-: In 2009, I was a starting linebacker in Nebraska,
I was a black shirt.
This was something I'd always dreamed of.
So, woke up one day a starting linebacker
and I went to bed that night knowing
I could never play football again.
I had suffered four concussions in a little over a year
and I had to figure out who I was,
'cause I was no longer the football player
and the College of Business helped me figure out
my next part of my life.
I stood up in the middle of class and I said,
"I have an idea."
And Sam Nelson in that moment could have said,
'Blake, sit down, shut up, I'm teaching."
Okay, he didn't.
He sat down and said, "Tell us your idea."
That day I found out,
that I was no longer the football player,
I could be Blake Lawrence, entrepreneur
and I'm telling you guys, everyone in this room
that's a faculty member that cares about this school,
that you have people out there that are trying
to find those stories
and empower the kids that come here
to figure out who they are.