Unlocking Success: 5 essential tips for MBA aspiring students

"...you have to leave the island in order to see the island, that we can't see ourselves unless we become free of ourselves. Unless we escape from ourselves you mean. No, that's not the same thing."

This summer I finished my MBA. Two years ago, on this very day, I was embarking on this life-changing experience. Let me rephrase it: two years ago, on this very day, I was embarking on, what I know now that I left the island, a life-changing experience.

As I finish this experience and find myself in this time of self-reflection, I asked myself “how could I give back some of what I have learnt?” and I thought about writing on how marketing and entrepreneurship classes taught me to think about our value proposition and choosing the right profiles of potential customers. Or on how the accounting and finance classes enabled me to build financial models and make me more aware and accountable for my own P&L. Or how the leadership and human factor were fundamental to me, and there are still cases that comes to my mind on my everyday life, even after two years. But then I thought that the best I could give is advocating for embarking in a experience like this. If you are thinking about enrolling an MBA, here are 5 tips that I consider important before enrolling or starting an executive MBA:

1. Take some time to evaluate where you are and where you want to be.

An MBA is not a panacea for a successful career pivoting, but it is, surely, an ongoing process of radical transformation. Yes, you read it right: radical and transformation. That’s what it has been to me: a personal and professional transformation. Evaluate if the MBA would help you to bridge that gap that will take you from A to B.

2. Choose your business school carefully.

This might mean that one year prior to your enrollment for a business school you would go to open houses, attend to short programs and short courses. Doing an MBA is one of those cases that your growth will intrinsically depend on the others around you. And this includes colleagues, tutors, professors, and everyone around you. So, think a little bit about those you are going to be with along the next 2 years: are the profiles similar to yours or radically different? Are people older or a lot younger than you? Do they have more or less professional experience than you? These were some of the questions that I echoed my mind back then and that, somehow guided my choice.

3. Commitment, support, and balance.

From the very beginning I knew that an MBA would require a lot of commitment. Most of the time, it required me 30 to 40 hours per week of dedication. But hey, that includes all the classes, and events and all those extra activities. And we had a lot of social activities within our group. But you need to have people on your back: and that includes your family and friends, your co-workers and of course your MBA colleagues. Most of the times we lean on each other’s during these two years. For instance, in our small group, we had weekly remote calls to debate the cases and every trimester, 3 weeks before examination periods we shut ourselves behind doors to dig deeper in those subjects we were studying. It was immense amount of work, but I keep those moments dearest to my heart. That’s why balance is another big focus during an MBA. You will need a lot of time for studying and attend classes but don’t forget to take time to give attention to your family, friends and your team at work.

4. Be relentless on time control.

Part of doing an MBA is already something that you would have a lot to digest. You will cover a lot of different subjects: from marketing to entrepreneurship; from accounting and finance to economics; from operations to sustainability and from leadership to team management. But you also develop your ability to delegate and multitask on all dimensions of your life. You need to excel at multitasking and be relentless on time control. What has worked for me? I set up daily and weekly alarms on my mobile to get myself going and keep me motivated. Most of them had some funny wording, for the sake of fun. Alarms like: “It’s Saturday! Time to get out of bed and attend classes. Yeah!” or whenever I needed a reminder that I need to pay attention to my family: “You’re a dedicated and loved husband and dad.”. Having that popping out on my phone made a visual reminder of what I should prioritize.

5. Make it a family decision.

Since I got married and had kids every professional decision has became a family decision. And since you are going to put a lot of financial and time effort on this, make sure that everyone is on board and know what this really means. And, of course, it would be a lot demanding than what you’ve previously imagined, but at least you have talked about it and know what would that mean. Be prepared to make concessions and to know that, sometimes, in the middle of a case or of a NPV calculation you might have to change some diapers. But, of course, nothing of this would have been possible if I hadn’t the total support of my wife who were there for me and for the girls and for the both of us. If this is important to you as it were for me, choose a business school that considers family time in their schedules.

"be man and women of one piece. To wholeheartedly dedicate ourselves to a world and humanity that hold significance for us. Diligence is our daily commitment. Through repetition, we cultivate habits and strive for excellence."

I should end as I started, you need to leave the island to see the island. As two years have gone by, I know now that, as a leader, we need to be “man and women of one piece. To wholeheartedly dedicate ourselves to a world and humanity that hold significance for us. Diligence is our daily commitment. Through repetition, we cultivate habits and strive for excellence.” As Fatima Carioca once said in her opening remarks in our closing ceremony.

If you're thinking on embarking in this experience, consider these tips, it has worked for me :). And enjoy the ride. It's a hell of a journey.

Luís.