Today was a really big day – it was the groundbreaking for the new Scott C. Keller Business School Building at Utah Valley University.  This is a project our Woodbury School of Business National Advisory Board I’m Chairing has been working on for years so it was fantastic to see it actually happening. And I’m so incredibly grateful for all the support these board members have given me and UVU – they are truly an amazing group and its an honor to serve with them. 

I am especially grateful today to my dear friends Scott and Karen Keller who gave the naming gift that allowed us to have this new building.  They’ve sacrificed so much to give this gift. Its easy for people to look at a big gift like that and think “oh they have money so they can afford it” and in that thought completely discount how hard people have worked to earn the money they are able to give away. Scott and Karen didn’t come from wealth. They were married during college and Scott had to drop out to go to work to earn money to support his family.   He began buying first a duplex, then a fourplex, and today he is one of the largest multi-family apartment owners on the west coast. The two of them worked their guts out to earn the money they have today to give back. They sacrificed their time and life’s comforts to get where they are now.  And now they are taking that hard earned money and they are giving it to help students for generations to come.  This wasn’t easy money – this was blood, sweat, and tears money. It is money they could have spent on fun trips or fancy toys, but instead they have chosen to give it to benefit others. And that is something to be honored and respected and celebrated. And today I celebrate them!

I’m so blessed to be surrounded with amazing people like the Kellers. I am blessed to have them as not just friends, but dear friends that love and support me and I them.  The same goes for all the board members I serve with. They all have hearts of gold and they all care about changing this world for the better. They are what awesome looks like! 

Here’s a few fun pictures from today:

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )