EMBA Survival

One more picture after Year One

Here's a "reunion" picture of the original team of five ("Team 8") that I was part of during the first semester for group assignments.  So, here we are celebrating the end of classes for year one.  If we look very happy but not quite absolutely elated it is because final exams are yet to come.  I'm studying for them now.  Here's a older pic of the same group of five after we completed semester 1 classes: team 8

Last Class of Year 1 Over

Here are a few pics from the celebrations!

USA Today Article about Olin '98 MBA class

One of the managers at work pointed this out to me today:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-05-07-mba-grads-olin_N.htm

Overall, it paints a favorable picture of MBA grads

Why should I invest in Index Funds?

This weekend, hopefully, our Finance professor will tell us what's wrong with investing in Mutual Funds and why we should invest in Index Funds.  Why would we settle for market returns if we can safely beat the market?

Above, from Morningstar, you can see the first 50 actively managed mutual funds that have beat the S&P 500 over the last 15 years, as well as the last 10 years, as well as the last 5 years, and 3 years, and 12 months, and even over the past 3 months, and that also have a Beta <= 1!  This is a very tough requirement, but as you can see, there are 219 funds that have done that well.

Electives - my preferences

We got a preview of next year's electives this weekend.  I'm not sure which ones will be available yet, but what follows is a preliminary list and my current preferential ranking:

                                                                                                                                                                       

841 Economic Environment of   Business	Core
901 Financial Statement Analysis	Accounting	8
957 International Finance	Finance	7
961   Business Law	IT & Entrep	6
823 Management Control	Accounting	3
Fall - ILW
865 Globalization of Business	Core
792 Investments / Portfolio   Management	Finance	7
884   Brand Management	Marketing	4
954 Financial Restructuring	Finance	2
974 Ops Mgmt -- Lean Six Sigma	IT & Entrep	6
International trip
985 Global Leadership	OB
927   Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship	Napier	Core
808 Marketing Strategy	Marketing	2
952 Mergers &   Acquisitions	Finance	1
Economic Incentives and   Organizations	Accounting	4
*** Confirmation Pending

If there's something that I really want to take and I can't get in, I can always audit it for only $100 after I graduate :-)

Speed Reading

My classmate, Rob Jefferies, sent this out...

 I had a few inquiries last weekend on what tools I have used to increase my reading speed.  The following are two books that I would recommend. I have used the first book personally and a close friend of mine has used the second one.  If you were to spend 20-30 minutes every other day during our summer break you could possibly double your reading speed.  I've seen about a doubling in my speed.   Speed reading really helps in lighter reading like IT, ethics, and marketing texts but it will not be huge help in Finance etc.  I can't recommend doing this enough it has really helped me out.

Breakthrough Rapid Reading  by Peter Kump (Paperback - Nov 1, 1998)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBreakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump%2Fdp%2F073520019X%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1187920273%26sr%3D8-1&tag=wwwrobjefferi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

Triple Your Reading Speed, Fourth Edition by Wade E. Cutler (Mass Market Paperback - Jul 2003)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTriple-Your-Reading-Speed-Fourth%2Fdp%2F0743475763%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1187920273%26sr%3D8-2&tag=wwwrobjefferi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

 

Making a little time for myself

Yesterday, I went to the gym and worked out with my personal trainer for the first time in weeks.  I'm pretty soar.  I'm so glad I did it - I feel much happier and better about myself.  I didn't at all feel like I had time to go to the gym; I feel behind on everything for school and even work.  But it's times like these when I'm totally underwater that I need to focus on my basic needs.  Somehow I'll get everything else done.  First things first - I need to take care of myself.

During the week-long intensive pre-term bootcamp, Prof. Al Napier suggested that we all maintain whatever exercise regimen we were currently maintaining.  I thought - that's not possible: at the time I was spending 4.5 hours/week in the gym.

Dropping to zero was not my plan.  I'll be happy if I can get back to 2 hours/week.  It doesn't seem like much, but it's so important.

I hadn't seen Al since the bootcamp back in July until last weekend.  He teaches Entrepreneurship to second year students.  But I ran into him on my flight back to San Antonio.  I think running into him nudged me into remembering his advice and helped get me back on track a little.

How to answer a simple yes or no question

There are basically 5 appropriate responses:
"Yes, you are correct."
"No, you are not correct."
"It depends..."
"I'm sorry, I can't answer that question."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand your question."

Here's how not to answer a yes or no question:
"Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla."

If I ask you a binary question, please don't answer me with a paragraph.

Team 8 was Great

Last semester, I was fortunate to be on a great team with some fantastic people.  We were team #8: Seema, Faycel, Thomas, Bob, and myself.  These folks are very smart, motivated, nice, and fun to work with.  We accomplished a lot, worked well together, and laughed a lot.

A notable achievement was our victory at the Ice Cream Game, where our team sold more of the virtual product that we made than any other team:

That's us at the top :)

Here we all are at the end of the semester smoking victory cigars:

I miss working with them, but I don't miss them because we're all good friends now and will definitely keep in touch.

mail at school

It used to be that opening your mailbox was a fun part of the day.  Sure, there might be bills or unwanted coupons and such, but there was always the chance of receiving a nice surprise.

Opening your mailbox at school will evoke a completely different kind of anticipation.  Might you receive a surprise?  You bet ;-)