Thirst for More: How One Aggie Used Hardship and Hustle To Fuel Success

Then, when Muyshondt was 16, his father was shot eight times in an assassination attempt. He remained hospitalized for six months. “It was a blessing for him to live,” Muyshondt said, “but he was never the same mentally or physically."

His mom took over as a nurse for her husband and both parenting roles for her three teenage sons. “I saw a woman extremely devoted to her marriage, in sickness and in health,” Muyshondt said. “We had my dad for another 25 years. He taught me to be more grateful for every single day that we have. After seeing him fight for his life, it inspired me, to this day, to work very hard and to make him and my mom proud.”

Out-Hustle the Competition

It was understandably difficult for Muyshondt to leave his mom and dad behind for college. He spent one year in a local pre-law program, but it wasn’t a good fit. There was only one school he wanted to attend: Texas A&M.

“I’m the youngest of 18 cousins on my mom’s side of the family, and a lot of them went to Texas A&M because they were in the family’s coffee business,” he said. “I grew up listening to these cousins, who were like heroes to me, sharing all their Aggie stories.”

Fish Camp was a revelation for Muyshondt. “Texas A&M was a great experience for me from day one. I fell in love with so many things in just that one week,” he said. “First of all, I left with a full understanding of what Aggie football was all about. But on a larger scale, the level of decency and respect I felt just walking around campus—people making eye contact and saying ‘Howdy’ to me—was a culture shock coming from a war-ridden country.”

Because he came to College Station a year later than most of his peers, Muyshondt remained laser-focused on catching up. He carried heavy course loads each semester toward his bachelor’s degree in marketing and was especially inspired by an entrepreneurship course he took one summer. “It opened my eyes to how broad the business world is,” he said. “I learned you could be an entrepreneur without ever starting your own company. I connect that directly to my success, because I have always been an entrepreneur within big companies.”
 

He also credits the Texas A&M Career Center with helping him understand what he did and didn’t want to do. He took multiple interviewing workshops and applied to interviews with every company in the region that came to campus. “To this day, I still refer to an interviewing workbook the center gave me,” he said. “They also helped me understand that interviews are a two-way street, because the candidate needs to understand whether the company’s products and culture are the right ones for them.”

Muyshondt’s study breaks revolved around his passion for sports: pickup basketball games and squash matches at the Rec Center, catching women’s volleyball matches and attending as many Aggie football games as possible.

“I think the coolest Aggie tradition is standing at Kyle Field,” he said. “I think we’re the only fan base in the entire world that doesn’t leave the stadium, regardless of the score, until the very end. To me, that shows a lot of integrity, decency and respect for the people putting in the effort and what the Texas A&M uniform represents on the field.”

Muyshondt’s time in Aggieland brought into focus not only his vision of his career but of himself, especially in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “Between the school’s military tradition and its connection to former President George W. Bush and his family, the amount of patriotism I saw in College Station was incredible,” he said. “Everyone was united. I started to feel a lot of pride for being born in the United States. It was an incredible transition period for me, from identifying as a person from El Salvador to identifying myself as an American.”   

Obsessed With Better

Muyshondt was eager to join the consumer packaged goods industry, but he discovered that those companies were requiring recruits to have an MBA. So, he spent his first few years after graduation working for Dell Technologies in Austin and earning his MBA at Rice University. He broke into the industry in 2007 as a marketing manager with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo in Dallas-Fort Worth.
 

On a personal level, Muyshondt considers himself a “corporate athlete.” He wakes by 5 a.m. every day, whether at home or on the road, to allow time for exercise and reflection. “Health and wellness are an integral part of being successful at everything you do in life,” he said. “If you sleep right, eat right, and combine that with exercise and nutrition, your body is going to thank you for it. At work, you will have more stamina and a much clearer mind to make tough decisions.”

Muyshondt has passed his passion for sports and fitness to his children, Addy, 13, and Ollie, 10. He coaches their flag football teams and shuttles them to sports practices when he can to help his wife, Faye de Muyshondt—founder of the company socialsklz:-), which specializes in educating kids and young adults on the importance of social and communication skills, ultimately equipping them with the vital tools needed to succeed in the workplace.

As a family, they love traveling to College Station for Aggie football games and to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race, held every Memorial Day Weekend.

Be a Force of Positive Energy

Muyshondt always wanted to give back to Texas A&M, a desire that grew stronger as his New York City family experienced the warm hospitality of College Station over the years. Recently, he and his wife established the Faye and Federico Muyshondt ’03 Foundation Excellence Award—a scholarship to enable hard-working, deserving students at Texas A&M the opportunity to turn their Aggie dreams into reality.

“I have such a sense of pride from being an Aggie,” he said. “When I came to Texas A&M, I had no clue what I was going to do with my life. I left there as a 22-year-old with a lot of confidence and a clear vision about what I wanted to accomplish.”
 

It was important to Muyshondt for the scholarship to be named not just for him but for his wife as well. “We are a team,” he said. “She sacrificed for me to be in the position I am. I credit her more than I credit myself with the success I have had.”

Muyshondt wishes he had discovered earlier just how easy it would be to establish the scholarship, as he would have done it much sooner. “I thought it would be way more complicated than it was,” he said. “The people at the Texas A&M Foundation did a phenomenal job of explaining everything to me.” Eager to dispel the myth that “you have to be a multimillionaire to create an endowment,” Muyshondt says “every bit counts—there are different ways to give back.”

To make the gift even more personal, the Muyshondts customized the selection preferences of their scholarship to be awarded specifically to Hispanic students in financial need who are pursuing a degree from Mays Business School.

“Establishing this scholarship is a dream come true for me,” he continued. “I want others to experience the magic of Texas A&M, to see the beauty and kindness of College Station and to get the experience of an education at a top business school. Ultimately, when you combine all those things, I want other people to experience the American dream as I have.”