Cognitive Compass: How To Get The Most From Business School

In the age of exploration, the bravest moment wasn’t discovery: it was departure. It was that instant before setting sail, when conviction outweighed certainty. An MBA decision, in its own modern way, feels much the same.

There’s a peculiar silence that comes before a big decision. It is the kind that lingers beneath spreadsheets, essays, and the endless tabs of business school rankings. For many of us, deciding to pursue an MBA feels like standing at a crossroads lined with potential versions of ourselves. We weigh the costs and imagine the Return on investment. But somewhere between ambition and analysis lies the one variable that rarely fits into a model: intention.

When I began applying for the one-year MBA at London Business School, I thought I was making a practical decision – one that would expand my toolkit, my network, my horizon. But as the process deepened, I realised the real calculus wasn’t financial or strategic. It was philosophical. It was about asking myself: Why now? Why this path? What does this choice say about who I want to become?

BEFORE THE BEGINNING: INTENTION AS DIRECTION

A one-year MBA compresses transformation into time. There’s no luxury of drift; every week counts. That’s why entering with a clear intention, understanding why this program, what you hope to gain, and how you’ll position yourself to do so, is essential.

Intention doesn’t mean having every step planned. The unknown has its own beauty. Throughout history, explorers understood this instinctively. When Ferdinand Magellan left Spain to circle the globe, he didn’t know every current or coastline ahead. What he had was direction, a conviction strong enough to steady the crew through uncharted waters. Likewise, you don’t need a perfect map before your MBA begins. You just need your North Star.

And that North Star can take many forms. For some, it’s passion; for others, contribution. Andreessen Horowitz Co-Founder Ben Horowitz once told a graduating class at Columbia University that ‘success doesn’t always come from following what you love; sometimes, you learn to love what you do by following where you contribute most.’ It’s a useful reminder that while passions may shift, purpose compounds. Intention, then, sits somewhere between the two: where what excites you meets what you can build on, serve through, and grow from.

Before you set sail, ask yourself these questions:

• What personal growth do I expect this MBA to unlock, beyond short-term professional advancement?
• Have the mentors and role models I admire pursued similar paths, and what can I learn from their journeys?
• Does the school’s location support the kind of network I want to build and sustain long-term?
• Do the program’s strengths in areas like venture creation, finance, and consulting support the direction I hope to develop in?
• Am I seeking a career pivot, geographic change or a period of intentional exploration?
• What strengths do I already possess, and how can this MBA help me amplify and apply them?
• What pursuits genuinely excite me and motivate my future direction?

These questions are your navigation charts. They turn the MBA from a general voyage into a personal expedition. Without that clarity, even the best program can feel like motion without direction.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION BEHIND THE DECISION

Intention also demands preparation. Before you arrive, learn the terrain you’ll traverse. Research the electives that align with your goals. Discover which professors’ work resonates with you; their mentorship can influence your thinking long after the year ends. Explore the clubs that will become your micro-communities, whether entrepreneurial, cultural, or social.

This isn’t about overplanning; it’s about arriving ready. When early navigators plotted their routes, they spent months studying trade winds and celestial maps. The voyage still held uncertainty, but preparation turned chance into choice. The same principle applies here: when you begin already curious and informed, you create momentum from day one.

LEAVE YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR

One of the most valuable pieces of advice I heard in my early weeks at LBS came from a distinguished guest speaker who said, “Your aim should be to be subservient to your greater mission.” This insight stayed with me. It was a subtle reminder that progress often demands humility.

An MBA can tempt you into comparison – job titles, brand names, and salary benchmarks, for example. But sometimes, you have to be willing to compromise on status in the short term to serve a larger purpose. Leaving your ego at the door doesn’t mean lowering your standards; it means elevating your priorities.

The explorers, philosophers, and creators who changed history rarely began with prestige. Socrates taught barefoot in the Athenian marketplace. Magellan sailed underfunded. Marie Curie spent years pursuing research that others overlooked or considered too uncertain to fund. Their reward was not the title they held, but the work that endured. The same principle applies here: choose roles, experiences, and people that move you toward your long-term mission, even if they don’t shine immediately.

THE MBA IS NOT THE ANSWER TO ALL QUESTIONS

An MBA is often perceived as a solution to fix professional stagnation or career confusion. Yet in truth, it isn’t the answer to all questions; it acts more like a mirror reflecting how we decide, what we value, and how we cope with uncertainty. What you bring to it often determines what you get out of it.

I asked myself those same questions: How will the MBA add value and is it worth the return on investment? Is this the best path to pivot or launch something new? Beneath these questions was an even deeper one: Could I achieve my aspirations without an MBA?

The answer, I realised, wasn’t about what the MBA could offer me, but what I intended to make of it. When approached deliberately, the one-year MBA at LBS becomes a forcing function, a space that channels energy into action. But without clarity, it can do the opposite: scatter your focus into a blur of conflicting signals.

Many students fall into what I call the comparison spiral: applying to everything, joining every event, chasing every opportunity, hoping one will “click.” The result is fatigue, not fulfillment. Intention cuts through that fog. Focus is not a limitation; it’s liberation.

The way I learned to avoid slipping into that spiral was by first acknowledging the nature of the one-year MBA itself: dense, fast, and inherently unforgiving of drift. Even without the extra layers of clubs, socials, and cultural events, I knew my plate would be full. So I began by aligning the program’s intensity with the North Star I had set for myself, while staying mindful of my own character traits and limits. From there, I chose the clubs that felt additive rather than distracting; these included PE/VC, Entrepreneurship, the Africa Business Club, and the Sailing and Expedition Clubs. They were communities that offered both professional depth and personal joy. I also wanted a broader view of the school’s inner workings, so I stepped into roles that would connect me more closely with the faculty and the student body as an Academic Representative and Student Ambassador.

On the career front, I followed a similar structured yet human approach. I mapped out the industries and geographies that genuinely energised me, and where I felt I could contribute most meaningfully. Once those were clear, I built a realistic list of target companies and LBS alumni to reach out to, learn from, and move through progressively with intention. That simple act of narrowing the field removed an enormous amount of noise and clarified my direction in a way that felt both grounding and energising.

The same method applied to electives and speaker events: I chose the ones that strengthened the skills I knew I would need for the path I’m shaping after the MBA and let the rest pass without guilt. And while all of this may sound regimented, in practice it became the opposite: a guided map within which I could navigate freely. With a clear framework, I could enjoy the spontaneity of the MBA experience – the conversations, the discoveries, the unexpected connections – without feeling overwhelmed or adrift.

CHIME IN ON WHAT YOU’RE TRULY GOOD AT

Intention also requires self-awareness. Many of us chase what seems attainable or socially validated – the industries and titles we believe will be respected – instead of the paths where our strengths genuinely align.

We spend more time projecting where we can reach than understanding where we are rooted. Yet clarity begins with knowing what you’re good at, and being honest about it. Once you identify those strengths, you’ll also uncover the gaps. That’s where choice enters: either develop the skills to bridge those gaps, or accept them and double down where your strengths lie.

Both paths are valid. The first expands you; the second differentiates you. The explorers who changed the world didn’t try to be everything at once. Isaac Newton wasn’t a statesman; Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t an industrialist. They pursued the questions that aligned with their own peculiar genius, and that focus made all the difference.

It’s a lesson easier said than lived. I’ve fallen into the same trap: aspiring toward what seems more prestigious rather than what feels authentic. But perhaps there’s wisdom in choosing not where the crowd runs, but where your talents and curiosities quietly point you.

THE TRIFECTA & THE TRADE-OFFS

Most say that MBAs rest on three pillars: academics, networking, and career development. The challenge lies in the simple arithmetic of time. It is a steep challenge to optimise all three simultaneously. The one-year format magnifies this truth. Success becomes a matter of trade-offs: deciding what deserves your energy and when. Some weeks, your academics will dominate. At others, you’ll prioritise networking or career preparation. The key is alignment. When your actions match your “why,” every decision – what to attend, what to prioritise – becomes purposeful.

Philosophers like Aristotle called this phronesis or practical wisdom: knowing not just what is good, but when it is good. Time, in a one-year MBA, is your scarcest resource. Intention is the wisdom that tells you how to spend it. Developing that intention, I found, begins the moment you arrive. From the very first week, the pace accelerates: core classes, structured recruitment, new faces every day, the underlying fear of missing out on the “right path.” Add to that the decisions around Global Experiences, student-led treks across continents, and the constant stream of events and the year can feel like a wave gathering force. The best way I learned to ride that wave was deceptively simple: organise the chaos. Your calendar becomes a compass, a way to see what matters, prevent overbooking, and ensure you spend your time on what’s meaningful to you rather than simply filling it.

Once you can see your commitments clearly, you can prioritise deliberately. Different moments will demand different pillars: academics, networking, or career exploration – but not all at once. And even though the year is short, you don’t need to sprint only to burn out by month three. Progress, I learned, comes from moving steadily toward your priorities, not frantically toward everything. Intention is built exactly this way: through a series of conscious choices, made with your North Star in sight.

THE HIDDEN DIVIDEND

At first glance, the return on an MBA seems easy to measure through salary uplift, network reach, and career acceleration. But the more meaningful dividend is subtler; it compounds gradually in the way you think, decide and interpret the world around you. Upon acting with intention, you begin to see your life less as a random sequence of achievements and more like a series of deliberate choices. You learn to hold curiosity and conviction together, and to balance exploration with focus. Like an experienced navigator, you realise that mastery often isn’t about adding more routes, it’s removing the ones that drift you away from where you’re meant to go. By the end of the year, the most profound return won’t be external. It will be the clarity you carry forward – the ability to choose deliberately, with humility and self-knowledge, in a world that constantly tempts you to do the opposite.

In that sense, the one-year MBA at LBS offers something rare: a concentrated lesson in intentional living. The hidden dividend is not what you earn, it’s who you become by choosing with purpose. In business, we talk about capital allocation. In life, intention is the same principle applied to time. The more consciously you invest it, free from ego and anchored in self-awareness, the greater your unseen returns.

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Adrien is an MBA 2026 candidate at London Business School and a graduate of University College London and the University of Exeter. Before his MBA, he worked at the intersection of technology and investing, helping innovative companies scale through strategic capital deployment. Most recently, he was an Investment Manager at Republic, a global investment platform supporting high-growth startups across sectors including Blockchain, SaaS, FinTech, and ClimateTech. 

Passionate about venture creation and growth investing, Adrien enjoys exploring how technology and creative execution drive meaningful change. Outside of his studies, he enjoys padel, kitesurfing, reading and discovering new ventures shaping the future of emerging markets.

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