Nightmares

By Chino -

There are many things to be afraid of,and for an MBA student, one of these fears is to be the lowest of the low in the batch, to be the outlier among outliers, to be the cream of the crap, and to fail when others have high probabilities to succeed.

We all probably have this fear. Despite our best efforts, we might not be getting the ideal results that we wanted to. Despite the best learning team composition, the smartest geniuses, the best team effort, the best school, the best mentors, sometimes some people just have greater propensities for failure.

A few weeks ago, I was worrying about my Language of Business (Accounting) and my Quantitative Analysis classes. Nowadays, LOB has been reduced to a sunk cost in some ways, and QA, while hope is still there, is seen as something salvageable. From these two subjects, new anxieties arise in the form of FM1 (Financial management 1) and in some ways MCP or our Management of Costs and Profits Class. Sounds similar to accounting? In some ways they are.

Comparing my performance to my batchmates is like comparing bananas to banana splits. Similar, but distant in some ways. Still, like anything, the most important point is, to not give up. I was always thinking about this idea in school that if not academically, we are all sort of in the bottom point and are failing by default. The only way left then for us is up. Like real managers, we exist to manage problems besides making many successes.

I was telling a friend to not worry about having nightmares and I end up dreaming of zombies overunning the place where I lived. (I lived in a building, with emergency stairs containing nothing but the garbage chute) At the Asian Institute of Management, we are all like zombies sometimes, trudging along, lacking sleep, looking scary whenever we do, and moving as a throng, when we crowd, it gets scary. Imagine if we eventually figured out to run and chase after our goals!

picture taken from the new Zombieland movie here.


Chino

Comments

Unknown said…
Don't worry too much. I'm sure you'll pull through. :)
November 19, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Chino said…
Yeah we will! We just had our first group session with our mentor who happens to be Prof. Ricky Lim. He had some good words to say. I'll post some details when I can organize my thoughts hehe. Good luck also with your endeavors!
November 20, 2009 at 1:01 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Admitted to the MBA Program

By -
Let backtrack a bit: How was I able to get admitted to the Asian Institute of Management (AIM)? The admission process is a relatively brief process, but rigorous nonetheless. The AIM Website outlines the procedure on how to apply and the requirements as well. However, I found some old content at the AIM site that might get some users confused. But in spite of that, my experience in applying was a very smooth and hassle-free one. I made sure that I had the following accomplished: Application Form - This can be downloaded online . The application form is very long and has 14 essay questions! It is better to answer the essay questions briefly and direct to the point. Official Transcripts - This is my undergraduate transcript from the University of the Philippines - Diliman . Academic Recommendation Letter - I had a former professor of mine from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business accomplish this one. Professional Recommendation Letter - I asked a former superior make a recommenda...
Read more

My Experience with the Embassy of India in Manila

By -
Image
Are you a Filipino going to India? Be warned. You may be in for a great deal of frustration. I've been spending the past week arranging my visa for my Action Consultancy (AC) in India. (The AC is equivalent to AIM's industry internship for its MBA students; I'll blog more about this in future posts). The frustration has really been mounting because of the very confusing and Byzantine system of the Indian embassy here in the Philippines. First point of frustration: the customer service. I initially called the embassy to clarify the requirements and procedures. The embassy has an automated answering system that has a selection where a caller can get an itemized list of requirements. That's all. No information of procedures, steps or guidelines. I selected the option to talk to a staff member and when I asked my query, she told me I'll find everything I need at the Indian Embassy website . If you look at the site, there are some information, but not the ones I'm lo...
Read more

Asian Institute of Management in India?

By -
I've been following the "new campus" moves of the Asian Institute of Management as of late and while I said my piece a while back, there was some development that reached the media last week. I've speculated that AIM's new campus may be outside of the Metro Manila. But how about a new campus outside of the Philippines? President Francis Estrada said in an interview with Business Standard : AIM is an Asian Institute and is not just for the Philippines. We are thinking of creating campuses beyond the capital Manila and are looking at proposals to establish presence in India. My take on this is that from a strategic point of view, it's pretty sound.The Indian graduate education student market is very huge and talented and AIM had seen a big growth of Indian students since the start of the 2000's. Here's a fact: For the MBA program, the Indian population in AIM has steadily grown and if you compare the 2001 class to our class, the Indian percentage o...
Read more