Early this afternoon my phone rang. It was a friend who always makes me laugh out loud. She called to say it was sixty degrees where she lives in North Carolina, and that she planned on going hiking. "Hiking?" I said, "it's 29 degrees here." She laughed.
Fine, sometimes it's cold in Boston. Today isn't too bad though and anyone who's from here can tell you that the spring is around the corner. There are tell-tale signs: increasingly more daylight, the days have started earlier, and more importantly, you can smell it. Yup. You can. That frozen-over cold gives way to the smell of all the leaves that were frozen underneath the snow all winter. People put perfume on. They bake. The bin of recyclables starts to thaw. You can smell it's almost spring.
So my friend and I start to update each other on our lives. I tell her midterms just finished and that I pitched an idea to an investor, interviewed innovators over the phone, co-wrote two papers on markets and innovative business practices, and took a big exam. I almost tell her that I've been catching up on rest and sleep this morning. I really haven't. I've been thinking about my summer internship. Inevitably, every MBA student asks themselves what they really want to do with their lives and time is so precious that the summer can't be wasted.
Last Thursday afternoon, Louis Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM came to talk to the Sloan community. What did he talk about? Practice, practice, practice. He said that the four hours every Saturday morning that one person spends working on their golf swing should be balanced by the same amount of time working on being a manager and leader. Practice being a manager and a leader. What are leaders about? He said, "they are about passion. They are willing to open up an show themselves--they don't hide behind facts or memos."
Internships. Passions. My friend reminds me of something I told her when we were undergrads. She says, "I didn't follow your advice, but I remembered what you said. You said, sometimes you can't be afraid, you just have to jump." Did I say that? Shades of a wilder and carefree girl come back to haunt me. What do I want to do with my life?
This week, midway trough Sloan Innovation Period (SIP), I fly to Ghana with twenty five or so other MBA students. In April, I am helping to organize Energy Week events on campus leading up to the Energy Conference, and then the Sustainability Consumption Function and Earth Day (Week). I walk through the buildings on campus and what I really want is to put stickers on the revolving doors that remind people how much we contribute to CO2 emissions by not using them. I want to find a home for all of the things I'd rather sell or recycle than put in the trash. I want to have already found a summer internship.
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