After hearing entrepreneur Bill Rancic talk about taking risks Tuesday night, junior Katharine Bleecker quickly decided to take one herself.
Bleecker, who is a marketing major in the Miller College of Business, raised her hand during the Q-and-A session and asked Rancic to look at her résumé.
Rancic agreed and she walked up to the stage amidst a roar of applause from the rest of the audience.
"I felt like if I took a chance, he'd follow me up on it," she said afterwards. "If he even e-mails me back with feedback I think it would be a successful attempt."
Rancic, who was the winner of the first season of the NBC show 'The Apprentice,' shared personal stories about his road to success in the newly renovated Ballroom of the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
He said his first entrepreneurial endeavor happened when he was 10 years old. Rancic said he remembers profiting from a makeshift pancake restaurant in his grandma's house after he "recognized opportunity."
He said he developed a "Why not me?" mentality in college, which ultimately helped him to start his own business. It was the success of that cigar company that helped him outshine more than 215,000 applicants for a spot on the hit reality show "The Apprentice," Rancic said.
During his time on the show, Rancic said, it was important for him to have a strategy and set small, attainable goals for himself.
"No matter what you do in life, you've got to have a strategy going in," he said during his speech. "It made that overwhelming goal more manageable."
Rancic took time to eat dinner with a small group of students earlier Tuesday evening at Woodworth Commons. Rancic said he was impressed with the food, as well as the overall appeal of Ball State University's campus.
"The campus is beautiful," he said. "You'd never know it was in Muncie. It was very hip and the architecture is phenomenal."
After spending some time with students, including Bleecker, Rancic said he felt like he could relate to the students he spoke to at Ball State.
"One of my main messages tonight is if I can do it, they can do it," he said.
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