My Story: From Tanzania To The Olympics & Stanford GSB

How did the Stanford interview go this time? Did you do anything differently?

So for the Stanford interview, I was supposed to fly to Uganda or Kenya for the interview but couldn’t do it, so I had to do a call. And on my call I remember there was no electricity and I’m sitting in the dark in my house in Tanzania on this phone call getting interviewed, and again it was just like a conversation, I felt at peace when I was on the phone. But I remember sitting in the dark in my house thinking, I hope my battery doesn’t die. No electricity because we have power fluctuations …

Got done with the call, and on December 10, 2014, got back from work, just about to have dinner, see my phone ringing and it’s a 650 number. “Hi, this is (former dean of admissions) Derrick Bolton calling from Stanford Admissions, is this Benjamin Fernandes? Is now a good time? First of all I’d like to congratulate you on acceptance to Stanford Graduate School of Business” — and I had no words. I was lost. And then the call drops!

I told my dad, and his first question was, “So did you get the fellowship?” I said, “I don’t know yet but I got in!” And my dad says, “Well you can’t go if you didn’t get the fellowship!” (Laughs) And Derrick calls about 20 minutes later: “Oh by the way you’re an African MBA fellow, full tuition funding,” and that’s when I lost it, I was all in tears, my mom and dad and I were in tears and that right there was a very powerful moment that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.

Why was Stanford so much more appealing to you than Harvard? 

Because of the essay question. I remember when I was doing the essays, the HBS question, I never felt it made me reflect on my life as much. “Tell us something about you we might not see,” or something along those lines. But the GSB question was, “What matters most to you and why?” And that’s a very thought-provoking question. You really have to self-reflect and think about your values, think about why you’re here, what it means to you to be where you are, what you want to do with your life. It’s a very powerful question to ask.

When I was thinking about it, it got me excited about Stanford as a school. In Africa, to be honest, Harvard has a huge name. Harvard’s name brand surpasses any other school name brand on the continent. Not many people know what Stanford is. Even my boss, when I asked him for a recommendation, he said, “Is this a good school? Why don’t you apply to Washington University?” I’m not bashing Washington University, but the point is, the name brand for Stanford is not nearly as much as Harvard’s.

So I write this essay and I talk about the values in my life, I talk about my faith, which is an important part of me — I’m a Christian and a firm believer in Jesus Christ — and I talked about my love for Tanzania, and I talked about my education. I tied them all together, why those are important to me, what instances in my life brought those out the most. With education it was being sponsored, my love for Tanzania was being around my people and being able to see the conditions we grew up with and wanting to fight for my people and be a voice for them, and with my faith it was the fundamental integrity of how I look at life, being in a country with a lot of corruption in government and business and seeing that firsthand, and wanting to change that because I love my country so much.

How hard was it to leave Tanzania again?

I had started to create this public brand in Tanzania, and I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving until about a month before I left. Leaving was hard. The television industry gave me this brand and image that I never knew I would have, and all of a sudden you become a role model for young people looking up to you, and it really made me be careful with the things I would say or do, the places I would go, who I would surround myself with. The responsibility just tripled being in television. Coming to GSB, I remember walking right here for the first time, September 4, 2015, I stood right here and I was just in tears in the middle of Town Square. I was in tears because I was thinking about every single step it took, from growing up in this tiny, tiny house — not even a house, more like a one-bedroom apartment with my whole family, to getting sponsored to go to school K through 12 by this British family which allowed me to open up to more directions, and going to the United States for school for the first time and then moving back home and working in the TV industry — all these little things, all these little conversations, the professor who encouraged me to apply to business school. To be standing right here at the number-one business school in the world, I couldn’t fathom it. It was never in my wildest dreams. I could have never imagined myself being here.

I stood here and a few classmates came up and hugged me. I actually sat at this table, the first table I sat at. And the GSB has been the most transformational two years of my life.

Describe that transformational experience. What has it been like? 

I love my classmates. They’re my favorite part of the school here. You’re around some very supportive people. Everybody here is smart, but nobody uses that as a way to distance themselves from you. The beautiful thing I love about here is, everybody is looking to learn. I remember first year, when you’re taking foundational courses, there were people I looked up to like geniuses, brilliant people, and they would come up to me and say, “Hey Benji, I’m struggling in this class, can you help me with this?” I’m like, “You’re asking me?” For me, that was so powerful. It creates this environment of learning where there’s so much energetic, stimulated brilliance here, people want to learn from each other. Somebody can even be well-versed in a certain topic but still be wiling to learn from someone conversationally. That’s the thing that I really love about this place.

Honestly, I said people are smart — I don’t think the issue is that they’re smart. I think it’s about the relational aspect of the school. I know every single one of my classmates. Every single classmate, I know. It’s the environment that the school brings you in that allows you to get to know your classmates. And some of the most supportive people I’ve ever met in my life are right here. It’s been a family away from home. On my birthday, classmates threw me a surprise party and about 150 people showed up. Out of 400 people, 150 showed up! And my birthday is in November, so it was just two months into school!

Another incident I’ll remember for the rest of my life: My grandmother was sick and I let a few classmates know and within a few hours they had raised about $1,500 to buy a ticket to send my sister home. It was things like that. Within just a few hours, I told just a couple people, and then everybody came together and said, “Here, send your sister home.”

The opportunities and access I’ve had here have been amazing. The professors have been so supportive. I read a book by Ben Horowitz, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building A Business When There Are No Easy Answers,” and almost every single person he mentions in the book spoke to us here: Marc Andreesen, Tristan Walker, Andy Rachleff is a professor here. All these people in this book, one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life, are people I have access to just like that. And I take it for granted — I take it as a casual thing. And it should never be a casual thing.

I didn’t always feel this way, but I remember the first time I saw Condoleeza Rice walking on campus, I said, “Wow, Condoleeza Rice!” And everyone was like, “Yeah, we have a class with her coming up.” And then I’m there and she stands up and introduces herself and I’m thinking, “This person I watched on television as a little boy is standing right in front of me.” It’s access to people like that. At this point I’m not even surprised who I’m going to see in the classroom when I walk into class. It’s something that I try not to get used to, but I always think back to being very privileged to be here and very grateful for having the opportunity to be here.

Here we learn from the CEO directly, not just someone the company sent. That to me is crazy. I think I’ve met six or seven countries’ presidents since coming here.

A concern I have for going back into the real world is that this is a very special place. It’s a unique place, probably the most diverse group I’ll ever be around, and it’s a place where you have access to a lot of different things. And you go from being a student to just another employee in a company, and I can see why so many people switch jobs within a year or two out of business school. It makes sense. This place creates a culture of “Do well, have an impact in the world.” I was talking on Facebook to alums who just graduated, and I said, “I can’t believe I only have one quarter left here.” And one of the alums said, “I would do anything for one more quarter.”

So what is next after you graduate June 17?

I’ve been working on a fintech startup. Financial inclusion is a huge passion of mine; I believe in allowing people to access financial services, and I believe that’s especially important in a country like mine which is growing very fast, with a very youthful population. Today I’m the youngest guy in my class at GSB, 24 years old, and today I’m older than 70% of my country’s population. Sixty-six percent of 53 million people in my country are under the age of 24 — it’s a very youthful country. So I believe the next four or five years is going to be a transformational period for my country, especially in the workplace, especially in business and industry. This is an important, vital period that we’re going to come into very soon, and who’s going to be leading them for it? Most politicians are age 55-60, so I believe there is an opportunity for the young people, and that’s what I care about.

On social media, most of my following are young people, so I keep in touch with young people. When I go home and do shows, most of the people watching are young people. And what I’m committed to is going back and building a financial institution where people can have access to funding. Basically what I’m building is a modern digital bank. I want to build East Africa or sub-Saharan Africa’s largest digital bank. That’s my goal. Start in Tanzania, then scale it up to Kenya, Uganda, and so on.

But I’m graduating in June, and I always wanted to go to public policy school. Why? I want to get into government. I have thought about going into politics — about seven to nine years after graduation I expect to be in government. The two schools I’m picking between right now are Harvard Kennedy School and Oxford Blavatnik School of Government. I’ve been accepted to both. Here’s a huge teaser: I’m leaning toward Oxford. First, it’s Parliament versus Congress. Tanzania was a British colony, so it makes more sense to study parliamentary systems. Two, Oxford has the Africa Initiative for Governance, that’s prime stuff for what I what I want to do.

You say you want to get into government. How do you feel about the current government of Tanzania?

I’m supportive of (Tanzania President John) Magufuli, I think he’s done a great job in tackling corruption. That’s a huge issue in Tanzania and he’s doing a really good job with that. I think he has opportunities to grow the economy, especially in businesses or encouraging foreign investment, so I think there’s an opportunity there that could be worked on. I know the recent taxes that he’s implemented have hurt the economy in the short term, but it’s going to help us in the long run. People weren’t paying taxes before and now they are paying taxes. People are frustrated but it’s good because we need that money to invest in the government infrastructure that’s fundamental to growing our country. Today, my parents are pastors and they are good friends with President Magufuli.

Faith is the most important part of me, so I do want to be a pastor at some point in my career, especially with young people. The most important thing to me in my life is faith. I pray every day and I read my Bible every day, and I think that’s what has helped me in my career the most, by far. So I know my calling is there as well, and I can’t leave that behind, and I want to be a minister of the church.

DON’T MISS MY STORY: FROM A-LIST ACTRESS TO OLIN MBA and MY STORY: FAITH, LAUGHS, AND MOTIVATION AT STANFORD AND BEYOND