Ups and Downs

Hello from Toronto! It’s the start of the Ivey industry week; a week where Ivey MBA students are exempt from school work and are brought down to Toronto to visit various corporations, network, and feel out potential post-MBA industries. I’ve come down a few days early to attend one my best friend’s stag party. What a weekend it has been. It was really refreshing to see my Ottawa friends again and have a good old fashioned boys-only party weekend.

I’m a bit tired from two days of little sleep, but I’m excited to be here for Industry week with my classmates. Hanging out with my classmates is a lot of fun and has really made the MBA experience really enjoyable thus far. On the other hand, I am without my wife this week; Geeta headed back home to Ottawa and will be picking me up when we wrap up in Toronto this week. We will be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary (July 31st) a few days early this Saturday to accommodate my busy schooling schedule (yes those are the unfortunate sacrifices you make in this program). I feel bad that we haven’t had a lot of time together lately; it’s been tough on us and I miss our time together. A one year condensed MBA program is definitely tough on those that have partners/spouses. It takes a really supportive partner to get through the year with high spirits, and I’m really lucky to have that support. Spouses of those in the MBA program should get a pseudo-MBA degree when we graduate for putting up with our moodiness, crazy schedule, selfishness, and having to hear about our MBA stories 24/7.

Speaking of selfishness, I feel that I’ve become more selfish lately and have been testing my limits in all fashions including those with my spouse which hasn’t been easy on her. Yes; men always seem to pull that leash as far as possible before their intelligent spouses yank back at the right moment. I am no different and I was getting a bit too carried away with the partying/socializing and the whole MBA environment. I’ve made a decision that I will tone down the MBA outings and spend more quality time at home, while also trying to help out a bit more with household chores.

Geeta (my wife) recently assumed the Presidency role for the Ivey Circle (the spouses club); they’re club stands at 20 and that number is growing weekly! The club provides a social group to all the spouses here in London and elsewhere who’s partners are in the MBA program. I’m happy that she stepped up for it and I know she’ll do a great job.

Life has changed drastically for Geeta and me on a financial perspective since we’ve moved to London. For one, we’ve gone from two steady incomes to zero which has really put a lot of things into perspective for us and makes us appreciate the little things that we became so accustomed to. We both got used to living a very high standard of life over the last 4 years of marriage with a ton of travelling, and fine dining. We now look back at the good old days and are so thankful that we enjoyed life now that we are ‘poor’ students again ;)

In my last blog entry, I wrote about how I was pursuing Lauren Flaherty (CMO of Nortel) to come to Ivey to deliver a key note presentation to the MBA class and help raise the profile of the company on campus (Nortel’s reputation on campus is lacking here at Ivey in my opinion; and I want to change this). I haven’t a clue on who reads this blog but it seems like its reaching out to people and I was pleasantly surprised to here from one of Lauren’s reports (who read my blog entry) and has offered to help my cause…talk about the power of blogging!

Module 1 marks came back and I’m very pleased with my performance and transition back into the academic setting. I worked hard in the first term and it paid off. I must admit that my primary purpose here in the MBA program is not to score the highest marks possible, but to learn the most I can and network and socialize with my peers the most I can; if the marks come then it’s a bonus. For those coming into the program I thought it would be interesting to share that the Ivey marking scheme is bell-curved. Essentially the highest overall module mark you can get is in the 83-84% range and the lowest being in the lower 70’s%; this is a bit disappointing for those that work really hard since the payback in comparison to those that don’t work as hard is not very substantial. My advice to anyone coming in would be to get the best of all worlds; don’t kill yourself for marks, remember to socialize/network and most importantly remember to understand and learn (this will pay off far more in the long term when you draw on your MBA knowledge as an executive).

One of my key learning objectives this year is to learn to lead effectively without necessarily being the leader (i.e. having the leader title). One of the most difficult things for type A’s is to be able to sit back and strategically lead without getting the public recognition that they crave. I’ve learned through my years at Nortel that it’s the subtle leaders within high performance teams that make a world of difference. We recently had our class elections, and as much I really wanted to run for a VP position I decided not to in order to keep in line with this objective.

Speaking of the class elections….there were some stellar candidates running. What surprised me the most was that every single person who ran blew the class away with some incredible speeches, and campaigns. You don’t always get to see everyone’s individual presentation skills when they are presenting with their teams during day to day class life. Seeing the candidates individually present on a topic that they felt passionate about confirmed to me that every person in this class is gifted in some way or another when it comes to presenting.

I’ve been feeling a lot of anxiety lately over the last few weeks both personally and professionally which is making it really difficult to concentrate. I’m having feelings that I generally don’t typically experience very often and it’s taking me through a lot of ups and downs (sometimes on a daily basis). Generally, I always feel very self-confident, very in-control, and very focussed. Lately, I feel like I’m a bit of a mess and I’m a bit worried that I’m losing my ‘mojo’ with some of my key strengths and familiar personality traits. In some of my previous blog entries I discussed how this program was rapidly changing my personality. Who knew that a MBA schooling program could put you face to face with your insecurities, could test your boundaries, and could make you think in ways that once made you uncomfortable? Well I really believe that the program is doing this and I’m optimistic that it will be for the good in the end. I feel like I’m an onion being stripped layer by layer and then being slowly put back together; being taught to act and think differently. I just hope that I’m able to keep enough of my traditional traits so that my friends, family, and spouse still recognize me when I’m done ;) On a brighter note, my rental property officially closed a couple of weeks back, which takes off a bunch of stress and provides some much needed resources for this very expensive year!

My brother, sister-in-law, three kids, and mother-in-law came up to visit us here in London last weekend. My sister-in-law and 40 day old niece, Sanya, stayed the whole week. It’s amazing how a little baby can just light your day up. Seeing/holding her throughout the week was the highlight of my days and seemed to lift my spirits up.

Until next time….

Sacha