Oh, Saturday!

Yesterday, thanks to the Thanksgiving weekend and no MBA classes, I took my road bike out for the first time in months. It was a glorious day, perfect for a long ride along the beaches. 

The  view along my biking route.

Of all the things people sacrifice for FEMBA, being stuck indoors all day, every Saturday, is the most painful. Especially for an outdoorsy person like myself who used to bike/hike/run outside on weekends. 

That's why I plan to make the most of the few class-free Saturdays we'll be getting between quarters. Ski trip, see you soon!

Defining Nothing

Last week:
Q: What are you doing over the Thanksgiving break?
Me: Absolutely nothing and really looking forward to it! I desperately need a lazy weekend to rest up.

Since yesterday:
Person A: You're coming to XYZ's place for the Thanksgiving dinner, right?
Me: Oh yes, I even promised to cook a traditional dish for the occasion.

Person B: We're on for long bike rides, yes?
Me: Absolutely. At least twice over the 4 days.

Person C: I'm hosting a movie night at my place, you in?
Me: Sure!

Girl friends: We totally need to shop on Black Friday.
Me: Of course! I have a long list of stores to visit and things to buy.

Mom: So are you still planning on turning out your closets and cleaning the house?

Me: Yea Ma, I can't push it out any further.

Atlas Shrugged/Under the Tuscan Sun/Liar's Poker: Dude, you gotta finish reading us.
Me: I fully intend to over the weekend!

Final exam: I'm right around the corner! Don't you need to study?
Me: Er, yes yes. I plan to catch up with stats over the break.

And that's how I'm doing "nothing" over the upcoming long weekend. I hope you guys do a better job of sticking to your original plans! Happy Thanksgiving!

All or nothing

Last week, from Sunday to Sunday I read 4 papers for OB, studied for and submitted 1 stats quiz, attended classes in LA, had a study group discussion for a case, finished a project at work, had brainstorming sessions for new projects and even wrote a couple of blog posts.

Additionally, I attended:
2 birthday parties (Clubbing downtown after a long day of classes? Sign me up!)
3 baby events (Naming ceremony, first meeting, baby shower)
1 movie (The Social Network)
3 boot camp workouts (SO painful but SO rewarding)
and an all day outing at Disneyland. (My first time ever and it was AWESOME! Especially because our classmates who were Disney employees or regulars knew all the best things to do in the right order and gave us the personal tour experience. Thanks guys!)

Till Sunday night, I was a bundle of energy.

Since Sunday night I have done:

Exactly nothing.

Work has been slow past couple days. I haven't worked out. I have a ton of regression to study, but I've simply been unable to get started with it. I even decided not to attend a friend's dinner tonight to catch up on studying and yet here I am writing this post instead. And if the past few days are any indication, I'm going to start yawning by 9pm. I don't know what's causing this inertia and lack of drive. My energy just seems to have fizzled out. Maybe I thrive on a busy schedule and if I pushed myself to attend events, I'd focus more on my studies because I'd be putting in concentrated effort? Or maybe I just did too much last week and now my brain and body are asking me to slow down?

Whatever the reason, I don't like this yo-yo-ing of my productivity levels, this all-or-nothing lifestyle. I think I'll just go run for a bit now and then attempt regression analysis again. Hopefully, I will be able to end the week on a better note.


p.s.: On second thought, I did write the first draft for the OB case and attend one boot camp and bake bread. Perhaps I'm just being too harsh on myself..? 

Who are you?

I started this blog for specific reasons. Not simply on a whim like so many things I do in life.

A) I love writing and love logging. So I figured I could combine both and maintain a detailed log a.k.a. blog of my life during FEMBA*.
B) I wanted to give mom/dad/sis a blow by blow account since my family is a  very curious bunch and I'm an impatient phone-chatter.
C) I wanted to escape the "what's up" type questions from friends. I imagined I'd get so busy with work and studies that I'd slowly fade away from the social networks (yeah, even I'm laughing right now). I wanted people to simply saunter over to my blog to see why exactly I couldn't make it to all their parties and events.
D) I want to be able to go back and relive FEMBA days many years down the line.
E) Lastly, I'm hoping the blog becomes useful in some way for people who are contemplating part-time MBA, especially the UCLA FEMBA.

So I found out that none of the people I actually started this blog for visit it often. My parents remember about the blog once a month and my sister flat out refuses to get updates from my blog when she can badger me on the phone instead. My close friends still insist on calling, texting or emailing. Fine, the objective failed but I feel very loved so I'll accept it.

Now then the big question is, who are you people who visit my blog?
You may have noticed the live-traffic tracker on the side. It shows when and from where people are visiting the site. When I installed it, I was skeptical about it working so I posted a link to the blog on Facebook just to check it out. The blog got around 170 unique visitors from Facebook that day. I only have around 500 friends on there, a quarter of whom are on limited profile settings, so that means about 40% of the friends who could see the link clicked through. I guess people were either very curious or very bored that day. :) After that day I didn't explicitly advertise the blog but I still seem to be getting regular visitors. Some of you have come up to me and told me how much you enjoy the blog (thank you very much, it means a lot!) but I have no idea who the rest of you are. I see that some people visit the site through Google search and other friends' blogs, but the majority of hits seem to come from Facebook. I'm a very curious person (family trait), so if you don't mind, could you please let me know who you are? I won't post your comment if you insist but it'll be nice to know. Or, if you want to make it more interesting, just give me a hint about  how (if) we know each other.

And with that, I'm off to tackle the performance review problem at Morgan Stanley. Yay for cryptic FEMBA talk. G'nite!


*FYI, I log my work projects in excruciating detail even though I'm the only one who sees it. I log my workouts, my dessert intake, social events, professional events, time wasted on the internet, etc. etc. As our stats prof would say - not obsessive compulsive at all.

Thoughts on Success

I watched The Social Network with a few friends today. There was some post-movie discussion about the authenticity of the storyline and individual perceptions of Facebook's use and abuse, but my thoughts kept going back to Zuckerberg's story. Idea -> implementation -> profit - > fame -> lawsuits. All before he's 26. Success!

When I was younger I thought success would mean having my picture on the front page of the daily newspaper. (For something commendable, not for robbing a bank or such.) Today, thanks to the internet, anybody and everybody can make it to the news for any ridiculous reason. Just hit refresh on CNN.com for proof. Andy Warhol recently updated his prediction about everyone being famous for 15 minutes in the future. He now says, "In 15 minutes, everybody will be famous." My point being, I no longer consider making it to the daily news prestigious or desirable or a yardstick to measure success.

When I mentioned the above to my friend, he nodded and said, "Sure, because news is cheap." He's right. But you know what's not cheap and way more enduring? Harvard Business School case studies. My new definition for professional success is now to become the subject of an HBS case study for efficiency/ innovation/ leadership/ best practices. Like Southwest Airlines or even Cirque du Soleil. To create a product, or service, or implement organizational practices that changes the way something is done for the better. And to get stinking rich in the process of course. Oh, and maybe even have a movie made about it? :P