On Tuesday evening, November 11th, the John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise (based in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University) had the honor of hosting a student leadership dinner with a speaker from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC.
Josh Good, the Manager of External Relations for the Values and Capitalism Initiative at AEI, traveled to Waco to speak on leadership and public policy. Good was very well-received by the 25 students who were selected to attend the dinner. His advice on leadership included the importance of failure in achieving success, though it may sound counterintuitive. Good spoke about his life experience and how having a strong community to fall back on during times of hardship was a key to future opportunity.
Additionally, Good offered fascinating insight into the current political climate, including discussion about partisanship in politics today and the looming financial crisis of entitlement spending.
After Good finished speaking, several students asked questions to dive further into the public policy issues driving the national debate. AEI was gracious enough to send several books that were given away to attendees at the end of the dinner. Students stayed around for at least 30 minutes after the dinner ended to ask Good more questions and discuss among themselves.
The AEI Executive Council, a group of Baylor students, was the driving force behind planning the event and selecting students to attend. Danny Huizinga, a senior, James Porter, a sophomore, Brooklyn George, a senior, and Betsy Arce, a junior, make up the Baylor AEI Executive Council and have been named Baugh/AEI Student Fellows for the academic year to assist in promoting more initiatives and events that encourage the discussion of issues related to free enterprise.
A favorite quote from the event? “Leaders need to help the people that need them, not just the people that like them. If they only help the people that like them, then it’s just a popularity contest. And that is bad leadership.” – Josh Good
