He did it again!  Who’s he?  My mentor, Ted Leonsis, spoke to our Sports Marketing Strategy class last night at Georgetown Univ.  For the fifth straight year, he absolutely wow’ed the students with stories about his amazing and wonderful life.  It was a riveting 75 minutes as Ted shared his life lessons as well as engaged in a lively Q&A session.

This Georgetown University connection between Ted and I is quite strong.  Georgetown Hoyas hoops is literally the first thing we discussed when I was introduced to him in the Spring ’95 — back when AOL was starting to gain momentum as a force to be reckoned with.

Georgetown also provided Ted with his foundation for his incredible career.  The stories about his connection with his mentor, Father Durkin, and how the university helped him get started on the path to success are described in detail in his new book, “The Business of Happiness.”   I devoured the book and its’ lessons in a couple of days.  I highly recommend this book — which can be easily purchased at http://www.amazon.com and http://www.barnesandnoble.com.

Ted shared stories about building his initial company; creating his famous “List of 101 Things”; helping build AOL into a major media powerhouse; owning and operating the Capitals; starting SnagFilms; Revolution Money; his mentorships / friendships with his E-buddy, “Big Ken” Holden, Hoop Dreams mentee, Michael Hendrickson; producing documentaries; his love of his wife and children and family; and the 6 lessons spelled out in the book.

As I mentioned at the start of class last night, there’s a great connection … Father Durkin was Ted’s mentor, Ted is my mentor, and I mentor a number of students.  So, we are literally passing on life lessons from Father Durkin.  We are now in the fourth generation of these wonderful teachings.  The “Pay It Forward” program is indeed ongoing.

We have so many outstanding students in the class.  I know Ted’s life lessons opened some eyes last night.  And, I know in my heart that these lessons will be passed on to future generations from our current class of students.   Peace.