and... The highlight of my day was throwing a chair at a would be thief and hitting him. Unfortunately, I hit him a bit too hard and at a bad angle and dislocated/sprained my right shoulder.

So I have to move my right arm very slowly and very carefully because it hurts so much :(

Damn thieves. I hope they all burn in hell. Doesn't help that petty crime is rocketing over here and the police don't seem to be doing anything much about it.

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Well, it's the end of the year, so Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

May we all get accepted into the schools we applied for/are applying for.

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Achieving your dreams

1. Be desperate - be desperate enough to want to achieve your dream. Having a dream and doing something at totally different. If you're not desperate, you're not motivated enough.

2. Remember why you want to achieve your dream - while motivations change, it's important to remember what made you have your dream.

3. Do it yourself - it's your dream, do it yourself. Don't rely on others, don't ask others and don't live through others. Take control, if you don't, nobody is going to achieve your dream for you.

4. Stretch yourself - push yourself hard to achieve your dream. You're not going to achieve anything just sitting in your comfort zone. Move out and test your limits, sleep less, work harder.

5. Be patient - you're not going to be the CEO of World's Biggest Company Ltd overnight. It takes time to achieve a dream. More so when you're starting from the very beginning - and everybody has to start from the beginning.


It's nearly Christmas! Merry Christmas.

I have become risk adverse.

In the past 2 years, I've slowly become more routine and less willing to move out of my comfort zone. Or maybe I have matured and am now more analytical, risk aware, etc and evaluate all options before making a decision. Nevertheless, I've become cautious and risk adverse.

Instead of betting the farm and the house, I would now probably only bet a cow.
:(

It's a terrible thing to be risk adverse and worse when you watch yourself get comfortable in a rut. I think once you go there, it's a dark and dirty road. You don't dream of achieving the unbelievable, you just dream of living past today. What happened to your dreams of running your own business and hitting it big time before you're 35?

Stay in a rut and you're no better than your next door cubicle neighbour. Be willing to risk everything and lose it. After all, do you really want to be in a rut until you retire? Take a risk.

Seize the day. Remember, fortune favours the bold.

Tuck's interview invites for candidates that did not attend an on-campus interview should be going out next week.

My Yale application is due the first week of January.

Realistically where do I stand and what are my plans?

Lets see.

I have a GMAT of 650 (not good), due to career change I don't have ae high flying career progression (not good), I have a poor GPA (even worse). So, what's most likely going to happen?

I think that I will be rejected by Tuck and Yale. It's not that I have no confidence in getting in, but I have to be realistic with my chances.

Do I feel bad? No. Actually, I am pretty calm about it. I did what I had set out to do 1.5 years ago; that is, to apply to business school.

So using this experience as a stepping stone, I shall do what I enjoy and chart out the next 2 years assuming that I do not get accepted by either Tuck or Yale.

i) I need a better GMAT score. Let's target a 750 - mainly coming from an improved Verbal score. I will start preparations in March (I should hear from Tuck/Yale by then) and sit for the GMAT in August.

ii) Enrol for a Diploma in Business to improve my GPA and get a stronger academic background. This Diploma should last about 1.5 to 2 years. This would strengthen my application from an academic aspect.

iii) Continue working to show carrer progression. I may move to advertising and marketing where I feel I will be able to excel faster. Depends on how things go though, I may decide to stay in finance, but more to another bank with a promotion.

iv) Take a more active role in my community activities. I think I will work closely and get a recommender from my charity organisation.

And what is all this for?

My target schools for the Class of 2010 are

Stanford
Wharton
Tuck

1.5 years spent planning, and another 2 years before I attend b/school.

And I don't see why I won't be able to get in assuming everything goes smoothly.

Whoever would have thought that Yale's open question essay (Essay 2) would be so hard? Sure it's an open question; write whatever you want to write. But it gets a bit problematic when there is so much that you might want to say.... I've drafted several questions/essays

i) What am I passionate about?
ii) What does studying mean to me?
iii) What is my mission?

And I still am not satisfied.

Tonight, I will draft a final question and see if it presents what I want to the ad coms.

Any suggestions on what to write?

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Tuck should be calling for interviews starting next week onwards (for those who have yet to interview, like myself). I'm just hoping for an interview invite - it would mean that I've got a chance. So, all the best to all Tuck applicants, although we're competing for the same spots, I wish you good luck in getting your interview invite.

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