What Will You Do With Your One Wild & Precious Life? Harvard MBAs Answer

Harvard MBA Derrick Leung recalls family road trips that guided his career decision (Photo courtesy of Tony Deifell)

Harvard MBA Derrick Leung recalls family road trips that guided his career decision (Photo courtesy of Tony Deifell)

WASHING AWAY HER OWN MANDALAS

“In that moment, I recalled a time when I had lost several large paintings that had taken me months to complete. I had cried for days afterwards, overwhelmed by the loss. But right then, as I watched the monks let go, I knew that I had a lesson to learn. The monks created for no other purpose than pure enjoyment; I created for the sake of possessing the finished piece.”

The lesson for her was an understanding that her focus on results prevented her from fully enjoying an experience for its own sake. “I had been robbing myself of the joy of being fully immersed in the present moment – a moment in which I should have been feeling and being, not just thinking and doing,” she says. “With my one wild and precious life, I will wash away my own mandalas. I will let go. I will let go to live.”

Some of the students unearth early experiences that have shaped their own career trajectories. Derrick Leung, who had been a private equity analyst at Goldman Sachs before attending Harvard, recalls family road trips at the age of eight when he gazed out the window of a fast-moving car to glimpse the beautiful and ugly parts of life.

CAREER GOALS SET FROM A CHILDHOOD MEMORY 

“I saw more than sun, trees, sky and stars,” writes Leung. “I saw the graceful arch under a steel bridge, the colorful faces of stoplights, and the lumbering stick figures of transmission towers… But what I see is far from an image of good health.  The skeletal remains of our nation’s infrastructure show us the price we pay when we underinvest in such basic services.”

Those images firmly established Leung’s eventual career goals.  “I will strive to dress a fuller figure around the frail frame of our nation’s infrastructure as an investor, as a builder, and as a thinker,” he says. “I will be a driver in this industry, never forgetting the sights I saw as a young boy sitting in the passenger seat next to my father.”

How many of the HBS graduates fulfill their own expectations set in the essays? Deifell isn’t sure. “We have asked people to write follow-ons at the five-year mark and there are people who have done different things,” he says. “A lot of students will feel embarrassed that they didn’t do exactly what they said they would do in their essays. HBS students set goals and they want to hold themselves responsible and accountable to them. But when you put a stake in the ground, the spirit of that will be manifest in whatever you do. It’s okay to change course. If you don’t change your path a little bit, I would be concerned.”

DON’T MISS: DREAMS AND WISHES OF THE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CLASS OF 2011 or WHEN HARVARD MBAS TURN INTROSPECTIVE: THE CLASS OF 2012

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