Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
It takes years of effort to become great at running. The same thing applies to business, to anything.
Recent alum/current student: Cole Haith, BSBA’24, MBA’27
From: Omaha
Major: Marketing, Heider College of Business
Activities: Creighton cross country and track student-athlete, entrepreneur, graduate student, real estate agent.
Creighton mentors: Chris Gannon, head coach of cross country and track; Lisa Chipps, EdD, associate athletic director, senior woman administrator.
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By Micah Mertes
In the thousands of miles Cole Haith has logged as a long-distance runner, he’s landed on a few insights (long-distance runners have a lot of time to think). What he's discerned has proven applicable not only to his sport but also to his education, career and life.
His key takeaway: No matter how long the journey ahead, at some point, you just have to start.
Start your training. Start your degree. Start your own business. Start and keep going, mile by mile, until you’ve finally arrived. “The sooner you begin,” he said, “the less intimidating it becomes. You’ll be shocked at how much you can learn along the way.”
Cole’s advice isn’t far from his coach’s credo, he said. “Gannon likes to say, ‘Eyes up. Always looking forward.’”
If we’re sticking with the running metaphor, Cole’s day-to-day is really more of a relay, wherein he runs every leg of the race.
Since graduating with a marketing degree from the Heider College of Business last year, Cole has:
1. Started his MBA at Creighton.
2. Continued as a student-athlete on the cross country and track teams (his event is the 1,500-meter). Since Cole was a transfer student, he can compete on both teams for one more year.
3. Continued to develop the BeSomething Clothing business he started in 2023 and its spinoff, the BeSomething 5K run.
4. Started a new role at the Omaha-based MACE Creative Agency.
5. Worked as a real estate agent, with more than $1 million in home sales so far this year.
6. And this summer, Cole joined Baxter Auto as a marketing intern.
“No matter how busy I get, I never feel like I have to do any of this,” Cole said. “I get to do it. And each new experience gets me further along in my journey.”
Cole’s personal motto and brand of “Be Something” dates back to his junior year at Millard West High School. He could see college on the horizon, but he had no idea what direction to take.
“I eventually came to realize that what I wanted most was to be a Division 1 athlete,” he said. “But I knew I wasn’t at that level.”
Cole put “Be Something” to the test the summer before his senior year of high school, pushing his training to become the best runner he could be. After years of “good enough,” he willed himself to D1. Building up his body and mental game was a long, arduous process. But once he got over the hardest part — starting — the endeavor became less intimidating the more mileage he clocked.
Since then, the same has held true for everything else — from earning his degree to founding his business to selling homes in Omaha.
“It’s a cliché, but nothing comes fast,” Cole said. “It takes years of effort to become great at running. The same thing applies to business, to anything.”
The brand of his clothing company, he said, is intended not only to inspire people to be their best selves. He also wants them to realize, before the race even begins, that being something, being anything demands an everyday doggedness and commitment to the process.
Don’t focus too hard on the mirage of your distant destination. Keep your eyes on the next few steps. And then the next few, and the next few, and so on. Don’t be in too big of a hurry to get where you’re going.
Cole continues to enjoy his run at Creighton. He's grateful to the University, he said, for helping him discover the something he could be.
