BHS alumni, former exchange student addresses graduates
A Madrid, Spain, resident who fondly recalls his time spent at Bellefontaine High School as an exchange student in the early 1990s returned to his alma mater Friday evening to provide the commencement address for the BHS Class of 2016 at AcuSport Stadium.
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Bellefontaine High School senior choir members perform “For Good” by Stephen Schwartz during the Class of 2016 graduation Friday evening at AcuSport Stadium. (EXAMINER PHOTO | MANDY LOEHR) |
Anxo “Angel” Perez, a 1993 BHS graduate and the founder of the language learning company 8Belts.com, told the 175 class members that if he could talk to his former self when he was in their shoes, he would have “four secrets for that person,” relating to how to view success and what’s important in life.
He compared success to a swan, noting that the world tends to focus on the glamorous parts of a swan — the feathers and the graceful neck. People don’t always think about what’s underwater supporting the swan — the legs that are needed to get the swan across the pond, he said.
While his company 8Belts recently has attained clients in more than 50 companies and provides a method for learning a foreign language within eight months, there are a lot of efforts behind the scenes that led to these accomplishments, Mr. Perez noted.
“Don’t admire success; admire efforts,” he told the graduates.
“The methodology for 8Belts took about 40,000 hours of research to develop. And in those first years for my business, I had no weekends; I had to work all the time.”
Read complete story in Saturday’s Examiner.
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