Sometimes It's All Worth It

There are some days when everything your doing seems worth it. When you feel like you're able to reach out and touch someones life for the better. A couple of days ago I had one of those days.

In my role as marketing coordinator for the MBA program at Western I have the privilege of coaching folks who are interested in an MBA in the right direction. I try to help them find out if Westerns MBA program is the right fit for them. The process isn't always easy for them, or for me. It's a process of discovery and like all such endeavors it can be painful.

A wonderful young student came to my office in response to a presentation I gave in his class earlier in the week. He was interested in an MBA and wanted to know his chances of getting into the program.

After talking a little while it became clear that he was interested in an MBA for all the wrong reasons, noble reasons, but wrong nonetheless. He really wanted to be a basketball coach not an MBA.

We talked through the idea that if he was ever going to be able to take an entry-level, sleep on the floor, work-for-next-to-nothing coaching job, now was it. Once he got a family and a mortgage it would be impossible to take a work-for-peanuts job just for the love and education.

The time to take a chance is when you're young and can afford to do something that you love, just for the experience, even if you have to do it for free. If you don't you'll always wonder whether you could have made it. If you give it your best shot, regardless of how it turns out, you won't have any regrets, and no regrets makes for serenity in the quiet of the night.

I don't know how it will work out for him but when he left my office it seemed that he had let go of a burden. That he felt free to pursue a real dream, a real passion, a real future. An MBA isn't for everyone. Being great is more about having passion than a secret formula or a fancy degree. I hope he tries on his passion for size...if he does I think he might find the serenity so many are searching for.