Ben Relles, a University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus and the head of programming strategy at YouTube, encouraged students to take risks to discover their true interests at the Wisconsin Rewind Lecture Thursday.
One of the 2013 Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Forward Under 40 Award honorees, Relles started college with entrepreneurial goals. After a failed attempt at selling “bar cards”— promotional items for local bars— Relles started selling pretzels outside of Camp Randall on game days during his sophomore year. His small idea made him about $1,800 per game, and eventually landed him at the Rose Bowl.
Relles continued to take business risks by starting a small cake delivery service in his junior year and a marketing company in his senior year.
To a crowd of young, engaged UW students as well as alumni and community members, Relles stressed that some of the small failures he made along the way helped teach him valuable life lessons.
“I still believe in taking big risks and investing in yourself,” he said. “Investments in yourself are not always going to work, just like any investment portfolio. But if it’s something you’re passionate about, that’s the best possible investment to make.”
In 2007, Relles took another risk and created a YouTube video called “I’ve Got a Crush… on Obama,” a parody which featured a woman seductively singing about her love for Barack Obama. The viral video gained national attention and gave way to the “Barely Political” website and an entire series of comedy videos featuring the character “Obama Girl.” Relles now advises videographers on how to create loyal fan bases.
Relles added his best advice for college students is to learn to network with people in the field they are interested in working for.
“It’s cool to be lonely and confused sometimes, because you are in a really good position to ask for advice,” he said.
UW-Madison senior Taryn Grisham said the speech gave her a renewed hope in light of the poor job market.
“As a student graduating in May it was really helpful to hear somebody in my field describe the risks that he took to get to where he is now,” Grisham said. “He said you can just try to do something you really love and you could end up in a successful position.”
