On Dec. 3, Menlo had the pleasure of awarding Nick Woodman ’93, the founder and CEO of GoPro, the first ever Robert A. Lurie Distinguished Athletic Award. This award, named after distinguished alumnus Robert A. Lurie ’45, is to be presented to alumni who have provided a major contribution to the world of sports apart from sheer athletic prowess. Lurie, former owner of the San Francisco Giants (1976-1993), presented the inaugural award to Woodman himself.

Upon receiving the award, Woodman briefly reflected upon his journey in creating his company before an interview with Student Body President senior David Ball. Woodman stressed the importance of perserverance and entrepreneurial spirit in his address, detailing how his original ideas did not always succeed. In fact, Woodman was originally part of a failed start-up before creating GoPro. Woodman chose not to give up after this failed business attempt and to search for a new idea. This big idea came to him while he was following his passion for surfing on a tour of the Australian and Indonesian coastline. Wanting to capture the waves from the water instead of from the shore, Woodman attached a disposable camera to his wrist: unintentionally the first prototype of GoPro. Soon, other athletes, originally surfers, wanted to be able to capture the same footage with their own “GoPros,” and GoPro took off.

Now, GoPro is the world’s most popular camera, but Woodman made a point to reflect back to the beginning of his business and explain to the student body that he never set out to create a business so far-reaching. Woodman’s mainly preached to follow your passion and soon the rest will follow. Towards the end of his time in front of the whole school, Woodman gave out six free GoPro cameras to six lucky Menlo students as a token of his appreciation towards his alma matter.

Please click on the link below to see one of the videos shared with the student body during assembly today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM4TBwtFzTU