I'm sitting at the Parque de Los Pies Descalzos (which I believe means the park of bare feet) in Medellin, Colombia. When I wandered over here from my hostel, I didn't expect it to be in the middle of a corporate park, but it is and here I am. While I sit here, enjoying the perfect 70 degree weather in my slippers, t-shirt and shorts, I'm right across from what appears to be some sort of corporate team building event. Perhaps it's their first day on the job, everyone seems pretty excited as they stand in a circle imitating one another doing stupid actions. It reminds me of the Wharton class doing the same thing during the learning team retreat in Aug - little did I know we looked so silly from an outsiders perspective!! For what its worth, it seems to work to get to know those around you.
And if that group is having fun, the others walking back to their office building after their lunch break look straight up depressed. It is a day after Christmas... yet I can't help but ask why corporate professionals subdue themselves into accepting boring jobs which they put endless hours into for a good 30-40 years of their lives. Sure there are ups and downs but how many people truly feel passionate about pushing paper around?
I know I'm taking a very narrow-minded and pessimistic view but as I sit here, it makes me realize how lucky I am. I get to travel the world and do whatever I want to (at least for 2 years of my life). Yeah, there's the academics but in all honesty it's such a small part of the business school experience. Since I quit my job back in April, I've visited more interesting places, done more interesting things and met more interesting people in a short time span than ever in my life before. That's not to say that everything I've done and those I've met until now are any short of spectacular, but it sure didn't happen in a mere 6 months.
In MBA land, by now most students are in the thick of recruiting season - so we can all go back to those boring professional jobs the corporate world will offer us. I clearly feel very different about returning to the working world, so I've skipped out on recruiting for the most part. Apart from applying to two very elite companies (elite in my books at least) I'm following the entrepreneurial route. If I'm actually going to do something with my education, it might as well be something I love and control. I'm definitely not unique in my philosophy, even though it's not the mainstream at Wharton. Hopefully all of us aspiring entrepreneurs will build successful companies so we can employ others that are willing to take boring corporate jobs (i kid, I kid)! Quite the contrary, I do hope that when I build a company it has a culture where people don't drag their feet when they walk in after lunch. If I'm going to have fun building a company, everyone should have fun working their too.
In any case, back to Colombia. I got to Medellin yesterday evening and hung around Parque Lleras in El Poblado eating and drinking. Later today, I'll be checking out the views of Medellin by metro-cable and the Christmas lights by the river. And then it's off to Bogota. Adios mi amigos!
Bahrain
Bahrain