EMBA Survival

Coping with stress

It's important to have various tools in your toolbox for coping with stress, especially non-destructive ones.  For example, the stress release I employed on Friday isn't something you can do all the time, obviously.  Saturday was my designated day to knock out my first individual paper for grad school.  (Our first team paper was due on the 1st day of class!)  It's an industry structure analysis for Strategy and it's worth 20% of my grade.  I was totally stressing out about it today.  I don't like that the first academic paper that I have to write for grad school is worth 20% of my grade.   My professor is whip sharp, has an MBA from Wharton and was a managing director at JP Morgan.  So I know she'll be savvy vis-à-vis the industry I work in.  But perhaps there is a lesson here.  Strategy is a high stakes game, so why shouldn't a strategy paper be worth a lot?  So...I poured myself a nice hot cup of Tension Tamer and got the paper knocked out.  It took me all day, and I'm not satisfied with it, but at least it's done.  One of the most natural (and dangerous) responses to stress is procrastination.  Do whatever it takes, but don't do that, it just makes things worse.

Gin Tummy & the 3 Martini Lunch

  I spent the first 3 weekends in a row for the Rice EMBA.  There's a big difference between traveling every other weekend and traveling every weekend.  Let me do the math for you: yesterday marked the 25th consecutive 12+ hour day in a row for me of combined work/study.  I needed a break. So, I took a half-day from work and indulged in lunch with a former colleague and fashion consultant, Bonnie, at the Emily Morgan Hotel's Restaurant.  She soars above most of the buildings in down-town San Antonio, near the Alamo.  In the top picture to the left, you can see my view of her from my loft.  The 2nd shot to the right is zoomed in.  Emily is the towering building with the flag pole up top.   The hotel is only a few blocks from home, so I parked in my usual spot and walked over.  It was a beautiful day today, and you can see how attractive the Emily Morgan is from the distance as I walked towards her on Houston St in the 3rd photo.  In the 4th photo on the right, you can really start to see the details on Emily.  It's really too bad no one builds buildings like her anymore.  The style is Gothic Revival, and she opened in 1926.  Even though you may not know it, I'm sure you have heard of this hotel, because there is a famous song about the woman the hotel was named after, The yellow rose of Texas.  I feel so fortunate to live in an area with such rich history.  The Emily wasn't always a Hotel - the building used to be a Hospital, and it is considered to be very haunted for a couple of reasons:   the basement used to be the morgue and it is located immediately across the street from the Alamo, where 2000 people died in a bloody siege.  People have reported cold spots, apparitions, strange noises, and odd electrical phenomena.  Nothing really creepy happened to me (unfortunately) while I was there, but I thought I saw a glimpse of something strange in one of the mirrors over the bar.  The power of suggestion?  Supposedly the most "active" rooms were the former operating rooms, the basement, and room 811.  I suggest clicking on the image to the left and taking a look at the faces carved in the side of the hotel, as well as the gargoyles - they must contribute to the building's haunted legendary.  They are beautiful in an eerie almost macabre way.   Now how do you convince people to come to a haunted hotel?  Cheap liquor.  Which brings me to the point of this post.  Alcohol, and lots of it, is precisely what I wanted after 25 straight long days of labor.  And every Friday, the Oro Restaurant and Bar at the Emily has 50 cent martinis.  Yes, real full-sized martinis, not made with substitute, but with real Grey Goose Vodka or real Bombay Saphire Gin.  As an MBA student, what could be a more appropriate break from school than a 3 martini lunch?  Check out the wikipedia writeup of the 3 martini lunch.  I really dig the quote by Gerald Ford; it's a shame he lost the election to Jimmy Carter.  Anyway, I knew my guest wouldn't be able to stomach 3 whole martinis, so I arrived early so I could get a head start.  I began with the classic gin version.  Shaken not stirred?  Please.  Of course.  By the time my guest arrived I was feeling fine, and relayed the appropriate quote, "One martini is all right. Two are too many, and three are not enough." - James Thurber.  For my 2nd martini, I was feeling adventuresome.  I generally don't order a non-classic martini, but I figured since I was planning to drink so many of them why not.  Options include, Yellow Rose, Cosmopolitan, Platinum, Saphire, Dirty, and the Brinitini.  I honestly don't recall which ones we ordered for my second round, but I got some nice pictures of it. Bonnie was telling me that one of her girlfriends asked her to lunch today. She had to decline because she already had plans with me.  She said the conversation went something like this (it helps to know that Bonnie is married): Girlfriend: "What? where are you going for lunch?" Bonnie: "Out with Philip."  Girlfriend, "Oh, just reschedule with him and go with me instead."  Bonnie: "No, I can't, we are having 50 cent martinis."  Girlfriend: "What??  OMG, where are you going with him?  A strip club??"  Bonnie: "No, no, gosh!  No, we are meeting downtown at a hotel."  Girlfriend, after a long pause, "...oookay then..."  Bonnie: "oh! that didn't come out right, let me explain..." Girlfriend, "no, no, I really don't want to know..."  I got a good laugh out of that.  For the 3rd round of martinis, I returned to the classic.  As you can see from the pic, the staff cuts you off from stemware after 2 drinks.  Fortunately, they don't cut you off from gin.  While I've never had a 3 martini lunch before today, I have experienced the sensation before, so to speak, while scuba diving.  You may have heard about the martini effect that divers encounter.  Fun, but not as fun as the real thing.  But now I must return to studying.  I have loads to read and a paper to write before next Friday.  I'm so glad I took a half a day off and had a decadent lunch today.  It's important to celebrate milestones and wins.  If you decide to embark on an EMBA, you won't get many days off.  But if you are creative, you can make a couple of hours feel like an entire weekend of relaxation.

Before you get in - do this

Take a speed reading course.  I really wish I would have done that.  I'm by no means a slow reader, but given the incredible volume of material before me, I really wish I could go faster.  I wish I could recommend a course.  After a quick Google search, the marketing materials for this one look good.

more survival tips

First of all, find a cool place to study.  If you have 5 chapters of Financial Accounting to plow through, it just might help if you go somewhere trendy and social to do it.  You'll feel less like a geek.  Also, the right place will keep your tummy happy and your veins supplied with adequate caffeine.  My venue today is Ruta Maya.  Unlike Starbucks, they have free wireless broadband.  Secondly, I recommend going to an MBA program that provides good student support.  Pictured at Ruta May is the brand new HP compaq nc8430 and the swankily branded messenger bag provided as part of Rice's tuition.  Not all schools provide laptops, but probably all of them require them.  Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to having your school provide your hardware/software, but for me the advantages greatly outweigh the deltas.  Those of you that know I have 11 years of IT experience and a degree in Computer Science may be a little surprised to hear me say this.  The thing is, if anything happens with the laptop, Rice will take care of it.  I'm in school to get an MBA, not to be my very own personal IT support person.

Begin with the end in mind

Habit 2 of Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is "Begin with the end in mind." 

As such, I am picturing my graduation celebration clearly in my mind.   I'm wearing my favorite sports jacket that I got half price at Nordstrom.  You must always celebrate your victories.  While I may be a long way away from this win, I can already see it, smell it, and taste it.  The celebration gift that I've picked out for myself is a rare, expensive cigar.  Somehow that seems appropriate, doesn't it?  Can't you see a freshly minted 36 year old MBA puffing on a cigar, grinning from ear to ear with his gradation cap cocked to one side?  One day, that will be me.

One key to visualizing your way into success is to make the image in your mind as vivid as possible.   My future treat will be an Arturo Fuente Hemingway "Work of Art" Maduro, a somewhat rare variant of their "Short Story" line.  A single smoke retails for about $20.  It's a small cigar, lasting only about 25 minutes, making the experience about 80 cents a minute.

I've never smoked one, but here's what they say about it:

A beautifully crafted perfecto with a smooth, gorgeous dark wrapper, it actually looks like it is made out of dark rich Godiva chocolate. As with all Hemingways, the draw, burn, and ash are near, if not perfect.  In fact, it draws like a dream. The smoke is chewy and chalky, with sweet cream and vanilla highlights with a long, chewy finish.

Here's a picture of it, 5th from the left:
Also, here's the "story" behind the Short Story line of cigars:  (from this site)

My grandfather always made Cuban Perfecto Cigars. Perfecto cigars were very, very, popular during the 1920's 30's and 40's. I remember when I was growing up in the factory, we made a lot of cigars that were Perfecto shaped. We made Perfectos by hand and as time went by there were less and less cigar makers rolling Perfectos, because these cigar makers were older, they retired, they passed away. It took a real master to make a true Cuban Perfecto cigar. The Perfectos my grandfather used to make were called Arturo Fuente Fancy Tales, Tales T-A-L-E-S. I think the last time they were made was back in the 1960's, or early 1970's and that was it. We stopped making Cuban Perfectos for many years.

Ever since I was a child I was always fascinated with that shape, the old world, and the really difficult art of the craft that the Cuban Perfecto cigar represents. So, when we first came here to the Dominican Republic in 1980, I thought we should start making those shapes again. But at that time nobody was making shaped cigars. I mean, it was a thing of the past, it was lost. There was no one making Perfecto shapes. But I wanted to really bring back the old world, just to keep the art, the tradition, the craft alive. I remember telling my father, dad, we should start making some of those shaped cigars again, the Fancy Tales. My father was the only one that knew how to make those shaped cigars because he had been taught by my grandfather. He told me on one of the trips back to Ybor City he was going to try to find some of the old molds, but he didn't know where they were. He was sure he had kept them around, but he didn't know where, It was important to find the original molds because no one could make those molds, the gentleman that had made them for us, passed away. He never shared the secret of making the perfecto molds, he didn't pass it on and as a matter of fact, nobody wanted to make those cigars. There was no demand for that cigar. It was something that was lost. That's why it was important that we find the original molds and as fate would have it, my father found them in our Ybor City factory. He then started practicing making the Cuban Perfecto shape. At first he just made a few for himself, working on the blend and so forth. After he was satisfied with the blend and the shape my father taught our master roller to make it, to make it for him. We used to make, maybe twenty cigars a day just for ourselves to smoke and enjoy. That first cigar is what is known today as the Hemingway Signature 6" x 47. The Signature was introduced in 1983 and that was the only shape available until around 1988 when we introduced the Classic and the Masterpiece. About that same time my father wanted to develop something totally different, unseen in cigars. So we started fooling around with a very short cigar, which was only for our own personal use. That cigar became the Short Story.

Today we make all these cigars and also a few very limited shapes such as the Work of Art, Best Seller, Untold Story or the Between the lines as well as others. These cigars are extremely difficult to make so our production is very small. We accumulate the limited production of these cigars in the aging rooms and usually release them around the holidays, something special for our fellow cigar smokers to enjoy.

The Hemingway cigars have a very warm place in my heart and in my memories. It is very pleasing for me to remember watching these cigars being made by my grandfather, and to think that these cigars are now made in our factory in the Dominican Republic. That is very fulfilling. I hope that you enjoy the Hemingway cigars and what they mean to myself and our family.   Carlos Fuente Jr

Wish me well on my Journey.