The 5 Things You Learn at the MBA World Summit

I first heard about the MBA World Summit from a friend of mine while I was studying on exchange at IESE Business School in Barcelona. This year was the fourth time this conference has been put on, and each year, it occurs in a different city. I was lucky enough to be accepted as one of only 100 students to attend the conference, out of more than 2,000 MBA students who applied from more than 140 business schools all over the world.

Before attending, I could not really figure out what the conference would be like, despite asking around to former participants. The most common replies I heard were along the lines of: “It’s a life-changing experience.” Or, “It’s hard to describe, but you have to be there.” These responses weren’t really all that helpful, but what I did know was the bare facts: the Summit consisted of four days of student-led sessions, company presentations, excursions in the host city, some recruiting, and some fun. The details were fuzzy, which piqued my curiosity.

Now that I’ve actually been to the Summit, and had a little time to process my experiences, I can more clearly see five key takeaways:

1.    When you share of yourself, you build bridges. At conferences and networking events, it can be so difficult to open up. There are so many people to meet, so many names and facts to remember, and so little time to get to know people as individuals. At the Summit, I didn’t get to meet everyone, and I had to ask people’s names more than once (sometimes more than twice). Yet the trend I noticed among everyone I observed and spoke with was an eagerness to share something deeper than their names and schools – they wanted to create bonds. We all realized we could remind each other of our names over and over again, and we could laugh about our own forgetfulness. But I would not forget watching one of my peers interrupt herself in order to show us her best dance moves, or discussing global politics late at night with my roommate, or watching one of the Summit alumni share an extremely personal story on stage and see every single person in the audience tear up and relate to his story. Sharing something personal goes beyond remembering what each person did before the MBA, or what school they come from – it’s about creating the foundation for life-long connections and friendships.

2.    Impostor syndrome is a real thing. It is real, because we allow ourselves to believe it is real. What I learned from being accepted and from the whole conference is that impostor syndrome can only hold you back if you let it. I have often dealt with feeling like I am not reaching my own potential, and that I am surrounded by others who are – they are more successful, more put together, smarter, funnier, etc. By the end of the Summit, though, I felt not only a sense of belonging, but also one of peace with where I am in my life at this moment: I am a recent MBA graduate, in the intense throngs of job searching, and trying to find stability in a sea of unknowns. But I am not alone there, and everyone I met at the Summit seemed to validate my fears and anxieties, as well as my passions and strengths. It’s harder to feel like an imposter when everyone else demonstrates their own belief in your realness.

3.    When you communicate your passions, you allow people to see your authentic self and to become a part of your story. This might seem obvious to some, and it is even obvious to me. But practicing what you preach is often the hard part. For me, my career passions are in organizational behavior ("OB") and development – it’s not a typical path for most MBA students. When people ask me what kind of roles I’m looking for, I always start with telling them about my fascination with organizational behavior, but often I feel the need to temper my answers: “but I’m also open to roles in business development and marketing” or “I’d love to work in organizational behavior, but I’m open to doing something like brand management until I can make a lateral transition in a company.” When I arrived at the Summit, and started to answer the question of post-MBA roles, I didn’t even make it to the qualifiers before I started hearing, “That’s so cool! Tell me more!” and get excited about topics like employee engagement, internal communications, or change management. Conversation started flowing about the parallels between employee and consumer psychology and approaches to branding. The more conversations I had where I stuck with OB as my answer, the better I felt about my path, and the better I felt about the authentic connections I was forging with my fellow Summit-ers. In the future, I feel more confident about discussing the things love and am passionate about without trying to temper my answers to appeal to a greater audience.

4.    Apply, even if you are not sure you will get it. I am not ashamed to say that I am afraid of rejection, and I know that I am not alone. For some, the fear is stronger than for others, sometimes to the extent that this fear stops us from even trying to go after the things that we want. One of the reasons that I initially hesitated to apply to the MBA World Summit was because I felt that compared to some of my IESE peers, I had little chance of being chosen. I did my MBA at Tel Aviv University Coller School of Management, an amazing university, but not internationally ranked, nor as recognized in Europe and North America. I was dreading the disappointment of hearing I didn’t get in. Still, in the few days before the final deadline, I swallowed my fears and submitted my application. I knew it was a long shot, but a few short weeks after passing through to the qualifying round with 649 other students, I finally found out that I was chosen as one of the final 100. Rejection is scary, but isn’t the thought of never taking that risk scarier?

5.    Surround yourself with good people, and you can become a better person. It’s amazing how clichés are based in truths, and this one isn’t any different. The people make the party, and at the Summit, the attendees, the founders, the crew, and the company representatives all contribute to how amazing the experience is. With more than 100 curious, innovative, generous, kind people around you, you’d have to actively try to remain apathetic, boring, and rude. Those kinds of good qualities are infectious, and made me more energetic, creative, and stimulating. At the Summit, I found myself inspired every moment by the people around me, from the behind-the-scenes efforts by all the crew members who made the events run so seamlessly – and did so with the biggest and most genuine smiles – to the company reps, who seemed just as eager to hear our perspectives on how they could improve their businesses, to the individual attendees, who came up with new business ideas on the fly in almost every conversation. I left the Summit with the knowledge that I wanted to be like these people when I grow up, but also with the knowledge that other people were thinking the same thing about me, because we all fed off each other’s energies to create this giant pool of excitement, curiosity, and creativity that kept us all wanting more. The moral is this: when the people around you inspire you to greatness, you can become great, and in doing so, inspire others to be great, as well.

My experience at the MBA World Summit is not unique. I’ve spoken with so many of this year’s and past years’ participants, and we all share similar tales of self-affirmation, wonder, and awe at what the Summit encourages us to find in ourselves. And what better way to build a community of leaders, global citizens, and influencers in our own communities?