Annika’s lesson: dream bigger

Hello again Valley Golfers.

On Thursday my wife Beth and I were invited to attend the Athena Awards dinner at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman.

The Athena Award celebrates the achievements of women in our area’s business community.

Out of the 25 well-deserving nominees, Mrs. Karen Abrams was awarded the honor of being the 2012 winner. And while Mrs. Abrams, and all of the nominees for that matter, were inspiring for their local business success, I have to admit that one of my personal highlights of the evening was having the opportunity to listen to this year’s speaker, Annika Sorenstam.

Yes ... that Annika Sorenstam.

For those of you not familiar with Annika, she is arguably the greatest female golfer of all time:

80-plus LPGA victories.

10 major champion-ships.

Literally, the best female golfer ever.

And while I sat there listening to her talk about her youth, and how she developed a love for the game, and how she wanted to get better and play in college and beyond, it amazed me just how “common” her story was.

And while her next sentence, something like, “And then the next year, I won the U.S. Open,” completely threw “common” out the window, I still felt like the message itself was relatable:

Work hard at what you want to do.

Have a passion to get better.

Set short and long term goals.

Never settle.

And always dream bigger.

Annika was able to take the qualities that made her the greatest female golfer ever and translate them into a relevant message for our Valley’s top businesswomen.

I wanted to pass along her message to the Valley’s next generation of junior female golfers.

And even if you don’t become the next “best female golfer of all time,” Thursday night’s dinner showed the awesome impact you can have as a successful businesswoman in the Valley.

So thank you Annika for sharing your inspirational story, and congratulations to Karen Abrams for winning the 2012 Athena Award.

As always, thanks for reading.

And until next week, “Hit ’em Straight!”

Jonah Karzmer is a former player at YSU and a member at The Lake Club. He works in insurance when not writing a golf column every Sunday in The Vindicator. Email him at jkarzmer@farmersagent.com.