How Nido Qubein Turned Life Lessons, Relationships, and Business Experience into an Extraordinary University
There is something especially powerful about transforming a place that once helped transform you. Long before Nido Qubein became president of High Point University, he was a student walking its campus, trying to build a future for himself in a new country. His journey began at another small North Carolina college, Mount Olive, where an act of generosity there would influence the rest of his life.
From Mount Olive to High Point: Nido arrived in America in 1966 as a seventeen-year-old immigrant from the Middle East. His mother had borrowed money to purchase his one-way ticket. Despite having a fourth-grade education herself, she understood the power of education. His father had died when he was 6, and his mother, a seamstress, raised Nido and his four older siblings herself.
He arrived with $50 in his pocket, struggled with English and was terribly homesick. He worked while attending school to help pay his tuition and living expenses. (Highpoint education Nido Qubein HPY President Extraordinary Life)
His first stop was Mount Olive College in eastern North Carolina. Imagine being seventeen years old, thousands of miles from your mother, trying to understand a new language, culture and educational system while simultaneously figuring out how to pay your bills. For 5 years, he and his Mother wrote letters. She did not have a telephone and it was before the internet. Yet Nido kept moving forward.
Near the end of his second year at Mount Olive, he decided to continue his education at High Point University. Before he left, Mount Olive President Dr. W. Burkette Raper approached him. Nido knew he had worked hard and believed he had paid his way through school. But Dr. Raper “explained that there had actually been a gap between what his education cost and what Nido had been able to pay.”
Nido's said, “My heart sank. I was worried that I might owe additional money before Mount Olive would release my records to continue my education.” Instead, the President of Mount Oliver College, Dr. W. Burkette Raper told him something Nido would never forget. “An anonymous physician had quietly paid the difference.” Nido immediately wanted to thank the doctor. He couldn't. The donor “wished to remain anonymous.”
Think about the significance of that moment. Someone who didn't need recognition believed enough in this young man to help him take the next step in his life. And that next step was High Point University. Nido transferred from Mount Olive to High Point, where he continued his education and graduated in 1970. He later earned a Master of Science in Business Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. But he carried something more important than credits from Mount Olive to High Point.
He carried a lesson about significance. The anonymous donor's generosity caused Nido to make a commitment: if he ever became financially successful, he would help other young people receive an education. When he began his business career and had very little money himself, he took his first $500 and started a scholarship. That commitment eventually grew into hundreds of scholarships for North Carolina students. Nido later described that experience as a moment of transformation: “There is more to life than success. There's something called significance, impact, caring.” That distinction is essential to understanding everything that came afterward.
Mount Olive taught him that someone else's generosity could change the direction of a life. High Point gave him the opportunity to continue building that life. Decades later, he would have the opportunity to do the same thing for thousands of students.
From Student to Business Leader: After graduating from High Point, Nido spent decades building a very different kind of education. Business became his classroom. Beginning in the 1970s, he built a successful career as an entrepreneur, professional speaker, corporate trainer and consultant. His areas of expertise included sales, persuasion, leadership, communication, customer service, organizational culture, branding and marketing.
He also accumulated extensive corporate governance experience, including service on boards such as BB&T—later part of Truist—and La-Z-Boy. Think about what decades of those experiences produced. He sat in boardrooms with CEOs, bankers, investors and entrepreneurs. He advised businesses. He spoke before thousands of business leaders. He learned how successful organizations build culture, differentiate themselves, communicate value, develop relationships and persuade people to believe in a vision.
Over time, he developed a powerful philosophy: Create an extraordinary experience. Communicate its value. Continually improve it. Reinvest in it. Then repeat the process. Then, in 2005, something remarkable happened. The student returned to his alma mater with more than three decades of business experience and was given the opportunity to put those ideas into practice. High Point University became the ultimate real-world application of everything Nido had learned.
From Student to Steward: That's why I believe the sequence of Nido Qubein's life matters so much. Mount Olive → High Point → Business → High Point again. At Mount Olive, he experienced generosity and learned the difference between success and significance. At High Point, he received the education and opportunity his mother had dreamed about when she borrowed money for his one-way ticket to America.
In business, he learned leadership, sales, communication, branding, customer experience, organizational culture and the extraordinary power of relationships. Then he returned to High Point. But he didn't return empty-handed. He brought everything with him. He brought his mother's values. He brought the anonymous donor's lesson about generosity. He brought his experience as a High Point student. He brought decades of business knowledge. He brought his communication abilities. He brought an enormous network of relationships. And most of all he brought a vision of what an Extraordinary University would look like. “Choose to be extraordinary.” (P.117)
He Once Walked These Same Sidewalks: When I think about Nido becoming president of High Point University in 2005, I don't picture him initially sitting behind the president's desk.
I picture him walking. Because he had walked this campus before as a student. He had walked to class here. He had sat in classrooms here. He had studied here. He had formed relationships here. High Point wasn't simply another university he had been hired to manage. It was his university.
Now imagine returning more than three decades later. The young immigrant who had arrived at High Point from Mount Olive searching for opportunity was now walking those same grounds as its president. But this time, he was seeing the campus through very different eyes. He saw rusty showers. He saw an aging building that students called the “Hot Box.” He saw overgrown trees obscuring the library. He said, “Now there was a bit of irony. There we were an institute of higher learning and the library was completely obscured. We needed to limb up those trees so that people would be able to see all the way up and down the walkway. A simple thing, but it would completely change the view of the campus.” It would “make the campus a safer, more inviting and welcoming place at night.” (P.23)
He saw narrow sidewalks forcing students to walk single file. He saw areas students considered uninviting and unsafe. But perhaps because he had once been one of those students himself, he didn't simply see buildings, landscaping and sidewalks. He saw the student experience. He had a vision in his mind of what an extraordinary university could look like, and began to take that first step to building his “Vision”.
He began asking a fundamentally different question: “What should a student feel when he or she walks across this campus?”
He Didn't Just Widen Sidewalks: One of my favorite examples of Qubein's leadership is something most of us wouldn't give a second thought: A sidewalk. He noticed that High Point's sidewalks were so narrow that students often had to walk single file. His solution was to make them twelve feet wide. But his reasoning had almost nothing to do with concrete.
Nido explained: “I wanted them walking side by side, talking to each other, getting to know one another and possibly building relationships that could last a lifetime.” Think about the connection.
Years earlier, he had been the student walking those grounds.
And long before that, his mother had taught him: “If you want to be a great person, Nido, you must first walk side by side, hand in hand with great people.” She also told him: “Who you spend time with is who you become.”
Nido said, “Build stronger bridges between our school and our city. We wanted to do that immediately.” He built fountains, new sidewalks that are 12-foot-wide, new showers (no rust), cut overgrown trees by the library, removed ugly buildings and put beautiful ones in their place.
Thoughts he lived by: His Mother said to him, “The choices you make determine the person you become.” “Choose to be extraordinary.” “Be a solution finder.” “Having
a to do list and having a to be list.” “Do not prejudice anyone; treat people gently because you do not know their troubles.” He created a beautiful campus where students wanted to learn and grow. “Never let the child inside you die.” Choose to be extraordinary.” (p. 16, P.23, p.117, p.118, p.119, p.153, p.246)
Developing a world class culture. Nido’s thoughts:
“Culture building.” (P.159) “They thanked us for the experience, the carrying culture.” p.160 “Planting seeds of greatness wherever you go.” P.166 “Extraordinary, Inspiring, Caring.” P.167 “Building bridges of understanding.” (p.221)“Always building bridges.” (P.228)
Nido, “We installed speakers atop a section of the promenade lamp posts to play classical music softly throughout the day, from 7:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night. No student, we believe, should graduate from college having not been exposed to the finest arts of all time: music and dance, sculpture, poetry, and art.” (P.153)
He continued, “We populated the walkways with the giants of history, creating life size and strikingly lifelike bronze statues of great men and women. We placed them, one by one, on these iron benches from the promenade to the Congdon Hall of Health Sciences and Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy: John Wesley, Thomas Jefferson, Aristotle, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mark Twain, Mother Teresa, Ronald Reagan, and dozens more.”
“With the strains of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms in their ears, our students would now stroll down the brick pathway and settle onto a bench to study their history text- with Mahatma Gandhi or Rosa Parks sitting companionably next to them.” (P. 153) “I’ve told our students, “You may not care about Mark Twain, but you need to know who he was and what he did. And you may not be in love with Chopin- we’re not saying you have to go out and buy his music. But as citizens of the world, though, it should at least be familiar to you.” (“Extraordinary Transformation” by Nido Qubein, p.153)
Nido Qubein, “had the brightest visit, speak, and inspire his students.” Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State, former First Lady Laura Bush, 43rd United States President George W. Bush, Queen Noor of Jordan, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Bill Gates, co- founder of Micro Soft, General Colin Powell, and many others. They visited the campus, spoke at commencements, taught, and inspired the students.
General Colin Powell: (p.158) “When Colin Powell visited our campus to talk with the students he said that every time he parked in the garage at work, the attendant always parked his car up front, so he could hop in and be off quickly when he left. One day, he asked the guy on duty why that was?"
“You want to know why your car’s always up front? The man said, “Listen. Every day, when you come in the morning, you roll down your window and ask me, “Jorge, how was your weekend? How are your sons doing? You enjoying this beautiful day? Every day. That’s why we park your car in front.”
“And that is why Colin Powell had such a stunning career. It’s not simply because he was smart (although he certainly was that) , nor is it purely because he was ambitious ( though that’s certainly true too). It’s because he created relationships. He cared. Whether you’re a dishwasher or a billionaire, here is the secret to success: You create relationships, and you take care of those relationships.” (P.158)
Values Became the Strategy: This is what makes Nido's transformation of High Point so interesting to me. He didn't separate values from results. His values helped create the results. His mother's lesson about relationships became wider sidewalks and a relationship-centered campus. His belief in education became an environment filled with history, music, art and great ideas. His experience receiving generosity became a lifelong commitment to scholarships and service. His business experience became an extraordinary student experience. His speaking career became the ability to communicate the university's vision.
His relationships became access for students to remarkable leaders and executives. And his ability to sell belief helped attract enormous philanthropic investment to the university. Under Qubein, High Point reported attracting approximately $500 million in philanthropic investment, while net assets grew from approximately $56 million to nearly $1 billion. Those are impressive numbers. But the numbers aren't the entire story.
The story is what happens when values, experience, relationships and vision all begin moving in the same direction.
The Full Circle: There is something wonderfully full-circle about Nido Qubein's life. A struggling young immigrant arrives at Mount Olive College. Someone he never meets helps pay for his education. He transfers to High Point University. He walks its campus. He graduates. He builds businesses. He develops relationships. He becomes a successful speaker, entrepreneur and corporate leader. And then, decades later, he walks back onto that same High Point campus as president.
Only now, instead of asking what the university can do for him, he is asking: What can we do for the students who come after me? That may be the greatest lesson of his story.
Nido's mother told him: “The choices you make determine the person you become.” His life demonstrates something else: The person you choose to become determines what you are eventually capable of doing for others.
Mount Olive gave Nido an opportunity. High Point gave him an education. Business gave him experience. Life gave him relationships. His mother gave him values. And eventually, Nido Qubein brought all of them back to High Point University. He once walked that campus as a student imagining what his own future might become. Decades later, he walked it as president imagining what thousands of other students might become. That is the difference between success and significance. And it leaves each of us with a question worth considering:
What values, experiences and relationships have shaped your life—and how can you use them to create something extraordinary for the people who come after you?
Nido Qubein is the longest serving college President in North Carolina. He started in January of 2005. He has built the following schools at High Point University: Wanek School of Natural Sciences with the state of the art Culp Planetarium; The Cain Conservatory; Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy; Congdon School of Health Sciences; School of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Facilities; School of Nursing; School of Optometry; Student Life Facility; School of Law; Student Houses and Residence Halls; Hospitality Management Kahn Hotel; Tubby and Donna Smith Court; Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena Conference Center and Hotel.
Madeline Frank, Ph.D. is an Amazon.com Best Selling Author, speaker, business owner, teacher, conductor, and concert artist. She helps businesses and organizations “Tune Up their Business”. Her observations show you the blue prints necessary to improve and keep your business successful. Her latest book “Leadership On A Shoestring Budget” is available everywhere books are sold. If you need a speaker or video speaker contact Madeline at: mfrankviola@gmail.com
