One of my new favorite life hacks is listening to motivational speeches set against the backdrop of electronic music while I workout. It feels like an absolute cheat code similar to listening to podcasts or audiobooks on a higher speed (I recently got up to 3.5x on Audible, an achievement I feel irrationally proud of as evidenced by my slipping it into this post where it is totally unnecessary.) Whereas before, I would need to choose between being pumped up/focused or turning on my brain, now I can do both. I can’t wait until the day someone builds a tool where I can “pump up” any audio file, but for now, I am making do with listening to the fantastic, Akira the Don (he’s got clout).
One of the people whose speeches I have been listening to is Jocko Willink. His no-holds-barred style and concept of radical ownership are exactly the tonic one needs when awake far too early and feeling unmotivated.
One of my favorite tracks of his is called Good.
In it, Jocko shares his preferred response for any challenge or unforeseen obstacle.
He simply responds “good”.
He has developed a mindset that looks for the opportunity in every challenge.
Don’t get the equipment you wanted for the mission? Good. Now you can focus on keeping it simple.
Don’t get the funding you wanted for your company? Good. Now you have more ownership.
Didn’t get the job you wanted? Good. Now you have more time to prepare.
I love this mindset. Looking for the good in every challenge or failure. Choosing to focus on the opportunity to learn and grow instead of dwelling on what went wrong.
As much as I love this mindset, it is definitely easier said than done.
This past week I have been trying (and often failing) to say “good” to a challenge in my own life. One of the great things about writing a weekly blog is that forcing your thoughts onto (digital) paper can be the world’s greatest form of therapy. Writing out my thoughts on this challenge has definitely helped me and I hope that it can help you to.
Remote Minus
A few weeks ago I wrote about how excited I was for the opportunity to get my MBA at Wharton. Getting my MBA is something I have always wanted to do and I have always wanted to get it from Wharton. Making a big transition is never easy, but I have been really pleased and optimistic about how Wharton was handling the global pandemic.
Until last week.
Last Thursday, Wharton announced that the fall MBA experience would be 100% online. I was pretty floored by the announcement. All summer long, administrators had excitedly been touting the benefits of their “remote plus” model. They promised that if you felt comfortable, there would be an avenue for you to interact with people in a safe, in-person setting. If you didn’t, there would be access to every class and community resource virtually.
I loved this approach and as recently as a month ago had bragged to others about how well Wharton had been handling everything. These are difficult times and I believe that the best approach is to let people opt-in or out of experiences based on their health, comfort level, and risk tolerance.
I was disappointed two weeks ago when the school announced the falls’ class list and we discovered that only 10% of classes would offer any sort of in-person component. Given the makeup of the first-semester schedule, I would be lucky if I could get into even 1 in-person class. But still, the school had said that they would be offering in-person classes, but they didn’t ever commit to an exact number or scope. It wasn’t ideal, but not wholly surprising either and, while disappointed, it was something I, and many other students, felt like we could live with given the context of the day.
Now, not two full weeks later, we received the news that the entirety of the fall experience would be virtual.
The worst thing isn't even the outcome.
With the current state of the world, I think we all knew that a virtual semester had the potential to be in the cards. What frustrates me is everything that led up to this outcome.
Consistent communication that in-person teaching would be happening from the beginning of summer to as recently as two weeks ago. I know this situation is always in flux, but I struggle to believe that the broad brushstrokes of the environment we find ourselves in have deteriorated that meaningfully in two weeks.
Poor communication of the decision itself. All morning we started hearing rumors popping up in various forums and group chats that Wharton was going to make the move to online classes. The official announcement came in an 8-minute speech by the new dean with the message that “School will be online in the fall. There will be no change in tuition costs. We won’t be taking any questions.”
Didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Now I know that classes moving online at an ivy league grad school is not exactly the sob story of the year, but a lot of people have made significant personal and financial commitments based on the information provided and it is a tough pill to swallow to have everything change two weeks before school starts. Many of us have been working on the MBA process for as long as a year. We quit jobs, took out significant amounts of debt, and made commitments to move to a new (and in my case much more expensive) city all based on the promise that there would be opportunities to connect in person.
I’ve always expected a rationalization in higher education, but I didn’t think that I would be the guinea pig. At this point, I feel committed to my decision to move to Philly and attend. We have bought our way out of our lease in Columbus and already paid significant deposits for a new apartment in Philadelphia. Our movers are picking up our stuff tonight (6.5 hours late. A story worthy of its own blog post 😑).
I feel committed.
But I don’t feel trapped.
Caitlyn and I knew that online school was a possibility and we agreed that we would move to Philly irrespective of what the modality of fall education looked like. So much of the value of an MBA is tied up in building relationships with others that we decided to trust that there would be a critical mass of other students in town no matter what and that we would all be motivated to connect in safe and responsible ways.
If we wanted to, we could still get out of our commitment. I can cancel my student loans without a penalty up until school starts. We could move to Philly and I could look for a new job or we could cancel our lease and lose our deposits.
It would hurt, but we could do it if we wanted to.
But we don’t. We are choosing to follow through with the experience.
We are saying “good”.
School is online? Good. It will give me more flexibility to pursue building my personal and professional network.
School is online? Good. I won’t be able to rely on any administrators to create events to help me meet other students. I won’t have any choice but to take the initiative myself.
School is online? Good. I can take all the skills I have learned about networking and relationship building and I can bring those to school as a leader in the community. This change provides me with an opportunity to leverage my expertise in a way that I might not have been able to before.
School is online? Good. I can see first hand what the future of the education system looks like. When you strip out the old brick building what is an ivy league school? It’s an expensive way to run an experiment, but I will be sure to find out and report back to you all.
School is online? Good. It will give me additional flexibility to pursue work or internship opportunities.
School is online? Good. I believe that much of my career will be spent working online. What a fantastic opportunity to develop best practices for this modality. If businesses are going to be mostly online in the future than experiencing school through that lense could be helpful. Whatever I do, I know that I want to be a leader and this experience will equip me with good habits and an understanding of the positives and negatives as I equip myself to lead companies that will, in all likelihood, have remote employees.
School is online? Good. It gives us an opportunity to visit family or travel with friends now that we won’t be bound to staying in Philly for the entirety of the semester.
School is online? Good. My ideal goal at grad school is to start my own company. Online school could give me the additional flexibility to do that.
They aren’t lowering tuition? Good. The bar for the value of online education just shot through the roof. The imperative is on Wharton to deliver the best damn virtual educational experience ever. I sincerely hope they succeed. It could serve as an example to other schools and businesses in this brave new world. And if they don’t or can’t, well, that will be indicative in its own right.
The school totally botched communication throughout the entire summer? Good. This experience is already bringing the new class closer together than we would’ve ever been otherwise.
This is a huge disappointment to me and it is not what I was hoping for or expecting? Good. Life’s that way too. I have lived an incredibly privileged and blessed life. Challenges are opportunities to learn and grow and I am sure this will be too.
I am really frustrated with how this all transpired? Good. Frustration is potential energy that I have the opportunity to channel towards positive-sum relationship building and learning.
I am anxious about all the ambiguity in the fall? Good. Another opportunity to continue to grow stronger in my lifelong battle against anxiety and self-doubt.
School isn’t handling this the way they should? Good. This has been a lesson on crisis management and leadership in and of itself.
Students have no leverage with the school? Good. This situation presents an opportunity to hone our skill of negotiating when your counterpart is the one with all of the leverage. Negotiating is easy when you hold all the cards. It is a lot harder when the other person does.
This is a major negative impact COVID is having on me? Good. I have been too insulated from this global pandemic for too long. Facing some hardship as an outcome of it will only broaden my perspective and provide me with additional empathy for those who have been impacted far, far more than me.
It’s disappointing how the school isn’t focused on coming up with creative solutions? Good. Gives us an opportunity to take the lead with a solution-focused mindset. We can be focused on coming up with creative solutions to these problems instead of just throwing our hands up in the air and calling it quits.
Why does an MBA have value?
Is it the education? The credential?
Most will say that it is the network you build. But going to a good grad school doesn’t automatically give you a fantastic network. Not really.
You still have to work for it. But more than that, the network upgrade isn’t intrinsic to the school itself. I believe that it is simply a function of the type of people who are willing and attracted to the idea of foregoing two years of income to invest in themselves and their careers. It attracts people who have a risk tolerance commensurate with that level of commitment and who believe they will achieve the kind of success over the long term to make any short-term sacrifice worthwhile.
I am hoping the current pandemic will be a similarly powerful forcing function.
The students who have the risk tolerance and drive to make the most out of this situation are likely the exact people I am going to want to build relationships with.
Transitions are never fun and they are never easy. It is not the ideal time to be making a life-altering transition. But it isn’t the ideal time to be doing much of anything.
Life goes on.
I am frustrated, disappointed, angry, anxious, sad, and hurt that this experience will be different than what I wanted when I started this process almost a year ago.
My MBA experience will be different than anyone expected. It will be the first year that we are operating in a global pandemic. It will be the first year that students are going to pay for an in-person experience and receive a virtual one. It will be the first year where networking events and recruiting will be held over zoom and not in person.
It isn’t want we wanted.
Good.
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