text: Every college has a few famous graduates and mine was no exception. One quite well known Samford alum graduated some twenty years before I arrived on campus. When I came as a student, however, there were two or three older professors that I had classes with who had also had this famous figure year before as a student. Occasionally, when the well-known person’s name came up, it was obvious that they, his former teachers, were not nearly as enamored with him as most people were. Over time, we all came to understand why this was the case. Evidently, when this person had been a student there, he had show tremendous promise, intelligence and maturity. He had been very committed to some guiding life principles that really inspired him and that led to the admiration of his teachers. Yet, as time went on and as he matured, he realized that some of these same principles were not popular and not likely to win him key friends or help him influence the right people. Slowly, haphazardly and over time, he worried less about what he believed that he might capitalize on what was most popular. In the end, the observation of these older professors’ was that while he had succeeded in the eyes of many, he had failed deeply where it matter most, which is when it came to being true to himself.