Yesterday I had the pleasure of grabbing dinner with Julius Achon.
I love listening to people tell their stories, and Julius- he’s got a good one.
Recently, Runner’s World magazine did a feature on his life story, and it’s definitely deserving of the written word. It was, however, even greater also getting to hear this stuff first hand from him.
In the short version, Achon grew up in a mud hut with eight siblings. No electricity, sketchy water, no shoes. At the age of 12, he was abducted by the LRA and made into a child soldier. Fortunately, he was soon able to escape- but nine others who were with him during the escape attempt were killed.
Not long after, he started becoming noticed for his speed. He started running at school. Soon enough, the opportunity came for him to compete in an event in Kampala. He described it to me as the first time he had seen electricity, among other things. He also explained that he had to run about 20 miles to get to the event, before running at the event.
Soon afterwards, he got noticed, got a sponsorship, and got recruited to George Mason University. He competed for Uganda in the 1996 Olympics. He also set the NCAA record for the half mile: 1:44, which still stands.
His mile time clocks at 3:52.
For the third time in a row, he turned down my challenge to a footrace. Unlike when I met him two years ago, though, this time he told me he’s do it next time.
The Runner’s World article is worth reading. It tells some of the gnarly details of his story, which isn’t Hollywood at all times. But what I got yesterday was the awesome first hand experience of swapping stories with him over burritos. I also got to meet his seven month old boy for the first time. It was cool getting to share the evening with him. He’s really quite extroverted and wants to tell you story after story.
What I was most encouraged by, was that he wasn’t just telling stories that happened, but he was telling of ones in progress. I first met Julius two years ago when he was touring around, raising money to install clean water sources back in his Ugandan village. This time around he came to raise money to build a hospital to service the surrounding communities. He had already begun talking to me about his vision to build a school as his next project. And he wasn’t simply the celebrity spokesperson for the town. He actively was playing a role in all the aspects of these plans. He broke down the details to me of the materials used in the bricks for the hospital, how he plans to find and fund doctors and nurses, and where he envisions finding school teachers.
I may have also managed to invite myself to his village. I told him we’d stay in contact about me coming by sometime to see these things first hand and help out where I can. He was down. In typical Julius “just-wing-it” fashion, he assured me, “oh yeah, we’ll find something for you to do.” So if I ever randomly wind up in Uganda, that’s how that happened.
Hearing story after story is eye-opening. It’s a good reminder that what gets spent on random day-to-day things, like coffee, could be used to fund the entire hospital staff for a week.
What I found great about Julius’ story is this: that it isn’t done. This guy doesn’t stop living out an excellent story, even after each moment that seems like a storybook ending. Olympic invitation? Would’ve been a good ending, but he kept going. He endured more hardships and then set a world record. Then he kept going. Again he faced setbacks and difficulty, but then he kept going.
He looked for needs and ways to meet them, and then he just went for it. Simple as that. What did his village need? Water? It’s now there. The hospital is on its way. School? That’s on the radar.
Instead of basking in the glory- although he keeps a ready supply of Runner’s World issues from this month on him to give out- he is always looking for ways to make things better for his community. Non-stop.
That’s something worth learning from.
