The Kid Named Cory;

There’s a kid named Cory, who learned something in his life. He wanted to go to Stanford, but there was no way he was going to get in on grades. Cory was not a great student, but he was a fantastic football player. He attended Stanford and player college football, while earning his bachelor of arts degree in sociology, and moved on to a masters before winning a Rhodes Scholarship.

A Rhodes Scholarship is a remarkable achievement, especially for a student who played college football. What changed? Cory said that he decided to become a better student the way he had become a fantastic football player. As a football player, he went to practice early, stayed late, completely devoted himself to becoming better every moment of practice. Cory applied those same practices to his studies, and over the six years he attended Stanford, managed to  improve his studies so dramatically that he won a Rhodes Scholarship.

Now Cory really managed to take off at this point. He completed graduate studies in American History at Oxford University, and graduated law school from Yale. All along, Cory founded student organizations, worked in the Big Brother Big Sister organization, and even conducted a 10 day hunger strike in protest of open air drug deals happening in his local city.

In an upset election, he defeated a four time incumbent for city council, and consistently voted his principles often wholly opposed by the rest of the council. Cory took on issues everywhere he found them, and rose slowly to run for mayor. He was defeated at first, but ran again in the subsequent election and won. Throughout everything he did, he claims that the skills he learned, the grit he practiced as a football player have lead to his success in other aspects of life.

Cory is now a US senator. Cory Booker was elected to the US Senate on OCtober 16, 2013, and has successfully run for re-election. We can all learn something from Cory Booker; the way to success is not complicated, although it is not well travelled. Success requires you to come in early, to stay late, to make the choices others don’t make.