It is a funny expression I would say. The first 4 days at HBS are what we call the shopping period. You can basically go around classes, listen to what professors say, to what the cases are, check who is in the class. For the first 2 days, professors won’t even mind if you walk in and out or if you are clueless about the case. That must be the reason why I have not started any of my 2 cases for tomorrow at 11.30pm. I was meant not to be shopping but one of the classes today went so bad that I will be shopping tomorrow. I will join the herd and see how it ends up. The good thing about the shopping period is that the girls came over and we all had coffee (with borrowed milk), tea and a fifth of a brownie discussing classes amidst plans for a thousand trips this semester and a reservation for a table at Rumor next Thursday. So far so good, I like being back. Thursday will bring the lowest temperature that I ever had in Boston, -24C so we will see how I feel about being back after that!
I heard what is likely to become one of my top 3 favourite quotes on a podcast on Friday. "Time is the only real democratic asset. We are all awarded the same time, it is what we do with it that distinguishes us". Now, I recognise that most of us need to work with survive and that is not democratic throughout. But on an equal opportunity basis, this is an interesting way of putting it. For many years I did not understand why MS thought my resume was so interesting. In fact, they chased me during the entire recruitment process, even though I had no idea of moving to London or Finance. I wanted to be a consultant and stay in Lisbon forever. But traditional consultants in Portugal saw nothing in me, and MS did not let me go. When I started screening resumes and hiring people a couple of years later is when I understood why I was different. TIME. I was truly different about what I did with my time. Not necessarily the basics - choice of degree or anything. But really ...
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