Mentor Moments with Lee Richter and guest Dave Woodward

10 Jul 2018 · 1 min

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1:04

In this interview segment, host Lee Richter asks guest Dave Woodward to recount a pivotal moment that altered the course of his life. Woodward describes how, while running on the indoor track at Brigham Young University, he repeatedly chased a faster runner—who turned out to be a woman he would later marry. Despite her being engaged at the time, Woodward approached her, planted the seed of a future relationship, and reflects that this encounter fundamentally changed his personal and professional trajectory. The conversation is informal and reflective, emphasizing serendipity, persistence, and the profound impact of personal relationships on one’s life direction.

What we're going to do today is talk about some of the things that you're doing out in the world, and I'd love you to share with the audience a moment that happened in your life that when that moment happened, it changed everything.
A moment in my life that changed everything. For me, it was probably actually when I met my wife, and the reason for that, because she was engaged at the time.
Oh my goodness.
And so I Actually met her running around the track at BYU. It was indoors. There was a short track and a long track. She's much faster than I am, so I would basically take the short track to keep trying to catch her as she was going around the long track.
You're like, I'm watching this one.
I was watching her very, very closely, and I ran into her later and said— basically asked her out. She goes, well, I'm engaged. I said, well, when you're no longer engaged, let's go out.
So you planted a little seed right there.
I did, and I think that's the whole trick to life, and I think I've used that in the rest of my business life from there on. So we've been married— we'll be celebrating 25 years this November. Congratulations.