From September 8-9, the CSUN Baseball team attended Success Live at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. The two-day event gave the team an opportunity to listen to top speakers in personal development from across the country. Receiving motivation in areas ranging from health, professional, career and personal relationships, the team gained a wealth of knowledge and ideas on how to improve their everyday lives in a host of areas. After the event, CSUN Baseball’s freshman shortstop Brandon Bohning provided his thoughts on the event and what he learned.

A normal Friday for a CSUN Baseball student-athlete consists of waking up early, practicing and weight training. On September 8 our Friday was a little different. We were given the opportunity of a lifetime to attend the two-day event, Success Live, at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.

Seventeen of the most influential speakers and motivational coaches were there to spread wisdom upon thousands of people. From Brendon Burchard (high performance coach and New York Times best-selling author), Les Brown (motivator and New York Times best-selling author), Jocko Willink (retired Navy Seal officer and New York Times best-selling author) to Chalene Johnson (lifestyle and business expert, and New York Times best-selling author), there was an incredible lineup of people.

Willink’s words of “discipline equals freedom” were burned into the minds of many of us on the team because we all learned a great deal of discipline, self awareness and personal development from the event.

Simon T. Bailey (author and CEO of Simon T. Bailey International) ran out enthusiastically onto the stage with a big smile and with loud music playing in the background. He was the host of the event, and he did a very good job inspiring everyone to actively participate.

A number of speakers shared their successes including Dean Graziosi (entrepreneur, investor and New York Times best-selling author), Josh Ellis (editor in chief for Success Magazine), Keith Ferrazzi (public speaker, best-selling author and networking expert), Mel Robbins (best-selling author, CNN commentator and motivational speaker) and others. They gave us an overwhelming amount of ideas, motivation and tips to better ourselves.

Some quotes that stuck out the most were:

“It’s not about what the world thinks of you. Can you leave your head in the pillow at the end of the day happy with what you’ve done?” said John Gray (Associate Pastor at Lakewood Church, speaker and comedian).

“You have to be hungry,” said Les Brown.

“Relationships are the currency of the future,” said Simon T. Bailey.

The quotes stood out to the Matadors because there is always a way to better ourselves on and off the practice field, and we value each other with respect and positivity. A relationship is the currency of the future to us baseball players because we are a team and in order to be successful we need to have the strongest relationship possible with one another. Our CSUN Baseball team was actively engaging in conversations with striving entrepreneurs, business owners and people all weekend long.

At the end of the day, the Matadors got a little better in the span of these two days. We not only listened to the best motivational coaches in the United States, but we got to experience the event together. We left the seminar feeling great about ourselves and motivated to fall in love with the hustle. Sometimes the best way to get better by being influenced by others. The event was an amazing experience and we all want to say a huge thank you to everyone who made this opportunity possible.