In 1999, I joined my first board of directors. I was a recent college graduate planning my wedding, buying my first home and working eighty hours a week in investment banking (I wasn’t a banker).

I know what you’re thinking. Why the heck would anybody make a wet-behind-the-ears 24 year old an officer on one of the oldest boards in the sport of fencing, representing the United States Fencing Association? Even worse, I was a beginner in the sport — I walked on to the varsity squad two years before graduation from Columbia University when they needed a warm body to fill a spot on the women’s foil squad.

Desperation, that’s why. The NYC division of the USFA needed somebody to run local tournaments, so the president of my club approached me asking whether my mother was interested. She said no, so then the president said, “What about you?” And I made the decision that changed my life — I said yes.

In retrospect, if I had had any idea what I was getting myself into, I would have run in the other direction. I wound up spending thousands of hours over the next eight years planning the schedule for all New York City competitions, negotiating for space with the New York Athletic Club and Fencers Club, hiring referees, budgeting, and running events. Over time my role expanded to doing bout committee for world cups at Grand Central, Columbia University and Hunter College. I was also on the bout committees at regional youth circuits at the Armory Track in upper Manhattan.

It was quite an education. I learned how to use computer applications to run events with thousands of entrants using nothing more than my home laptop and printer. Every moment was incredibly intense as the team generated seedings and bout sheets with literally seconds to spare. Backing up files and having spare equipment on hand, no matter how rickety and old, became second nature.

And it was also an education in handling people. Every one of those tournaments involved hundreds of support personnel, from equipment vendors and referees to the people selling refreshments. Some people were absolute pleasures to deal with and remain friends to this day, others were demanding and difficult. At every competition, I had to make at least one deal with the devil since we were so short on staff, but I kept a black list of people never to work with again. And I stuck to it.

Why did I stay on the Metro Division board for eight years, given the incredible amount of work and pressure? In case it wasn’t clear, the position was entirely voluntary — I never received one penny of compensation. I was also competing nationally and internationally at the same time — I was consistently ranked in the top 32 of US Women’s épée fencers and won two team national championship titles.

I stayed on the board because I love the sport of fencing. I have written about how fencing changes lives. In my February 28, 2013 article for Metro Moms Magazine titled “Tim Morehouse: Giving Kids an Edge in Life,” I wrote:

“Fencing is a sport at which anyone can be successful regardless of body type. A short fencer can have fantastic footwork that enables him to slip up on opponents unnoticed, a heavyset one can have strong and accurate bladework that makes it difficult for opponents to get past her hand. It is also something that hones the mind — you are never going to see a dumb fencer competing at a high level because there are too many details that can get you eliminated from competition. A missing tip screw, not hearing your name called for a bout on the loudspeakers, are all lightning fast moments that can cost you an entire tournament and the thousands of dollars in costs for club membership, lessons, entry fees and travel expenses. It usually only takes one experience at getting scratched for fencers to learn to cover all their bases.

This is excellent life training, in a scenario where lives and careers will not be lost.”

I changed people’s lives every day for eight years because I wanted to give back to the sport that changed mine. Based on the skills I learned under high-pressure, high-stakes circumstances, I became an award-winning entrepreneur and launched a series of companies that have kept my skills sharp in the eight years since I left the sport of fencing to raise my family.

But I never really left — once you are a fencing alum, you are welcome in clubs around the world for the rest of your life.