Knezek talks seizing opportunity

Some see opportunity as mere luck, as in only the lucky ones are afforded opportunity.
As Erick Knezek sees it, opportunity is something the trained recognize and the understanding seize.
The latter is Knezek, as he explained Tuesday at the Rotary Club of Crowley’s weekly meeting. Serving as program speaker, he has sought out and trained himself to grasp opportunities that have been afforded to him in his life.
The first came at age 12, when he decided he wanted to be an astronaut. So, he wrote then Sen. John Breaux who sent him information on the various service academies and how best to become an astronaut. In the information, he learned that the United States Naval Academy had graduated the most astronauts and decided that it was either going to be the Naval Academy or Air Force Academy for him.
The son of a police man, he knew he would have to carve his own way to the Naval Academy, so Knezek began working to do so. He earned appointments to both academies and opted for the Naval Academy.
In 1996, Knezek graduated with honors from the Academy and began his career with the Navy. He ended up going to graduate school at Texas A&M and was trained in diving, thanks to the Navy. As these things were occurring, however, the world was changing.
On Oct. 12, 2000, the U.S.S. Cole was bombed while docked in Aden Harbor. The next day Knezek graduated from the diving school. A graduate in oceanic engineering and a naval officer, Knezek was given orders to fly around the world inspecting port security and beginning anti-terrorism measures.
Then, after Sept. 11, 2001, the world changed again and so did Knezek’s life. In fact, this is the second opportunity, Knezek noted, that he seized.
The Navy looked to re-enlist Knezek once more, this time as a teacher at the Naval Academy, but Knezek had a passion for business and found himself, at the age of 26, in a rare position: an expert in something — port security. He chose business and became the co-founder of Truston Technologies, Inc.
The business has grown exponentially since its inception, now employing more than 50 people and executing over $25 million in contracts annually for federal and commercial clients worldwide.
In the meantime, Knezek had begun making his mark on the Lafayette community as well, serving on the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce Board, the Big Brother Big Sister of Acadiana Board and the Acadiana Entrepreneur Group. It is no surprise, then, that another opportunity came his way last year — running for the District 8 seat of the Lafayette Parish School Board.
The dysfunctional school board had long-since been a piece to ridicule, according to Knezek. Board members couldn’t agree. And, all the while, the students were suffering.
After a few “no” responses, Knezek was finally urged into a “yes.” He couldn’t be happier that he was as he was a part of the movement for change within Lafayette Parish’s school system.
When the dust from last year’s election settled, only two incumbent members remained on the board while seven new members were welcomed. The group welcomed a new superintendent with a unanimous vote. The group has approved the rezoning of Lafayette Parish, something that hasn’t been done in 15 years; the building of a new high school for the first time in many, many years and is looking at more changes to continue improving Lafayette Parish.
It is for those reasons, Knezek urged Rotarians to seize the opportunities in their lives and pushed forth broader opportunities, such as national attention to coastal restoration and the expansion of the Panama Canal and what it could mean for ports in Louisiana.
He also explained the importance of seizing the opportunity to export to Cuba and much more. Overall, Knezek urged working together as a community, a state and as a nation to seize these opportunities.