Have Faith in Yourself
Elon University’s new women’s basketball coach Charlotte Smith encouraged her audience at October’s Working Women’s Wednesday to have faith in yourself to your reach goals, even when the circumstances look impossible.
“You live your life in a fishbowl, and everyone is watching. It’s not what you say, it’s the doing that matters,” she told the captivated crowd.
Charlotte grew up in Shelby, NC, the daughter of a pastor and a ministry worker. As an accomplished high school and college basketball player, she reminded everyone that her stardom had very humble beginnings: Her first basketball goal was an old bicycle rim nailed to a tree.
In middle school, she walked away from the basketball team tryouts because the older girls told her she would never make the team. But with her parents’ encouragement, she tried out and made it.
Years later, as a standout on the UNC women’s basketball team, Charlotte found herself in the final game of the NCAA women’s championship.
“Down two points, with seven-tenths of a second left on the clock, Coach (Sylvia) Hatchell told us to go for the win, not the tie.” And she wanted Charlotte to make the winning shot.
Even though a win looked doubtful in such little time, Charlotte threw the ball from behind the three-point line, sinking it to give UNC the national title.
“It was the shot that was heard all around the world,” Charlotte said with a grin.
That shot made it possible for Charlotte to speak to and encourage others who are “building from the ground up.”
Charlotte inspired the audience by telling them to get out of “self” and invest in other people, helping to change lives for the better.
“Our lives are like roses,” Charlotte said. “We have beautiful times, and we have thorny times. My life’s journey and experiences are something I can pour into young ladies’ lives.”