http://www.yankton.net/articles/2012/11/29/community/doc50b6e75d1073b723100058.txt

‘Famous Dave’ Cooks Up Powerful Message

By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net

WAGNER — Seventy percent of high school students fail to graduate ready for college. Only 54 percent of high school students will graduate. Seventy-five percent of college students lack the skills to perform real life tasks.

“Famous Dave” Anderson, owner of the “Famous Dave’s” barbeque restaurant chain, delivered a speech to Wagner school students on Wednesday saying they can be all they can be in life and can achieve any dream they have.

While in high school, Anderson said, he was shy and bashful but he knew if things in his life were going to change, he would have to change, too, in order to get anywhere.

As he got older and began to develop his restaurant chain, he said he was invited to speak in front of a group of about 300 students at the University of Illinois.

“I was so nervous,” he said. “After that speech, I swore I would never get in front of another audience and speak again.”

Anderson told the students Wednesday that they all have seeds of greatness within them and have the power to change lives and change their community.

“You might not know it now, but you can unleash that energy within you,” he told students. “You can all make a difference and stand out.”

He made the reference of football fans painting their faces and sitting out half-naked in cold temperatures in order to show passion for their teams.

“Instead of showing passion for our favorite teams, why don’t we show passion for each other, for school and for our families?” he said. “You can’t let others hold you back from your dreams, and not everyone is able to ever achieve what they want in life because of other people.”

Anderson is the son of Native American parents, which is a big reason why Wagner Cultural Coordinator Vanessa Iverson wanted him to come speak.

“It’s a really big deal to be able to get him to speak here,” Iverson said. “I was very excited and surprised he was willing to talk to our students because he does speak to a lot of college students, but the message can be heard and related to with students here at Wagner.”

She added the successes and adversity Anderson has overcome in life can be related to by students that were in attendance.

“When I found out he was Native American, that was one of the first connections I made to students here,” Iverson said. “Kids here might not feel like they have a lot of people they can connect with, but I think they could connect well with ‘Famous Dave.’”

She hopes his talk makes students look at their future more and no matter what struggles they are having, or what obstacles they have to overcome, that they can achieve their goals and dreams in life.

Anderson told students his first restaurant was a simple Indian Fried Bread stand. He would open up his first Famous Dave’s in Wisconsin in 1994, and their are now 200 restaurants across the country, producing about $500 million in sales each year.

He told students anything is possible if they set their mind to it.

“If you have dreams, anything is possible in life,” he said. “You just can’t let other people affect what you think and how you act. What you think about and hold in your mind is very important in life. What you think about all the time is what you will become.”

Anderson said many people lose the their, and oftentimes it is because of other people.

“All change happens from within,” he said. “You have to take ownership of your life — you can’t blame anyone else with what happens.”

He said he pushed himself to get an education, despite not having an undergraduate college degree, Anderson got his master’s from Harvard at age 36.

“I never gave up on myself,” he said. “I started with nothing to grow into a multi-millionaire. Each of you here today has dreams of greatness within you.”

He told students they need to follow their passion in life and when they have a job, they need to love what they do — too often, he said, people live a frustrating life doing something they have no passion for.

“I love what I do for a living,” Anderson said. “Anyone who thinks their job is boring, they are actually the boring one. A job is an opportunity and work is tough, which is why they call it work.”

He said students should not make fun of each other, or spread rumors, because they never know when they might need other people to lend them a hand or help them get through a tough situation.

He added that they only people in life that hold us back is ourselves.

“When I was building the first restaurant in Hayward, Wisc., I had no problem telling people my dream was to have the world’s best restaurant,” Anderson said. “In a town with a population of under 2,000, I was serving between 4,000 and 6,000 people within a few months. As of today, we’ve won more than 600 ‘best of class’ awards.”

He said being average as a student is not good enough in life.

“How many of you want average?” he asked. “When you go to a doctor or need a lawyer, do you want average? No, you want the best. People that are average are the best of the worst, and the worst of the best.”

He left students with a final word of battling obstacles in life, and how they can overcome them.

“People that shoulder their share of problems are also the ones that are successful,” Anderson said. “Problems and adversities are where you grow. Don’t lose your optimism when facing tough times. Don’t lose hope on your biggest dreams and always stick to your values.”

After he spoke to the students, Anderson had a private luncheon open only to students who applied, where he had conversations about his life, signed books and answered questions.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal