anybody, and I was pretty sure I was going to transfer out of school because I was like, I can't.

I'm waking up every day, and it's –

lonely and i'm not thriving and i don't know what to do and so thankfully i had a mentor who kind of took me under his wing and said hey stick with this another six months and see how this goes and then we can reevaluate after that and fortunately a lot of things changed we got a new football coach i was able to settle into school a little bit and um and then our team ended up you know being one of the most successful in in the school's history and what i learned from that was

You know, sometimes when there's a change that needs to be had, like in the situation where I was uncomfortable at school my freshman year, I thought, you know, my instinct was, okay, something needs to change.

So let me change my context here.

But really what needed to happen was I needed to change myself and be the type of person who could take a college class and not fail it and be the type of person who could show up and and contribute as a teammate and make a team that was struggling a little bit better day in and day out.

And so fast forward.

Fast forward a couple of years and I ended up getting two degrees.

I got my undergrad and graduate degree from Vandy.

Our team was very successful.

It was really fun to see the trajectory of growth of the Commodores in that era.

And I ended up being two time team captain.

And so it was just like a really good lesson for me that sticking with something and changing myself instead of myself wanting to change my context

was a huge lesson and that's something I've carried into marriage and business and beyond.

Oh my gosh, yeah, it was tough.

We had to wake up at 4 a.m.

and we had to be on the field by 4.30.

And we're talking February in Nashville.

There's like ice on the field.