Goals after Stanford

It is pretty amazing to think that my time at the GSB has now been officially over for more than two months. I see students in the years below me post pictures about their internships and my classmates posting pictures about their travels. Some friends already work again, others try to push it off as far as possible (Hi Reinhard!). Everyone sees friends and family and gets ready for the “real life”.

I, for my part, have been doing a little bit of travelling, but have mostly been playing stay-at-home-dad (without kids – that would have warranted its own blog entry) in New York. I found an apartment and volunteered at a local soccer camp and read fiction every day. It was different not to have such a scheduled day – yet it made me ready and excited to work again.

One thing I have been thinking about though is that now with the MBA over there is nothing to look forward to. I mean of course there are birthdays, vacations and so on. But three years ago I looked forward to applying to business school and then later to start at Stanford, a year ago it was my internship, a GMIX trip to Rwanda or the Africa Business Conference. But what now? – I start work on September 3^rd and that’s it. What’s the next big thing, the next milestone? For all my life education has been setting most goals – getting through high school, going to a good college, semesters abroad, then it was finding a job that would set one up for success (and success being getting into a good business school) and so on.

I tried setting myself more personal goals – running more marathons, starting to journal. Those don’t seem to be big somehow. I am hesitant to say that I want to be an Engagement Manager at McKinsey in 18 months – it could be a goal, should it be one though? Do I have to employ a longer-term view or should I try to relate goals not only to my own personal success, but also to what I do? Or with whom I do it? I feel that goals and steps to reach those goals have provided guidance and security to me. There was always that thought that “I need to get there”.

I guess its normal to think about things like that when starting something new or somewhere new. With the chapter of formal education probably being closed forever I cannot rely on that anymore. It is time to set other goals – maybe more personalized ones.

I probably should have used my two years at Stanford to figure that out… Well. I have done at least a bit of soul searching in that field and have friends that are in the same boat. What do they say – business school is only the beginning of a journey of lifelong self-reflection.

Lets bring it on!

Cheers und bis bald,

TIM

GSB'15 Graduation

P.S. I am writing this post at the Panama City airport on my way back home to Germany. Two years ago I flew from Colombia via Panama to California. I am feeling oddly sentimental.

Shame on me! Marathon & Transitions

First of all:
SHAME ON ME!

I know my last blog entry was over two months ago. Saying that I didn't have the time would be a lie. That I wasn't inspired - maybe.

Anyways, I came to the conclusion that I actually want to keep this blog going. Despite that fact that my time at Stanford will be over in less than a month. And despite the fact that my life as a consultant in New York will likely (though I am fighting hard to prove me wrong) be less exciting than my life in Palo Alto.

So, I want to write about two things today: (1) I ran a marathon and (2) Transitioning to a new phase of my life

Marathon

KM 42 - Almost there

After running 20km with Reinhard two months ago I thought it would be a fun idea to sign up for a marathon. Even though I am in A LOT of pain right now (think stomach bug + extremely sore + the flu), I am quite happy I did it and completed the "Surfers Path" marathon in Santa Cruz & Capitola Village in 3:36:06h. Two remarkable things from the marathon are the realization that socializing without consuming alcohol is awkward and something to get used to. One gets constantly asked why one is not drinking and one has to be almost defensive about the choice to not do it. A lot of events are also much less fun (some even not quite bearable) without some beers. On the other hand though - I slept better, was much fitter and had beverages I actually like the taste of  (Traders Joe's Ginger Beer - Good stuff). The other thing I noticed is that a lot of people at business school had done marathons. The percentage is probably much higher than among the general population. When thinking of a stereotypical business school student I will now have to include "completed a marathon" as one of the characteristics, alongside being extensively travelled and not having specific skills in any area. When people ask me why I ran it I usually reply "I liked the challenge". Go figure!

Transitions
I might have written about this after my first year at Stanford: I really don't like ending things. Not because I am so sad to leave a certain place, but because I feel that I can't be fully present anymore. I don't like doing things for the last time, being sentimental and dragging the leaving process out. If it was up to me Id just do business as usual and then leave from one day to the other. Right now I am planning my summer, looking for apartments, think about traveling, packing things up etc etc, but I am not really at Stanford anymore. It is like I am floating between different phases of my life not fully knowing where I am currently. I remember having this feeling when I started my job after undergrad, when I finished my job and went to Stanford and when I left Stanford to work for McKinsey in London last summer. So, how to combat that feeling of being in between places - no idea. Since I like to plan its difficult to just "be here".

Cheers + bis bald,
TIM

So, what do you want to do after school?

This questions is part of the holy trinity of business school introductions. Besides "Where are you from" and "What have you been doing before school", "What do you want to do after school" has been answered numerous times by me and my classmates especially in the beginning of out time at Stanford.

Theres a little problem though. A lot of people come to business school because they want to be exposed to different industries or functions, might be looking for a career change or want figure out what ultimately gets them excited. Answering "What do you want to do after school" therefore becomes quite difficult and usually leads to "Well, I want to try out different things and then see what I like".

Funny enough the big Stanford admissions questions is: "What matters most to you and why" accompanied by a little "Where do you see yourself after business school". Its interesting to see that I, along many, many other classmates answered this question, got admitted and now say "Well, I want to try out different things and then see what I like" when asked about what to do after school.

I believe it is totally fine to not know what ones goal in life is and where one wants to devote all energy and resources to. Actually, I find thinking about this quite scary. I like to have options and I like to be able to take opportunities once they come along. A narrow focus on one specific topic makes me feel that I am actively shutting out a lot of other options. An MBA compared to another Masters Degree is basically the result of that fear. Getting an MBA means getting a very generalist education. Joining consulting kind of is the same deal.

I wonder whether I will at some point find that ONE thing that I want to do or whether I will continue to flip-flop. One can never try everything out and be 100% sure. I sometimes wonder whether that fear of commitment and that constant search for better options is a characteristic of our generation. I for sure don't only see it in professional life.

Cheers + bis bald,
TIM

Should I have gone to Harvard?

We just had the 1st round admit weekend on campus and it was interesting to see many potential members of the class of 2016 evaluate their classmates, campus and faculty. I hosted a German admit (who has just paid his deposit and will be coming to the GSB - Way to go Daniel!) and was thinking more than usual about why coming to Stanford was the right choice for me, what it meant and also what I had to sacrifice.

Adding on to this, last week I was asked by a classmate who had also been accepted at Harvard if I sometimes think that I should have gone HBS. I think about it at least once a week and most likely much more often. Especially coming from Europe the HBS brand name carries so much more weight and is the Coca-Cola of education - something really everyone knows. As most human beings (some more, some less), I like to impress people. I find it satisfying to see that my parents and friends are proud of me. I could have had so much more of that had I gone to HBS especially talking to people that have only heard about both schools and never did any research. Still, I believe Stanford is the place where I can grow the most and where I am prepared to have maximum impact in whichever path I end up choosing.

Whenever I think about that a quote from our Dean of Admissions comes to my mind. Someone asked him the grandparents question:

"Derrick, my grandparents have no idea what Stanford is. I want them to be proud and I remember how excited they were when I got into Harvard."

Derrick's answer:

"You know it is really sad if your grandparents don't really know where you are going to school. But imagine, that one day your grandkids won't know where you went to school."

Stanford is a great place, but in some regions outside the US it does not yet have the reputation of Harvard. This will change over time though. Stanford is forward-looking, innovative and shapes the world like very few other places. Going to Stanford means taking pride in what is possible, not in what has been.