Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Flight 1910 to ATL: Diverging from the Critical Path


Written on September 26, 2013

It is fly day, and I am on my way back to Atlanta from my weekly round of consulting superstardom. Instead of using my time at cruising altitude figuring out how to solve my client’s latest problems or working on my business school essay, I decided to write about my dreams. Theoretically, I should be full speed ahead on my business school applications. Instead, I pressed the emergency STOP button and ceased all activity.
I am no longer following critical path [see below].

Critical Path

So why now with the emergency STOP button? It’s about the balance that I want and don’t have. Ish is out of whack these days. I am living in 2 cities during any given week, editing high school scholarship app essays daily, attempting to plan a spring fundraiser, writing random thoughts on post it notes so I don’t lost my IP, and hesitating to launch Atkins Coordination. Instead of doing the things I am supposed to do (See Critical Path), I am doing the things I love to do.

It all started right after I attended a GSB information session. In the session, the woman was asking the standard Stanford MBA app questions.

·         Who are you and why?

·         What do you want to do really?

I had an Aha moment about my secret goals. I have these things that I want to do, that I won’t give a chance because they diverge from my “critical path”.

Thoughts on who I am

A techie geek who believes in embracing my emotional self and the power of love.

My wealth is my network. A healthy, authentic relationship with self and others is more valuable than any currency.

Everything that I do takes me back to helping others.

I am much better suited in bright colors with natural hair.

Is it immoral to be a physicist turned business woman turned entrepreneur and aspirational writer?

Thoughts on what I want to do

Public Relations/Event planning/ Small Business Branding/ Network Skill Building – I truly get a kick out of planning and logistics. From a logical perspective, I sometimes doubt I can build a business with a people based mission.  I mean it is not a tech startup, I am not streamlining processes, or realizing values creating a bottom line impact. I want to bring real people together for like-minded interactions and interests. The whole concept is very anti-2013.

Then there is this education thing. When reading news, or talking about pressing issue, it is always my hot spot. I often find myself referring back to my time in the kindergarden classroom when I channel patience for consulting firedrills. Or my volunteer hours at a local high school trying  to convince black boys from the west side that Lil Wayne relates to math.

Then there is my life. Baseball games with my coworkers, dance class with my girlfriends, spades with the homies, facetime with my siblings, recipes with grandmommy.

Why not business school

My story and my juice that I’ve spent months working on has very little to do with the above. I am pretty sure if I stay in corporate America without giving my ideas a chance or go to business school with no clear sense of direction, I’d be miserable. Moreover, I would be putting my authenticiry at risk.  So, yeah, I still want to go to business school, but I really want to figure out why. Maybe I need to live my life, go for my dreams, and figure out how I can contribute to this world to make a difference.

I am thinking that before I move forward with the graduate school process, I need to give my secret [and very real] dreams a chance. Maybe if I applied all of my energy towards the things I love, I could make something happen.  When I figure out, I’ll be in touch.

Sincerely,

1/216 strands

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