A disgruntled Union, A Marketing Case, and a Night off From School

I went into this week knowing it was going to be tough to get through for a number of reasons...

1) My wife has been sick for about the last 10 days. Part of her illness has included coughing through the night, which has left me wanting for sleep.

2) I began to come down with something on Saturday and haven't felt 100% since.

3) My group just finished another meeting on the Marketing Airbus case last night. I like school, but this is getting a little crazy.

4) 2 cases due this week in Accounting and 1 more in Marketing.

5) The union that works with my company is upset over some lay offs.

I was right. This week has been crazy. It started out with me and another manager in an office firing one of our regulars and ended today with me pouring lightly salted water up my nose with a neti pot. Don't worry, it came out the other side.

But, the best part is that I am skipping class for the first time since I started the program. I didn't think I would do this at all during the first year, but I have reached a point where I just need to get a full 10 hours of sleep.

So goodnight, and thanks for reading. Hopefully the next time I write I will be allergy free and hard at work.

The Online MBA

Over the past decade or so higher education has really embraced the virtual learning model. This evidenced by the proliferation of schools like the University of Phoenix, Kaplan College, and Capella University. There are varying levels of quality and cost with these online schools and recently they have become a viable option for serious students.

Admittedly, when I first decided to go to B-School I didn't consider an online MBA program. This is mainly because I'm young in my career, I don't have an established professional network, and I don't have kids. But my situation is increasingly a unique one for MBA students. There are several individuals in my program that don't share my demographic advantage and consequently are getting floored by the program. Many second income parents have quit working to cope with the time commitment and others have found the networking of little use or inconvenient to their schedule.

The idea of being able to get the same eduction by an accredited school without having to go to class at a certain time or meet at certain times seems very appealing. I'm sure the workload is just as heavy in an online MBA program, but the decreased commuting time alone must make it easier. In addition, getting an opportunity to work virtually with professors and students seems like very good experience for an increasingly global business environment. The online programs are also more flexible with the number of classes that you take and when you take them.

I recently heard from a VC analyst in one of my classes. He said that the brick and mortar schools are really becoming a thing of the past. In order for everyone to have access to higher education there has to be another way. The online programs are really filling this need. And making quite a bit of money while there at it. Who knows, maybe elementary schools will be going virtual soon.

Marketing is Sucking Us Dry

I took my midterm in Managerial Accounting yesterday and managed to finish the exam without my ears turning the slightest shade of red. I will say though, that I had to correct my work twice in order to fix all of the mistakes I made on the first time through. I think I spent about 2 hours taking the test and 3 hours checking it. I finally submitted it on blackboard at about 2 AM.

I woke up this morning with a small sense of accomplishment that would soon disappear. My next task was Marketing. Each week we are doing case studies in different business scenarios. Last week, we read about a company called Biopure that made a blood replacement for people and for animals back in the 90's. This week our case centered around Air India's RFP with Airbus and Boeing in 1985.

The basic idea of the case is to determine competitive advantages between the two airplane manufacturers. Generally speaking, Boeing was the old guard with tons of experience, money, and brand recognition. Airbus, despite being relatively new on the scene, had the backing of three major European governments. It turns out that leveraging their political clout is what eventually won Airbus the contract.

Anyway, that's the boring part. The interesting part is the group dynamics of today's meeting. These cases have been taking my group about 8 hours a weekend spread out between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. This is after 1-2 hours of individual preparation. Spending all of this time on this one class and together has been slowly driving us all a bit nutty. Today, it culminated with one of our group members taking a nap, another one checking out the Football draft, while another one was downloading hip hop ring tones to his G1 phone. I was reduced to web surfing during the meeting out of sheer boredom. I never thought it would come to this.

I'm hoping that the group can gather its strength and hit these next couple weeks hard. Especially since we have a group presentation in the course on May 12. We'll see how we do. At this point, we are all sleep deprived, studied out, and constantly beaten down by our significant others for being too busy.

Who knew Marketing could be so brutal.

Business School Ramps Up: Midterms... Again

I am officially in my fourth week of the final quarter of my first year... and midterms are starting to ramp up again. It seems like every quarter of Business School I have had the same thought around this time... "How are we already taking midterms?".

It seems like just a few weeks ago I was writing about the classes that I am taking this quarter and explaining the quirks of the new professors. It mainly seems that way because it was a few weeks ago. But, here I am the 22nd Day of April, and I have a midterm the day after tomorrow.

The good news is that I am ready for this one. It is for my managerial accounting class and it is a take home exam. This particular class has been a repeat, for the most part, of a course that I took during undergrad. So far, we have studied cost plus, activity based, and incremental accounting.
The material hasn't been too challenging. I'm hoping that this translates into an easier time on the midterm. In other words, I am not expecting my ears to be very red. I hope that proves to be true.

So , I've got class tomorrow and then the exam. Lucky for me the Marketing course I am in does not have a midterm exam. However, we have weekly cases and a major presentation the second week of May. I guess this in lieu of the midterm...

5 weeks to go... then I will be a second year Business School student. Yee haw!

Business School Doesn't Always Help: Schnuckerman Snickers

For the last 11 days my wife has been out of town on business. It has been a long 11 days that culminated with me eating alone at a restaurant yesterday. This is slightly less sad than it sounds because its one of my favorite places to eat...

In any case, I made my order and then picked up a copy of a local weekly newspaper to see what was happening in the area. After flipping through a few pages of art gallery exhibits, concerts, and organic food festivals, I saw a very peculiar ad for a famous candy bar company. The ad was a picture of a snickers bar, but instead of the bar saying SNICKERS, it said SNACKSQUATCH. This is part of the the SNACKLISH campaign that they are pushing on there completely off the wall website.

Before I tell you what I think of this campaign, take a look at the picture...


Isn't this the dumbest thing you have ever seen? If its not, you really need to start a blog posting really dumb stuff you've seen.

I mean really, didn't anyone in that company go to Business School. Did they discuss the idea of a target market. Who is this thing aimed at? The best I could come up with is that they are focusing this advertising on annoying junior high kids. I'm not really a candy bar guy, but this makes me want to go out and buy a Hershey bar just to speed the dissolution of a product that has obviously lost its positioning. Do you remember the old slogan? It was, "Snickers Satisfies". This sounds tempting. We all crave sugar and chocolate and Snickers satisfies that craving, but "Snacksquatch" and "Sncklish"?. It just goes to show you that all the Business School or other school in the world won't always stop the mighty power of a really dumb idea.

Wiggio: Where have you been all my life... or at least since I started an MBA program?

I think I have told you before that the MBA program I am in places you in groups or five or six students before the first day of class. The idea is that each student will belong to the same group for completing team assignments throughout the core part of the program. This is about 18 months and includes 12 courses.

My group is amazing. Really. We all come from different professional backgrounds including software sales, financial analysis, union labor management, and consulting. We also all come from different parts of the country and even the world in one team-mates case. But the variety is not what makes the team so cohesive. Its the fact that we are all just very laid back. No one usurps authority, nobody whines, and we are not fussy. I feel very fortunate.

Anyway, as a way to facilitate the activities of the group we decided to start a group website before the first quarter began. Since I am such a huge fan of google (blogger is owned by google), I decided to set us up on a shiny new Google group site. At first it was OK, but after a while the chinks in Google's armor began to show. The site was very ugly looking and was missing some key features like version control, folders for stored documents, a conference calling service, and more. We used Google groups through last quarter, but after much frustration , I decided to look for something better.

...And I found it. It tuns out that we aren't the only MBA candidates who have been fed up with the group sites out there. One team was so fed up that they started their own group web site. It's called Wiggio, and it is amazing. It has version control, a filing cabinet with in browser viewing and editing documents, a free conference call service, chat rooms, polling, and even a calendar that sends reminder text messages for group meetings. One of the coolest features is a unique e-mail address that sends a message to everyone in the group and then stores a copy as a conversation thread on the home page. What else could you ask for? To top it all off, I have had a few suggestions since I've been using the site and the developer team has responded to them personally - one even got implemented.

So there it is... I didn't need much to be happy. Just a free conference call service and the ability to poll my group with colorful graphics. I love you Wiggio. Please don't change or get bought out by Google.

Back to Business School... Year 1, final quarter

Last week I returned from my very relaxing and amazing vacation to Santa Barbara and other parts of socal, then began the last quarter of my first year in Business School.

This quarter I am taking Managerial Accounting and Strategic Marketing Management. Let me give you a brief run down of the professors and the classes:

Managerial Accounting

This is the second core course in Accounting, but unlike our first class, it is more focused on internal accounting (as opposed to GAAP). So far, we have been looking at different costing systems like cost-plus, activity based costing, etc. The work load is actually pretty moderate. We mainly just have to read a case for each class and submit answers to a poll on a class site twice a week. Everything else is participation in class and the exams. Our midterm is actually coming up in two weeks. I am still amazed at how quickly quarters go by.

So, nothing too crazy right? Wrong. The Professor in this class is crazy. He's actually a very good teacher, but he is very unorthodox. For starters, he's a morning person, so the only way he can make it through an evening is to get all hopped up on Caffeine before the class. This causes him to do things like speak extremely quickly, write on the whiteboard without looking at it, and throw whiteboard markers accross the room when he is too far from something he wants to point at... interesting fellow.

Marketing

The Marketing class has been great as well. The course is basically designed around learning all aspects of researching, developing, and implementing a marketing plan. The plan was given to us the first day. It goes something like this:

Research

Learn about and research the customer, the context, collaborators, competition, and company.

Strategy

stablish target market/segments and set the product position.

Implementation

Product, price, place, promotion, distribution.

There it is... I'm 2 weeks into it and I've already got it nailed. Well, not quite, but I think I've got a good start.

The Professor for this class has an excellent background. She started off in a marketing firm in Manhatten and stayed there for about 25 years. She has worked with marquee companies like American Express, Meryll Lynch, Coca Cola, etc. She actually lives in Las Vegas and flies up to campus on Tuesdays (leaves on Friday morning). Must be nice. Anyway, the class is great and I am beginning to see the big picture of marketing. The coursework is a bit heavy though. It includes major case assignments each week that takes my group 4-5 hours to complete. Yeehaw.

There you have it. I'm back in business school and loving it!

The Business Education of Rick Wagoner

I haven’t decided if it is political pandering or authentic toughness, but either way I’m pretty happy about the ouster of the CEO at GM (Rick Wagoner). I don’t have anything against the guy personally, but when you are the one at the helm of a company when it goes belly up, you should be fired. That's what a business education is for...

CEOs get paid to lead a company through financial storms like the one we are in. They are paid to make sure there are reserves, diversification, and multiple back up plans. So when a giant like GM is hemorrhaging so much money that they have to borrow by the billions from the American taxpayer – you have failed. It’s a tough job, the pay is good, but the stakes are high.

Thanks for playing.

I guess the part that I am so happy about here is that finally someone who should be accountable is experiencing some consequences. It’s a bit ironic to me that when companies struggle, sometimes the people in charge are the only ones who have any sort of job security. This one is a point for the good guys.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see who is next, or if anyone will be next. Maybe this was just Obama’s way of “killing a hostage”. Maybe the other CEOs will begin to take their jobs more seriously. Maybe the union will realize that they are pricing themselves out of a market. Maybe we’ll all just grow up a little bit and realize this fake world that the baby boomers have built is coming crashing down around us and that Americans need to actually get back to a strong work ethic and a focus on real innovation if we want to retain our place in the world. I hope so… but for now, I am happy to see one guy get his business education the hard way.

Round 3: Returning to Business School

I woke up this morning and took a walk around the neighborhood I grew up in. As I was walking, I ran into a man down the street I used to do odd jobs for when I was a teenager. We talked briefly and then I made my way back up to my parent’s house and got my bags together. Off to the airport…

Now, I’m sitting on a plane somewhere over California and I just finished reading the first chapter for my upcoming marketing class. The vacation is over and its time to get back to work, to school, and to the gym. Vacations are never long enough – this one was 9 days.

In round three of business school I will be taking Managerial Accounting and Marketing Management. The Managerial Accounting course is being taught by a new professor who recently completed a PHd program at HBS (Harvard Business School). After last quarter’s stats class, my expectations aren’t too high, but I figure a guy from HBS has got to be good.

Our assignments due the first day of class are fairly light. There’s just a little bit of reading/skimming and a small assignment on profit margins. No big thing, but I know 1 week from now everything is going to be nuts again – hopefully not as nuts as last quarter though.

…my plane is making a short stop and then I will be on a direct flight to my final destination. I’m hoping to get a bit more reading done and then hit the gym and finish my opening assignment when I get home.

So, here we go again. Back to Business School.

No Sign of a Recession in Anaheim

I have been on vacation in for the last 7 days and have taken full advantage of the time away from work and school. Yesterday was one of my favorite days because I went to Disneyland.
If you have been to Disneyland, you know that it is quite an escape from real life. We are talking about a place where all the plants are perfectly trimmed, the staff is always smiling, and music is always playing without a single speaker in sight.

Well, I couldn’t help but do a little math while I was there. With the average price of a ticket at about $70.00 plus three meals at approximately $15 each, Disneyland is about $200-$250 per couple. This doesn’t include snacks, souvenirs or kids. This would lead me to believe that the place should have been empty, right? Definitely not the case... From the huge line of cars waiting to park at $12.00 a head, to the 25 minute wait to buy tickets, to the 1 hour wait for Space Mountain, to the herd of people trying to buy over-priced cheeseburgers, the place showed every sign of being packed and not a single sign of an economic downturn.

What’s the explanation for this? I know it was just one day and that it may have been a fluke, but I don’t think it was. Let’s assume the attendance yesterday was within the normal range. Why are people still spending money at this alarming rate? Well, I can’t speak for them, but I did it to escape reality for a day and to have some fun with my family. Since I haven’t personally been affected by the recession I went ahead and went for it. I guess I’m doing my part to stimulate the economy. There are a lot of people employed at Disneyland. So, there it is… maybe a lot of this recession is hype, maybe not. Either way, Anaheim sure can’t tell.

The Competition Evolves: The Best Part of Getting an MBA Degree

There was a book recently published by a student who attended HBS (Harvard Business School). In it, the author discussed what it was like as a student at HBS and what he thought the benefit was from going there and getting an MBA degree in general. One of the major advantages that he highlighted was a change in attitude of the students as they completed the program.
I’ve also noticed this change in myself and in others who are in my program. Here it is… you go from saying “they should do that” to “I should do that”. I would say that this what getting an MBA is all about. You gain the tools necessary (i.e. understanding of corporate finance, economics, marketing, accounting, statistics, etc.) to run a business and make intelligent business decisions. You gain experience leading people and being accountable for accurate data and quality work. You learn how massively important developing a professional network is. All of this adds up to an individual feeling confident enough to say, “Hey, I see an opportunity and I think I know some people who I can team up with to exploit it. Let’s do it.”

So where am I in terms of reaching this point in my B-School career? Well, based on a decision my competition team made… I’m there. Let me explain.

If you have been following my entries, you know that I have been preparing for a business plan competition based on a tidal energy solution that was cooked up by an engineering student at my school. Well, this last week, the team decided to scrap the competition and go through with the product in real life. Yes! A start up!

We have a bit of research and networking to do, but in about 3 months we will decide on a structure and look for funding. Lucky for us our product is clean tech, so there is actually money out there for it.

This experience is shaping up to be the best part of B School. There is no other place I can think of where I could find two engineers, an oceanographer, and an environmental science person who want to start a company with me. And the MBA degree has already changed me into the person that says, “Let’s do it.”

Business School is on Hold: Vacation at Last

A voice just came over the loud speaker of the plane saying, “A second round of drink service will be starting shortly”. Those are the words I have been waiting an entire quarter of school to hear. Well, not really, but it means that I am finally on vacation!
This last quarter was a major time of growth for me. I decided to stop whining about my job, I tested the limits of my energy, and I successfully completed my first Business School Finance class. Let me explain.

Several months ago I began having a very hard time at work. Instead of pushing through this slump with a positive attitude and a general gratitude for employment during a very difficult economy, I sulked and became poisonous to my colleagues. It was common for me to rant and rave about how stupid my company was and how dumb our jobs were on a daily basis. One day in January while I was sitting in class it occurred to me. I thought, “If I am going to be a leader in Business I have to be able to make an impact at work under any circumstances. If I want to command a large salary when I leave, I need to gain valuable experience now and show some maturity”.

So I did. I began taking an interest in work again and even got to participate in a six-sigma evaluation of one of our departments. I have now set myself up for a possible promotion in the coming year if I survive the layoffs. I have also caught the attention of my colleagues and manager with the change in my attitude. I feel so much better…

While I was going through this change at work, I put in some extra hours. At the same time I was busy putting in multiple hour study sessions in Finance and gearing up for a business plan competition. The demands on my time and my brain taxed me to the core. The Finance class forced me to think harder than I probably ever have before. I felt like I was drowning in correlation, present value, and risk formulas. I was only getting about 5 hours a sleep a night from Tuesday to Friday each week and I was booked from 6AM to 11PM almost every day. If it weren’t for this vacation in the future, I think my wife may have left me.

But its over… and I emerged wiser and very tired. My plane lands in 54 minutes. When I walk off, I will have ten days where my biggest concern will be which restaurant to go out to for dinner. This is a well earned and much needed break. I think I might even read something… for fun.

A Real Life Business Education: Flexible Labor Markets

Since I started B-School last year I have had a chance to step out of my career and even my company and industry to see economies and governments from the “3000’ view”. When you are looking at things from such a high altitude, you throw around macro-economic terms without thinking too much about what they mean at a, say, 6-foot level. This creates a strange dynamic between your work life, where you operate at street level, and your school life, which is mainly conducted from the inside of a space station. The irony of this dichotomy recently hit me when I was reading an article in the Economist called, “ the jobs crisis”.

The article was mainly about how different economies in the world were reacting to the global recession. It highlighted the fact that the United States has the highest unemployment rate of all the industrialized countries because of its “flexible labor markets”.

So what does that term really mean? Well, it means that it is easier for a company to fire (and I suppose one day hire) in the United States when compared to other developed nations. More plainly, the cost of lay-offs to the employer is lower in the US. From an employer’s perspective this is good. When the demand for their products or services goes through the floor, they can shed the cost of superfluous employees quickly.

Ironically, my employer has recently been taking advantage of their “flexible labor”. On Friday we learned that 30 of our colleagues at facilities on the East Coast were laid off. All of them are white-collar workers. It seems likely that I may be among the next group to prove the flexible nature of my company’s staff. I don’t recall signing up for this real-life business education.
It could be worse though. At least I have school and access to lots of Government loans. Who knows, maybe I’ll survive the “adjustment”. And, if I don’t, I will be glad for the flexibility of this country’s labor markets when I find the next gig.

Business School Didn't Turn My Ears Red

It's all over... no more assignments, no more presentations, no more group meetings, no more exams, no more evaluations, no more school... for 14 whole days.

Yes, the second quarter is over and I have two full weeks to recover. On Saturday my wife and I are headed out for a much deserved vacation and some quality time - something we haven't had in months!

But let me tell you about the last hurdle in this leg of the journey... the Finance final exam.

If you have been reading this blog, you know that most of my exams leave me with red ears and a headache. This has especially been the case in Finance and Economics. This time was different. I spent 4 hours studying practice exams two nights ago and went into this exam very well prepared.

The exam was proctored by the professors assistant because he was doing a program for a television station. The room was in our Executive center, so I got to take the test while sitting in a leather chair surrounded by mahogany tables. Definitely a highlight of business school so far...

I began the exam by spending 10 minutes on part A of the first question (there were 7 questions). However, at the end of the day I finished the exam with thirty minutes to spare and my ears were not red. I walked out of the exam room and headed straight to an MBA happy hour.

I stayed under my 2 drink maximum, but still had a fantastic time. We must have had about 50 students there drinking green beer and celebrating the end of a very rough quarter. We hung out for about two hours and then all began to go our separate ways.

Well, on with my well deserved vacation from business school. And I didn't even have to start it with red ears.

It's Go Time

In the past 2 weeks I have taken a Stats Final, completed multiple assignments for all of my classes, written a 7 page term paper for Open Innovation, and completed a 6 page Executive Summary for the Environmental competition that I am in...

In 48 hours I will bring the 2nd quarter of Business school to a close with a final exam in Finance 502. I began the grueling march towards Tuesday yesterday with a 3 hour study session dedicated to past exams. Again, today I went to school for a 2 hour review session (it's Sunday). I will hit the books one last time tomorrow night with some study partners for a final round, and then its go time.

As I wrote before, I have really pushed my limits this quarter with the addition of a third class. That addition brought my credit total to 11, which is just shy of full time. All this while working extra hours. It is safe to say that I found my limits and left them in the dust... just ask my wife.

I cannot wait until the end of this week and for Spring Break to start. I have decided to take the week off of work as well to take in the full benefit of the time. My wife and I are headed to Santa Barbara for a few days for vacation and then on to visit some family in Ventura County, CA.



...but back to the work at hand. I will write again after the exam (and the happy hour).

The Second Mentor Session

I recently wrote about a mentor session that I participated in. The mentor was a gentlemen who had experience in several start-ups. Most of that experience was successful. He has essentially "made it" at this point and is giving advice to a few lonely MBA candidates. His advice to me was to change my resume and to build my brand. By this he meant to brand myself as an employee and market my best qualities.

Overall, this session was depressing. I found out that I don't communicate well through my resume and that I need some serious help nailing down exactly what it is I want to do.

Enter Mentor number two.

The second mentor was a senior level individual at a well know tech firm. (I am looking to transfer into the tech industry after/during school). While she did not specifically review our resumes (their were ten of us in the mentee group), she did talk a lot about what a person should do who wants to enter the tech sector. Her two main recommendations were to "get to know the space" and "to take hard quantitative classes".

She explained that the last thing a group at a tech company wants to do is to bring you up to speed on everything going on. She said that if you could get to know their environment (i.e. technological advances, customers, competitors, market share, etc.) you will have a much better chance at landing the job.

She further explained that taking the heavily quantitative classes and highlighting them will be to your advantage. The problem a lot of MBAs have is that they can't understand the technical people. And I'm talking about guys like programmers, developers, statisticians, etc. The more quant, the better the level of understanding... and in some ways the better the problem solving skills.

It was so refreshing to hear some practical straightforward advice. Everyone else just says "network". while networking is important, it is good to know I can do some more tangible things now.

Overall, I was very happy with the second mentor session. I think both of them gave me some good advice, but the second motivated me to get going on some simple first steps.

MBA Degree Woes: Stats on My Own

Tuesday was my last Stats class for the quarter. This was a very exciting day... however, this was also the day that my take home stats final began.

Now, if you have read my previous entries, you know that I hate the idea of a take home final. I can't recall a time outside of business school where someone said to me, "Oh you're not sure? Why don't you write down the question and look into it for the next 48 hours.". In addition, I think it makes the curve extremely steep. This is mainly because the types of students you see in MBA programs are over achievers who will spend 10 hours on a take home test. Consequently, I had to devote several hours to the exam as well.

However, in this case I actually appreciated the take home exam. You see, I have been teaching myself stats since the midterm. And lets just say that I am no business school prof. So, why am I teaching myself? The basic answer is that I was unable to follow the professor. I am not sure if it was me or him, but I would sit through an hour of class and feel like I had learned nothing. So, I made the decision to study on my own.

Here's the rub though... I was two weeks behind. So as I am taking the exam I am teaching myself multiple regressions, time series, and Chi squared. Let me tell you... this is not a good strategy. Needless to say, the exam took over five hours. It was supposed to take 2.

The good news is that it is over and now I know regression, chi squared, time-series, and more...
The bad news is that I'm not sure how well I learned it. I may be writing to you about my second go at stats soon.

Business School: The Competition Continues

A few entries ago I mentioned that I decided to compete in a business plan competition this quarter...

This competition is a bit unique in that it is joint collaboration of the Business School and the School of Engineering. The main idea of the contest is, "Great idea meets market opportunity". Well, the training today talked a lot about the market opportunity.

I guess there are a lot of engineering students that tinker around in there garages, basements, or lairs with some pretty cool stuff. The problem is that most of their inventions never see the light of day because they don't have enough business savvy. Enter Business School student... Our job is to take our business savvy (or develop it very quickly) and bridge the gap between the dusty basement and the market.

Here is the rub though. I've never done this before. Yes, I have taken a lot of courses on various aspects of business, but very few on start-ups or market research. So, I'm in a little over my head. What is my plan?

Well, first I brought in another MBA student who has some expertise in the product area as well to help share the burden. Second, I am banking on the fact that this is a primarily product driven competition. I will do some research, but there is no way I have enough time or the network to fully develop the business side of this product. By the way, the product is a scalable tidal generation system. I work in Operations Management, remeber...

I'll let you know how the competition goes and I may even get some photos of the prototype up on the blog.

Limits

There is something special about those of us who decide to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree. There is something especially special when we have spouses, children, and work when we decide to do it. What is it that's so special?

We think that we are superhuman. We think that we can do anything in any finite amount of time. The truth is that sooner or later we are all destined to find our limits. This past week I found mine...

This quarter I am taking three classes (Statistics, Finance, and Open Innovation). As if the extra class weren't enough, I tacked the responsibility of leading a team in a competition onto my responsibility clipboard. The days I have class begin at 6:00AM when I wake up for work and end at 11:30PM when I get home from school. The days I don't have class are full from beginning to end with e-mails, team meetings, and homework. I've even found time to work out 4-6 days a week, lose 12 pounds, and start a low carb diet. I almost got away with it too.

One week ago my wife was skiing in Canada and she crashed pretty hard. The X-rays revealed a fracture and a surprise behind the fracture... a cyst. Since last Monday we have been to three different doctor's offices four times and my wife can barely move her arm. Luckily, my Mother-in-Law has been here to help out, but she leaves tomorrow. So here I am, not a moment to spare, and now I am also in charge of the house. But wait, there's more. I got a call today from my boss asking me to work an extra day next week for some sort of process excellence thing we are going through at work. So now I have one less day on my weekend right before my first final, a milestone in the competition, and two major assignments are due in the other classes. This is my limit.

What I should really be saying is, "that was my limit". The problem with thinking you can do it all is that inevitably... you can't. This lifestyle doesn't leave an inch for any surprises and you can always count on something happening during any 12 week period.

So, here I go... survival mode switched on. Bracing for impact!

A Real Business Education: The Mentor Session

During my orientation for the MBA program, our Dean mentioned that some of the most important things we will do during the program are outside of the classroom. He was referring to things like clubs, unofficial happy hours with other students, competitions, and organized extra curricular activities like the mentor program.

Being in the Evening MBA program while working during the day has proven to be a real obstacle in attending any outside activities. However, I was able to participate in the mentor program. For first year students, the program consists of a reception with all of the mentors, a bidding process, and one 2 hour meeting with a few other students. My bids resulted in me getting two mentors. I met with the first one this past week.

We had all sent our resumes and a brief synopsis of our near term plans via e-mail prior to the meeting. I wasn't really sure what to expect...

Our mentor was in his mid forties, but had better experience than most business people that had worked twice as long. He received his MBA from Cornell back in the 80s and moved out west. He immediately went to work for a start up and then followed that with several turnarounds of local tech and biotech companies. He's now semi-retired.

He said that he landed his first job by making a pitch to the owner on the acquisition of venture capital money. He explained to the owner that he had been going about it the wrong way and that he could help. He got the owner to agree to give him a cut and a paid salary if he could land some VC money. He got it done and reaped the rewards.

Hearing this story was a real business education. The major theme of what he talked about throughout the meeting tied into this experience. Work outside the system, take risks, offer employers a deal they can't refuse tied to an upside that you can't refuse. He said he once offered to pay an owner for the opportunity to work for him. This was turned down, but he got the job.

He also took some time to go over all of our different resumes. When he got to me he first said, "your not looking for a job, right?". This wasn't a good reaction. He followed that up by telling me that my job title and descriptions made me sound like some old guy with a furrowed unibrow. This sounds a bit harsh, but it was my second piece of business education for the night.

He gave me an honest reaction to a resume that was full of eperience in an industry that most people know nothing about. After insulting me, he gave me a few pointers including the idea to pitch an internship with my current employer. He said that if I could communicate that I was able to affect change and lead in my current rigid environment, that I could boast the ability to do it anywhere.

I left the meeting a bit depressed, but I went straight home and made over my resume. I later sent him a thank you note. He replied and said that I could contact him any time to bounce ideas off of him. It was a positive interaction.

So for me, the mentor program has been a huge success. I have my next meeting with a software company VP this week. I will let you know how it goes :)