Gary Crittenden and Steve Young of Huntsman Gay Global Capital spoke about entrepreneurship and navigating difficult economic circumstances in McCrary Theatre on March 15. Their talk was hosted by Elon’s Student Entrepreneurial Enterprise Development (SEED) organization in association with the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.
Young, best known as the emblematic quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers and MVP of Super Bowl XXIX, graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and political science, as well as a law degree. He offered the audience examples of how lessons from his football days have informed his career as an entrepreneur. In fact, he said, his first choice in professional football – to enter the United States Football League rather the older, more powerful National Football League – was his first entrepreneurial move. The Los Angeles Express of the USFL offered him a $40 million contract, but it was annuitized.
“Therein lies the risk of an entrepreneur,” Young said. “I was willing to go to a place with a lot less substance because I wanted a chance to play, because I wanted to be on the field.”
He also spoke about how he struggled to become an elite quarterback because of his height. He had trouble seeing his receivers over his offensive line, so he learned to throw “blind,” basing the direction of his passes on where he expected his receivers to be.
“I had to find a way to grow,” he said. “I’m not 6-foot-2, I’m 6-foot. I can’t see. So what do I do? I went on gut instinct, on faith, and I actually grew.”
Young said he had to find another way to grow when he left the gridiron and entered the boardroom.
“You think I was short in football, try being a partner in a private equity firm without an MBA!” he quipped.
He concluded by encouraging students to set lofty goals for themselves, but always to ensure they had a firm foundation to fall back on. Using himself as an example, Young explained that while he had reached his dream of becoming a Super Bowl MVP, he wanted to be able to retire from football and find another career for the next 35 or 40 years of his life.
“I wanted to make sure that if the dream broke, or exhausted itself, that I had something behind me, that I was prepared,” he said. “I can tell you that the dream of entrepreneurial spirit is worthy of your time and efforts. But recognize that underneath it, to make sure that if those dreams aren’t fulfilled, that you have something behind you.”
Crittenden, managing director at Huntsman Gay, previously held the role of chief financial officer at American Express, Sears Roebuck and Citigroup. He opened his address by sharing with students his analysis of the lead-up to the global financial meltdown in 2008. He offered his advice as to how this generation of business students can help bring the United States economy back into equilibrium with the world. Crittenden admitted that this path would initially be very painful – but he cited examples from history to demonstrate its success. He explained that the U.S. government emerged from World War I with enormous debt and chose to significantly cut its spending. The result was recession and “disastrous unemployment.”
“But you never hear about that time period, and the reason you don’t is that it lasted one and a half years. We took the pain, we reestablished the right kind of equilibrium, and the pain was over,” he said. “What you hear about is the Great Depression, really a 15-year time period where many different policy initiatives were exercised, but never with really any great success.”
He encouraged students to follow the example of discipline shown by the U.S. government after World War I.
“It doesn’t have to be higher interest rates leading to higher unemployment and stagnation. It doesn’t have to be inflation leading to the deteriorating value of the dollar leading to a lower standard of living for Americans,” Crittenden said. “There is an outcome in the middle that you would pursue if it were your own household, and I’m confident you all can be called our greatest generation yet.”
Click on the links at right to see video excerpts of the talks by Young and Crittenden.