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Rise of the Lion

January 5
by
Morgan Ingram
in
Inspirational People
with
.

Special thanks to Wil Lawson, Nick Aluzzi, Miranda Andersson, Jennifer Hennelly, and my family, and the many others that helped me through it all even when I didn’t think I could make it.

In life, we all go through things we would deem as unfair. We always ask why do good people have bad things happen to them. Why does that person always have great things happen to them even though they are awful? Things happen in life—it is inevitable based on the ebb and flow of life itself. However, it’s all based on how you respond to these events.

Your outlook on life and attitude determine how life will treat you.

If you are always upbeat and excited to be breathing the law of attraction will grace you. If you are negative and think the world is out to get you, most likely it will be a struggle on a daily basis. Basically, what you put out in the world will come back to you in some form. So that’s been my motto for about 2 months.

As I adopted this model things became easier for me. Talking to people seemed to have more meaning and people were more open to have conversations. Vulnerability allows for people to trust and have a more genuine conversation. However, coming to this path was not easy by any means and before I can go through my breakthrough that occurred to me two months I will have to explain what happened to me in 2014.

In 2014, everything started out perfectly. I had the best friends around me, I had a great best friend and I had an amazing girlfriend. I thought my life was going to be smooth sailing and that life had finally graced me with some amazing promises in store. Sadly enough, all of this came crashing down that summer.

My ex girlfriend dumped me, my best friend at the time and roommate started dating my ex girlfriend and I went through a gruesome depression. I completely lost my faith in God and half of my friends disappeared from my life. I felt betrayed. Heck, my parents didn’t even want me to go back to school because I was so depressed. I was an energy drainer and brought negative vibes around to everyone in my vicinity. I even considered suicide on some occasions because I could not handle the agonizing waves of depression.

After a few bouts of crying, I stayed the course and took my life into my own hands.

Up to this point I have read a book every week, graduated with two majors and started a company through all of the chaos. Now I say all this to tell you that in 2015 I’m still here and jacked about life every day!! Because I know that if my positive energy isn’t there I may not be able to save a life. I may not be able to motivate that person to the next step because I know what it’s like to be in hell. Now you may be asking what happened between then and now that completely changed my outlook on life? It all really started two months ago.

“Every setback has a setup for an amazing comeback.” Willie Jollie

Two months ago, I was going through a rollercoaster of emotions. I was in multiple talks with the NBA, MELT, CSE, IMG, Atlanta Dream and the Kennesaw State Athletic Department with still no offers, some of my friends felt distant and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life after graduating college. After spring break I went through some personal downfalls and honestly I was lost. So that next weekend I got a chance to go on a hiking trip with my hiking class on the Chattooga Trail. Honestly, this was a blessing in disguise because I needed to get away from the world and have a chance to be reflective.

During the night of the hike, I left my tent because I was freezing and couldn’t sleep—I decided to take a walk.

I walked to an overhanging cliff overlooking the water and just started thinking. I decided on that cliff that it was time to stop messing around and get serious about life. So I made a promise to myself. It was time to sacrifice some things so that I could live a better life. In addition, I added another promise to myself. I was going to find a way to retire my parents before I turn 27 and to create a legacy for myself and the Ingram family name. That has now become my WHY. Now is that possible you ask? I didn’t know but I was up for finding out.

I called Bryan Wish the following week about an idea I was working with hosting gaming tournaments around colleges. I had 18 pages of research and no idea what to do with it. He got me in contact with Jim Flannery with Four Athens. I met with Jim two days later to talk about this idea. He said “Great idea Morgan, so what have you done so far?” I said “nothing yet, I just have the research”. He said “go out there now and do it”. So he gave me a couple of contacts and I was off running.

Couple of days went by and I saw that this thing could go far. I called Bryan Wish and I was like “it’s time to go 100% on this, I don’t care anymore we are going to make this happen.” I made the company official and called it Collegiate Gaming LAN. The concept behind the company is creating gaming tournaments around college campuses and recreating the video game experience.

I stopped going downtown, worked out every morning, spent about 8-10 hours a day in SLC and cut off half my friends.

I knew in order to get where I needed to go I needed to refocus everything and some people just did not fit the path I was putting myself on. I found Dylan Howell who shared my passion and we were off running with the idea and through our hard work we have officially secured the Classic Center for our first LAN multiplayer gaming tournament June 20th and have done multiple tournaments at Wonderbar. We are super excited about our future.

“I have a dream that’s worth more than my sleep” Eric Thomas

People always ask me though how did you survive all those terrible things and come out so positive? Why do you go so hard every day? What made you push through when nothing was going your way?

I told them it was because the fire and passion that burned inside of me to succeed and graduate BURNED way more then the fire of misery around me.

It didn’t matter what external factors the world threw at me. With the fire inside of me and through God’s grace, I knew I was going to graduate and not have these outside influences affecting me. I knew I was going to be able to take my mental state to the next level. I knew that at the end of the day I would come out stronger. I knew that someday I would become an inspiration for my peers and my family to accomplish their dreams no matter what.

DO NOT LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT YOU CANNOT DO IT. You can do it because we can do anything, it is all about adopting the right mentality and focus, it’s that simple. Let your fire inside of you take you to the next level to succeed.

There is no time for laziness, there is no time for slouching and no time for excuses. The time is now to grab the reigns of success and gallop into the field of triumph. All of this is possible for each and every one of you if you so chose to take this journey of accolades.

If I can see my friends who have been with me since day 1 succeed, keep growing my faith in God, retire my parents and make my dream a reality then that will make me the happiest person in the world. And I will go through every obstacle and overcome every trial to make this happen. Because the impossible is possible. Take out the I ‘may’ and just say I am going to make the impossible possible.

Anyone who has betrayed me, disrespected me, every company that didn’t hire me, peers and professors that thought I wasn’t smart enough, does not think this idea will work or thinks I am crazy I have one word for you all. Thanks. Seriously, thanks.

Without all of the no’s in my life I wouldn’t be where I am, I wouldn’t have been pushed if my life was made easy for me.

Everyday you should pray for challenges because without them there will be no growth. Negative energy if used correctly can be a great source of motivation and I had a ton of it. But instead of being bitter and letting it poison me from within. I decided to use all of the negative energy from the past and turn all of it positive to help me push through and accomplish my goals.

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails” Henry David Thoreau

The past is the past and cannot be recovered. However, today is a new day and you can seize that day. No matter what you have been through and what you have done you can always set a new path for yourself. Yes it will be hard. Yes people will leave your life. And yes you will want to quit. However, if you can look yourself in the mirror and find out how and why things will get better for you.

I promise you that you will become a lot happier with yourself which at the end of the day that is what your loved ones want to see from you. That’s what I did and I encourage whoever is reading this to try it. I found a new group of friends in Austin Mueller, Myles Berrio and D.J. Snyder to associate with that wanted me to be successful, I cut out certain activities that were bringing me down and I started to dive back into my faith.

Once you find that geyser of passion everything changes you are ready to take on the world and you feel like nothing on earth can stop you. People will think you have become demon possessed because of the persistence and passion that you will display on a daily basis. You will keep coming back for more and more and more! This same exact process happened to me.

After everything, it was time to believe in myself and rise up as a true lion would.

“Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated people who do not or have not made any money. Persistence and determination alone are all-powerful.” Calvin Coolidge

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