[Video] Life Update: 7 Milestones that marked the Past 2 Years.

When it became official

Hard to believe it's been over 2 years since I started this blog... and almost that long since I last posted (eek!). For those lucky enough to have started an MBA since then, first of all, Congrats! Second of all, I'm sure you now understand.

The entire experience was a whirlwind. The most resounding piece of advice (and perhaps the most valuable) I received at the beginning was to truly live in the moment as 2 years will fly by really quickly. 2 years have flown by and boy, were they right!

A bit of an update on me. 7 milestones since I started the blog.

Mistakes you might be making at work that could cost you a seat at a top b-school

Harvard's MBA class of 2015 is dominated by North Americans with less than 1% of the classroom coming from Africa. One could argue that because majority of applicants are from the US, Americans would naturally dominate the admissions pool. While that could be true, I'm not here to argue for or against it. What I'm here to do is to share thoughts that I hope will help future applicants increase that African statistic by at least a few percentage points.

The points I have outlined are based on recurring themes I've observed in my personal experience working with people from varied cultural backgrounds, including Africans. My intention is not to criticize, but to create awareness about attitudes that could be leaving dents in the application quality of people from my demographic.

I hope you'll find some of these points helpful in shaping how you approach work in relation to your MBA ambitions.

6 pieces of advice I wish I got when I decided to go after an MBA

If I had N100 for every b-school admissions post I read that was supposed to help in 'getting started'... let's just say my bank account wouldn't have suffered as much as it did when I paid the $250 application fee to each of the schools I applied to.


When I decided I wanted an MBA, I started probably just like you; I pitched a tent, lit lanterns, and settled into life as a cyber hunter; I read almost every MBA blog, forum and comment my mouse could click on until my brain felt like it was going to explode from all the information.

Kudos to the internet though. There is a whole lot of information out there and I would highly recommend it as a starting point for anyone who is serious about getting into a top MBA program.

On my blog, I want to provide advice that will be helpful to MBA hopefuls - especially those from African countries - and that doesn't overlap (too much) with information that is already out there. Difficult feat but I'll try my best.

To start off, here are six pieces of advice I wish I got when I was starting out:

Paying it forward

Reading the words "...we wish to welcome you to the MBA class of 2016 and we would be delighted if you accepted our offer of admission..." signed by the 'Deans of Admission' of two Ivy League MBA programs within the span of one week put me on a very high high, to say the least.

After months and months of suffer-head with taking standardized tests that make you question your secondary school education, writing and rewriting essays till wee hours before hitting Third Mainland Bridge, and jumping from cybercafe to cybercafe in the quest for stable internet, I finally had my own Lupita Nyong'o moment. Can I get a Hallelujah, somebody?!

I was born, raised, and educated in Nigeria and I've started this blog because I want to share my experiences in the hopes that it will help MBA hopefuls with backgrounds similar to mine see their dreams of getting into a top b-school become a reality.

The support I received from family, friends, colleagues and sometimes, strangers, was invaluable when it came to my success with the process and I consider it a great privilege to be able to pay it forward.

Two things I promise you with this blog;

1. To be as open as possible about the challenges I faced. No forming. No fibs. Just straight-up honesty about lessons learnt. 
2. To be very open to feedback -a trait you will find to be one of the most important during the process - so please feel free to drop comments or questions if you have any.

What I don't promise is very many posts. I'm new to this and realise how much work and time and effort bloggers put into generating good content. As much as I'd love to promise a constant stream of fantastic write-ups, I'm not sure that'll be honest of me especially given the competing commitments I know I have. So please bear with me.

Depending on where you are in the process, here's wishing you a most rewarding journey over the next few months. It's going to be an interesting ride and hopefully, some of my posts will help make it worth your while.

Photo credit: edition.cnn.com