SECURING
His Future
the obvious choice to major in – accounting. “Accounting is a great discipline to learn. It’s a great skillset to have. I never had any desire to be an accountant or a CPA, but it seemed prudent to go ahead and learn those principles and skills now, and Miami has a fantastic accounting program. So I wanted to take advantage of that while I was here.”
Entrepreneur Lance Theobald’s college and professional career choices may look to an outsider like the path of someone who zigged when everyone else would zag, but his decisions brought him right where he wanted to be. Growing up, he knew early on that he wanted to be involved in business. “My mom is an entrepreneur, and she runs a business in the small town where I grew up. There’s something about numbers and about working with people that always just drew me into business,” he recalled. “I had always had an eye towards starting my own business someday.” What he didn’t know early on was that he already had a connection to the university. “I’m actually a member of the Miami tribe of Oklahoma, but I was not aware of Miami University for much of my life. I had an older cousin attend Miami, which is how I became aware of the school,” he said. “I came up here on a campus visit before my senior year of high school and just absolutely fell in love.”
Theobald said his four years in Oxford were busy and fruitful. “I worked a hodgepodge of jobs across campus. I scrambled eggs at 5:30 in the morning at Alexander Dining Hall. I worked in the little coffee shop over there. I was an RA for junior and senior year, I studied abroad in New Zealand as a sophomore,” he remarked. “I made great friends at freshman orientation, one of whom is a cofounder of my company today. I met my wife here.” When graduation came in 2010, Theobald again decided to do things his own way – by joining the Navy. “The idea of becoming an entrepreneur was not this burning desire that I had to do right away. Assessing the field
of opportunities in front of me, the Navy was particularly interesting at that stage of life,” he said. “The prospect of traveling, the prospect of serving the country, and the doors that it could potentially open down the line were very attractive.”
So when Theobald came to the Farmer School, with its highly-regarded Institute for Entrepreneurship, he made
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