New Beginnings
Happy August!
While for some, August is peak vacation time, for me, I am heads down with round 1 applicants working towards September deadlines. However, I always like to pick my head up for a second and reflect on last cycle's admits and how far they have come since this time a year ago.
They are now posting photos next to the Harvard Business School sign. They are emailing me from orientation events at Wharton. Two of them will be rooming together at Stanford GSB, which they arranged after meeting at admit weekend. They are having a cheers with new classmates, exploring a new city, starting to get into coursework. They are also taking the group selfies I requested, as part of my annual tradition of introducing the clients heading to the same school.
They are so varied. Healthcare consultants, military platoon leaders, startup builders. Engineers, chiefs of staff, investors. And yet there is a lot they have in common, and I think it is what got them here.
They had persistence and grit. They got up early to practice GMAT problems, or revise essays, or have their 7am coffee with me. They were not afraid of hard work. Most of them seemed to enjoy the challenge. One was waitlisted twice by the same school and kept pushing anyway (it worked).
They let their guard down. They did not put up a wall in our conversations. They welcomed my many, sometimes annoying, questions, and seemed to enjoy having a mirror held up to them. They started in different places. Some were very clear on their career vision and why they wanted an MBA and who they would be at school. Some were less far along in their journey when I met them. All of them seemed to enjoy talking through it all until their “why” shined through.
They were not afraid to be themselves. Their quirks, their interests, their creativity, their imperfections. They showed their fears. The first time leading a global quarterly meeting in front of hundreds. What it felt like when the startup failed. The time their lack of athleticism was exposed in front of a large group of peers. What it took to reject their community's expectations about how they should live.
On our goodbye calls I often tell clients what I learned from them, and what piece of them I am taking with me. This year, I will wake up a bit earlier. I will keep grinding to make the client platform better and better. I will keep giving each client my all to unlock the brightest possible future, my own “why.” And I will do my best to openly share myself, lean into my fears, and be unapologetically me.
