February 10, 2015: Loren Ziff spoke to our Rotary Club about the Push-up & Up program which partners with Communities in Schools, raising money to support proven programs in high school drop-out prevention.
Loren graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in economics and earned an MBA from Duke University. Loren’s career includes an integral role in the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980’s, working for the Federal Savings and Loan Corporation in closing thrifts as well as running a couple failed thrifts for the federal government. He has since founded Ziff properties and Eastrock properties dealing in commercial real estate.
He founded Push-Up & Up with his wife as a fund raising event to help inspire high school students who may be at risk to drop out. He explained that the push up is a metaphor for success and goal setting, going further to say that you never know what is going to inspire a student to do better.
Push-Up & Up is a competition held at Marion Square, they had 50 teams last year, with the goal of trying to get people to understand the value of the push up. The teams are made up of 6 people, 5 organize in a circle and for 20 minutes (30 for adults) each person does pushups for 20 seconds and rotates. He was able to do 300 pushups the same morning of our meeting.
He reiterated that the goal is to make a difference in student’s lives. 1 out 3 at risk students will not graduate but this competition gives them a sense of accomplishment and shows that they can overcome obstacles.
He further explained why this is relevant to companies and corporations. When you are face down doing pushups, the pushup up doesn’t care who you are so it is an incredible team building exercise, not only contributing to corporate wellness, but inspiring kids as well.
The process starts with doing pushups for 5 minutes the first day, 6 minutes the next, 7 minutes next and so on. What starts as a physical challenge, he explained, soon becomes a mental challenge.
The essence is the same as “how do you eat an elephant?”…”one bite at a time”.
He concluded with a video of last year’s event where 100,000 pushups were done all in about an hour’s time.
May 2 is the big day and sponsorship opportunities are available.
The website is Pushupandup.org.
He emphasized that it is about conquering what you don’t want to do and leading by example.
– Don Baus