And student loan payments starting next month

Overall, it has been worth it. I learned a lot, I got a better job (more responsible with more income), and I’m in a position where I can grow and start climbing the ladder again. The big challenge is to not lose what I’ve learned. Some of the stuff I’ve learned is being used: focus on process, perspective of the bottom line, presentation skills, and the overall importance of the company as a whole. Some is getting lost: finance, accounting, and some of the finer points of high-level business skills.

I’m going to adopt the wrestler’s credo: “Make a conscious effort to get better every day”.

It’s just that I’m so stinking busy all the time. If I’m not working or traveling, I’m doing homework or trying to do a little bit with the kids or around the house. I was warned at the beginning of this that it would take a lot to finish, and it has. The end is in sight now, though, and I’m gonna push through and finish this thing.

One good thing has happened already as a result of my studies. I was able to land a new job with real potential with a good company. There is so much management needed that it’s almost a forgone conclusion that being there will make a difference. I’m learning and having fun and making a few extra bucks.

So, if you’re considering getting an MBA, here is my advice:

• Take the time constraints seriously. If the school is any good and if you intend to learn anything, you will be putting a lot of effort into it. I’m the kind of guy who studied about 12 hours total in 4 years of high school and ended with a 4.0. I’m putting 12-20 hours a week into my MBA.
• Take the monetary investment seriously and look into tuition reimbursement. I will get reimbursed for most of my second year but I’m still looking at over $20k in student loans. Ouch.
• Make friends in your classes, but do it wisely. After a class or two, you’ll find that the screening process doesn’t eliminate all of the blowhards who don’t want to contribute or who want to take credit for your work. There will be a core of dedicated, professional people who you can count on. Have a beer and shoot the breeze with anyone, but only trust those who deserve it.
• Learn to write well. In theory, it’s the ideas that count not the presentation. In real life, though, a great idea isn’t worth anything if nobody can understand it. It’s also worthless if you can’t generate enough enthusiasm to make something happen.
• Remember bang for the buck, aka ROI. If you can do a team project via email or with one 4-hour meeting, don’t meet 8 hours a week for 10 weeks straight. Honestly, I know one group who did this. It was total overkill and my A counts for as much as theirs.
• Remember you’re there to learn. Put in extra effort where needed to really get something out of the classes. The piece of paper is valuable, but the real value is what you learn and can apply.

How can I reconcile the last two points? Easy: put in effort to the point where you stop getting something back. That’s the bottom line: remember the bottom line.

Okay, oversimplified and obvious, but it’s what I’ve learned.

The crisis I mentioned in my previous post has been resolved and all ended well, happily.

I found myself trying to pray about it. I didn’t know what to ask for. I just sat there, with the communication lines open, just not knowing what to say. Finally, the only thing I could ask for was this: just be with us, Lord. Whatever happens, we can make it through, if you’re there.

I’m either growing up or falling away — time will tell.

The point of the saying (on one of those many levels anyway) was to remind the listener to figure out why something was done or was necessary. Yet another pointless Humanities chapter to read? “What’s it mean, bro?” Well, it means keeping a good GPA. And, the subject covered means something, somehow, about who we are and why we’re here — despite the frantic efforts of the Humanities department to obscure any potential value of examining the past. And it means that life is filled with things we have to do even if they seem pointless (septic tank pumping, anyone?).

I’m back in school, now, working frantically to keep up and to keep work running and to keep my family running. To be more accurate, most of the family and household duties fall on my wife. That’s why I’m asking myself “what’s it mean, bro?” Is there a point to this MBA quest? My oldest only has another two years of high school left. Am I using that time well? All my kids will be gone in 9 years. Should I be doing something else with them? So what if I never make CIO — I probably won’t anyway, even with my crummy piece of paper from my mediocre school.

Like much of life, I guess, I’ll keep on my current path until the pain becomes too great to ignore. Or until I have a brilliant flash of insight. But I’d bet on the pain happening first….

Part of the problem, in my admittedly somewhat uninformed opinion, is that there isn’t enough variety. Until High School everyone basically learns the same thing. There are some levels, but these mostly relate to “smartness” rather than preferences or future plans. This has it’s own set of political problems.

That got me to thinking. Why the heck does it work this way? Why do we keep teenagers in school when they want to be out, yet make it prohibitively expensive and difficult for adults?

To compete, our workers need to have a basic foundation of common knowledge, the tools to learn and adapt, and, most importantly, an attitude of flexibility.

So here’s what I think. Give all kids an intensive basic foundation through grade 5. For grades 6-8, students are still required to go to school but can choose their concentration based on their interests: arts, high tech, mechanics, etc. From then on, anybody can go to school and follow any program they think will help them. To prevent abuse, students over 18 would have to provide for their own room and board. Maybe a mandatory stint in military service or the peace corps to help pay for the schooling.

Now back to your regularly scheduled drivel….

Link:
Devil Bunny Needs a Ham

Now me, I’m more creative than that. I like photography, music, and writing. I want to create things–not necessarily build them, but create them. So I went into computer software. Hey, inventing new solutions is a way of life, right? Not so much. I spend my days hunched over a keyboard, looking for bugs in someone else’s code. Recently I got to write about 4500 lines of new code and it felt like heaven. Until I had to debug it.

Meanwhile, in my business classes, we’re learning about this amazing age of creative business — an era where innovation, flexibility, and a quick mind can give a decided advantage. It’s a time where the winners break the rules of traditional business (but not the law, at least not on my watch).

Wow.

Maybe it’s always been this way. But I sure as heck haven’t always seen business this way. Companies are creative, just to survive.

The difference between business and art, though, is that business is real. I don’t mean to diminish the importance, value, or impact of art. But it’s hard to deny that a failed business can impact hundreds or thousands of people. A failed painting, while potentially tragic, would have a tough time having the same effect.

Bottom line? Business is more exciting, and scarier, than I ever considered. On the bright side, the interests I already have and the skills I’ve developed can be leveraged by business school techniques to give me a fighting shot. That’s exciting.

It will take commitment, hard work, and guts, but I can do it. Look for a new, world-changing business to start by, oh, late summer 2008

The economics mid-term was a take home, I took it home, vini, vidi, vici (now if I wasn’t a business major, I’d check my reference to make sure it’s right. Bottom line, though, you know what I mean and there’s no ROI for bothering to Google(tm) it. In fact, you’ll probably search for it just to prove that I misquoted. Ha!). I won’t say it was easy, but I think we were very well prepared for it. All the material was covered and explained well in class and the math was straight-forward.

Great. Now I’ve probably ruined my karma and I’ll get a 64 percent or something.

The accounting midterm is coming up in three days. I think that will be, well, not harder but definitely more frantic. We’ll have a couple of hours and I’ve still got a buttload (can I say buttload?) of studying to do. Lots o’ debits and credits.

Although, to be honest, we’ve got this new wave accounting textbook that doesn’t use debits and credits. Really! The idea is that we’re looking to be bidnismen, not accountants, so we can gloss over those piddly little details. I like the concept, even though I already understand the basics of debits and credits, because it simplifies things. A lot of the other students haven’t had accounting before and we would have spent weeks getting them straight. The time is better spent learning the concepts and learning how to read financial statements, if you want my opinion. (if you don’t want my opinion, what the heck are you doing on the interweb?)

The best thing, though, about not having debits and credits is watching the teacher try to explain contra-assets and closing the period without being able to use the terms.

I do have to say, though, that the teachers in these classes are great. The styles of my accounting and economics teachers are very different, but they both really know their stuff. They both have a sense of humor, too, although I think my econ professor tries to hide it sometimes.

Anyway, enough wasting time. I’ve got assets to depreciate!

My hope is that I will figure out how to hit my stride, that I’ll catch my second wind, and will be able to hitch onto those Chariots of Fire and keep the pace. Hmm, enough running cliches there? How about clearing the many hurdles and breaking the tape?

I think I had a point there. I’m too tired to remember … oh yeah, that was it. Tired. “What did you expect?”, I hear you say (ain’t the internet amazing?). “You’re the one who insisted on adding to your already busy life.” Well yes, yes I am the cause of my own distress. Thanks, I feel much better now.

The good news, though, is that one obligation is off my plate. My youngest son has finished his football season and I no longer need to wake him up at 5am, drive to cold, foggy football fields 45 minutes away, and get him ready to play — all before 7am. Also, my obligation to take pictures of the game and post them on the website is done. Granted, that was a responsibility I took on myself (noticing a pattern here?), but it was a lot of fun.

Well, if I survived it at 19 I can do it at 39, right? 19 and 39 are practically the same age, when you consider the billions of years that scientists say it took for life to evolve on earth. Heck, I’m a kid!

Now tell that to my eyelids…

I will need to think in Accounting and Econ, too, but it will be more concrete. We’ll have actual tests and, in Accounting at least, we’ll have real numbers that need to match. I had a full year (2 semesters) of Accounting in undergrad, which helps a lot. Unfortunately, by chapter 4 (week 2 of class), I’ll be all the way through the review of what I’ve already learned. Chapters 5-16 will be new. And exciting. New and exciting. Keep telling yourself that….