What’s good, peoples. Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!! I hope you all have a good time celebrating it tonight…I know that I will 
Before diving into this entry, I’d like to thank everyone who responded to my last entry about why I don’t link to my archived entries in a supportive manner. It’s good to know that y’all understand where I was coming from and why I was as frustrated as my words made me sound. That said, I didn’t write the post for people to come down hard on “knight17″. Thinking back, he/she probably didn’t know any better and probably felt pretty bad after reading the post prompted by his/her comments. At this point, I’m cool with it and I hope all of you are too.
The email below is from a GSB student that I’ve “known” for about a year now. Actually, she and I have never met, but she hit me up when she was about to start the school year and we’ve exchanged emails every now and then when she’s had questions for me (you know I’ve got to look out for the current GSB crop as a GSB “old head”). She sent me the following email yesterday morning referencing my April 23 entry about making time to have a life and, after writing my response, I thought the pair of messages would make a good blog post. So, here you go…
***EDITED***
After seeing her email posted in this entry, the reader contacted me and asked for me to remove the content of her message. Before you start jumping to conclusions, I DID ask for her permission before posting it and she had originally responded “YES”. But, I guess she changed her mind after actually seeing it on the site. I know that my response below looks rather odd without the original reader email that prompted it, but I liked my response so I decided to keep it up here.
—–
C wrote:
“Dear Marquis,
[CONTENT OF EMAIL REMOVED AT ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S REQUEST]
Warmly,
C”
—–
My response:
Hey C,
It’s great to hear from you and congratulations on almost making it to the end of the road at the GSB. I know it must be strange to think about leaving that place, but it will leave a mark on you that will allow you to take a little piece of the GSB with you, no matter where you end up.
I’d like to thank you for your kind words about the April 23 post. When I sat down to write it, I had no idea of what I was going to say. I just put my hands on the keyboard and just let the words come through my fingers the way that they would…Then, I woke up the next morning in a cold sweat regretting having posted something so personal. I ultimately left it up there and it’s nice to know that it has touched many readers, including yourself in the past couple of weeks. I figured that everyone could identify with trying to balance career and real life issues and it sounds like it really hit home for you.
I can’t even imagine what you must be going through right now as you stand at a true crossroads between a corporate career and an entrepreneurial path, with the latter allowing you to spend more time with your family. I wish I could tell you how to achieve that delicate balance, but I’m still trying to figure that out myself. What I can tell you is that the professional/career opportunities offered by the GSB will never expire. The GSB makes its resources just as available to alums as it does to current students, so, if you do decide on the entrepreneurial path for now, don’t worry about being able to leverage the GSB if you choose to go back corporate in a couple of years. You will ALWAYS be able to get a corporate job, but it isn’t very often that one has the opportunity to start a business with family and to maximize quality time with his/her loved ones. If I’d evaluated that sort of opportunity in 2006 when leaving the GSB, I would have been all about taking the corporate route because I believed that that was what B-school grads were supposed to do. Looking at it now in 2009, if I had the chance to start a business with a family member and he/she had a personal brand that could lead to success, I wouldn’t think twice about jumping on that opportunity. You have to figure this all out for yourself, but I would suggest going with the option that has the highest probability of making you smile each morning when you wake up.
Re: The Last Lecture series, they did have them at the GSB when I was there, but I had a scheduling conflict, so I could never check any of them out. I heard that Prof. Peterson’s was AMAZING though. I had him for “Leadership Persectives” and he’s truly one of the greats at the GSB. There’s something about the way that he connects with each and every one of his students that is unlike anything I’ve never seen in the classroom. Shoot, now that you mention him, I should send him an email to check in…
Thanks for your comments about the female that I used to deal with. Things definitely didn’t turn out the way that I’d planned, but, instead of dwelling on it, I’ve just accepted that it’s all a part of God’s plan. Given the changes in my personality from 2006 to 2008, she definitely didn’t end up with the dude she’d started off with, so I don’t know what I would have done if the situation were reversed. In fact, I received several emails after that April 23 post (including one from my uncle) saying that I should swallow my pride and try to get her back, but I can’t call it. Besides, that ship has sailed and has docked at another port now and your boy isn’t not into piracy, so what’s done is done. Perhaps, I should have acted earlier, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind until recently. Everything happens for a reason, so I have to believe that some good will rise from the ashes of that situation.
Thanks for your words about my most recent post, but I hope you don’t think badly of that kid “knight17″. I didn’t put his comment out there for people to form a negative opinion of him. In hindsight, I should have softened the post I wrote about it, but I appreciate that you understand the perspective I presented in that entry. That blog has always been a labor of love for me, so i’ll keep it going as long as people like you find it useful.
Wow, this was a long email. Sorry for making you read so much. Congratulations again for almost being finished with the GSB and good luck after graduation.
Marquis
Before diving into this entry, I’d like to thank everyone who responded to my last entry about why I don’t link to my archived entries in a supportive manner. It’s good to know that y’all understand where I was coming from and why I was as frustrated as my words made me sound. That said, I didn’t write the post for people to come down hard on “knight17″. Thinking back, he/she probably didn’t know any better and probably felt pretty bad after reading the post prompted by his/her comments. At this point, I’m cool with it and I hope all of you are too.
The email below is from a GSB student that I’ve “known” for about a year now. Actually, she and I have never met, but she hit me up when she was about to start the school year and we’ve exchanged emails every now and then when she’s had questions for me (you know I’ve got to look out for the current GSB crop as a GSB “old head”). She sent me the following email yesterday morning referencing my April 23 entry about making time to have a life and, after writing my response, I thought the pair of messages would make a good blog post. So, here you go…
***EDITED***
After seeing her email posted in this entry, the reader contacted me and asked for me to remove the content of her message. Before you start jumping to conclusions, I DID ask for her permission before posting it and she had originally responded “YES”. But, I guess she changed her mind after actually seeing it on the site. I know that my response below looks rather odd without the original reader email that prompted it, but I liked my response so I decided to keep it up here.
—–
C wrote:
“Dear Marquis,
[CONTENT OF EMAIL REMOVED AT ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S REQUEST]
Warmly,
C”
—–
My response:
Hey C,
It’s great to hear from you and congratulations on almost making it to the end of the road at the GSB. I know it must be strange to think about leaving that place, but it will leave a mark on you that will allow you to take a little piece of the GSB with you, no matter where you end up.
I’d like to thank you for your kind words about the April 23 post. When I sat down to write it, I had no idea of what I was going to say. I just put my hands on the keyboard and just let the words come through my fingers the way that they would…Then, I woke up the next morning in a cold sweat regretting having posted something so personal. I ultimately left it up there and it’s nice to know that it has touched many readers, including yourself in the past couple of weeks. I figured that everyone could identify with trying to balance career and real life issues and it sounds like it really hit home for you.
I can’t even imagine what you must be going through right now as you stand at a true crossroads between a corporate career and an entrepreneurial path, with the latter allowing you to spend more time with your family. I wish I could tell you how to achieve that delicate balance, but I’m still trying to figure that out myself. What I can tell you is that the professional/career opportunities offered by the GSB will never expire. The GSB makes its resources just as available to alums as it does to current students, so, if you do decide on the entrepreneurial path for now, don’t worry about being able to leverage the GSB if you choose to go back corporate in a couple of years. You will ALWAYS be able to get a corporate job, but it isn’t very often that one has the opportunity to start a business with family and to maximize quality time with his/her loved ones. If I’d evaluated that sort of opportunity in 2006 when leaving the GSB, I would have been all about taking the corporate route because I believed that that was what B-school grads were supposed to do. Looking at it now in 2009, if I had the chance to start a business with a family member and he/she had a personal brand that could lead to success, I wouldn’t think twice about jumping on that opportunity. You have to figure this all out for yourself, but I would suggest going with the option that has the highest probability of making you smile each morning when you wake up.
Re: The Last Lecture series, they did have them at the GSB when I was there, but I had a scheduling conflict, so I could never check any of them out. I heard that Prof. Peterson’s was AMAZING though. I had him for “Leadership Persectives” and he’s truly one of the greats at the GSB. There’s something about the way that he connects with each and every one of his students that is unlike anything I’ve never seen in the classroom. Shoot, now that you mention him, I should send him an email to check in…
Thanks for your comments about the female that I used to deal with. Things definitely didn’t turn out the way that I’d planned, but, instead of dwelling on it, I’ve just accepted that it’s all a part of God’s plan. Given the changes in my personality from 2006 to 2008, she definitely didn’t end up with the dude she’d started off with, so I don’t know what I would have done if the situation were reversed. In fact, I received several emails after that April 23 post (including one from my uncle) saying that I should swallow my pride and try to get her back, but I can’t call it. Besides, that ship has sailed and has docked at another port now and your boy isn’t not into piracy, so what’s done is done. Perhaps, I should have acted earlier, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind until recently. Everything happens for a reason, so I have to believe that some good will rise from the ashes of that situation.
Thanks for your words about my most recent post, but I hope you don’t think badly of that kid “knight17″. I didn’t put his comment out there for people to form a negative opinion of him. In hindsight, I should have softened the post I wrote about it, but I appreciate that you understand the perspective I presented in that entry. That blog has always been a labor of love for me, so i’ll keep it going as long as people like you find it useful.
Wow, this was a long email. Sorry for making you read so much. Congratulations again for almost being finished with the GSB and good luck after graduation.
Marquis
hello… hapi blogging… have a nice day! just visiting here….