Ted Foltyn, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Delaware and the Horn Entrepreneurship Signature Internship Coordinator, graduated from the University in 1981. The Denville, New Jersey native spent 25 years with Johnson & Johnson and remembers seeing George Thorogood and The Delaware Destroyers play stage side in his time with the student radio, WXDR. Ted sat down with the Horn Entrepreneurship media team to discuss his biggest takeaways from his time at UD and in his successful career.
Biggest regret and advice to students
“I would tell my college self to get more involved,” said Ted. “Whether in on-campus groups or University activities, I just wish I was more involved. I was only involved in one group, I worked at the radio station, WXDR, and that got me in to see George Thorogood a few times and I even met my wife at the station.”
Ted had an incredibly positive experience with the student radio and wishes he had ventured out of his comfort zone more often and taken more risks.
The importance of risk
“I was a double major with a solid GPA, I studied fairly hard, but I wish I had done other stuff to meet other students. And my biggest regret has to be not taking more risks, and those would have been social risks, that would have been talking to more girls, asking more girls out, just taking risks to see where life goes.”
Taking risks would pay off for Ted later in his professional life and now he encourages students to take their own risks, and to do it much earlier.
“Business-wise, I took a big risk when I was 30, and it really accelerated my career, but it still took me until I was 30,” said Ted. Ted’s own risk-taking helped birth the Signature Internship program, a program designed to place selected Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation majors in entrepreneurial positions within pre-existing companies.
“I took the risk and got into a sales position and sales is an opportunity for you to try to take risks and have it be highly respected in the marketplace. If you try sales and you fail, you will still be recognized for your efforts. I turned out to be very good at it so I worked hard at it, moving up the ladder to a position where I was able to run a team and develop young people and that got me into training and teaching. I saw young people benefitted from my teaching and that helped my career even more.”
Just as Ted helps students grow and influence them to pursue higher passions, Ted’s elder sister inspired a love for music in her brother.
Most meaningful influence
“I was heavily influenced by my older sister, 10 years older than me, who exposed me to tremendous music,” said Ted. “When I was in high school I knew every Bob Dylan and Beatles album, listened to them all, knew every lyric. I was an early rock and roll fan, listening to Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, I had all their albums too. I was a music nerd.”
Ted’s love for music helped him make and maintain some of his closest friendships from his years in college.
“I met a friend who was a Dylan fan and to this day we talk about music exclusively on the phone for a half hour or more.”
About Horn Entrepreneurship
Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the University of Delaware’s creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement. Built and actively supported by successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, Horn Entrepreneurship empowers aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs as they pursue new ideas for a better world.
