60° in. Quarter 1 @Stanford Business

Why hello hello! This is the first of a series where I will be sharing my reflections about my 6 quarters at Stanford Business School before I graduate.

60° in. 1/6 of the way in my B-school journey.

Somewhere in the middle of my first quarter, I realized that my Stanford GSB (Graduate School of Business) experience started long before Day 1 of orientation in September 2017. It actually began in 2015 when I first walked into an MBA admissions event in Houston.

I remember walking past the group of people hanging around the door and heading to the rows of chairs to find a seat — trying to position myself away from the clusters of impeccably dressed people around the room. To my surprise, the director of admissions flagged me down and said — ‘Hey, you didn’t say hello to me when you walked in through those doors’, introduced himself and asked questions to get to know me.

Arguably, my very first memory of the GSB. I clicked & captured that moment in my mind #kodakmoment

I’ve been to so many meetings, conferences, events with large groups of people.. but I had never been stopped by someone for my stealth mode behaviors. As one who likes to take a step back and process what’s happening in front of me, it’s what I had always done in rooms filled with large groups of people. I was completely taken aback at that moment — I got noticed by the one person who everyone was trying to get noticed by and not for the right reasons!

My first memory of the GSB which once was an outlier, now belongs to my neural datasets; I would discover a few days into my quarter, that the interaction was actually a classic GSB move. The GSB is filled with people who are rockstars from all over the world — they are not just brilliant and amazing, but also lovely, fascinating, deep, intentional and thoughtful. very thoughtful. People notice even when you’re trying to do anything but survive the

The GSB is a rocket ship, and the opportunity to get to ride to new horizons with great people is so fun. The commanders of the rocket ship, faculty and practitioners who are experts in a myriad of facets business area, really know what they’re doing. The rocket ship itself, with all its resources and classrooms filled with opportunities to be explored, is an intellectual jungle gym. I’ve realized all the rumors are true. The GSB ride is absolutely what dreams are made of.

‘If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, get on, don’t ask what seat.’ — Eric Schmidt 🚀

The GSB ride is absolutely what dreams are made of.

Best moments from my Quarter 1..

1. Favorite day at the GSB

Last night on the dance floor, someone asked me what was my favorite day at the GSB. I thought about that question for so long on the dance floor and I tossed and turned before I fell asleep because I still couldn’t pick ONE favorite day from my collection of amazing days at the GSB. During my class this AM, I realized that it actually was my very first day at the GSB. Luckily, I can share some #kodakmoments from that day because I carried my DSLR with me everywhere I went on my first day.

Richard’s attempt at a selfie with the DSLR during our lunch break (despite my skepticism, it turned out fine with the exception of his face).

Deans / fearless leaders of the rocket ship. (Not pictured, their inspiring speeches 😭)

First picture of Section 5, ever. (P.S. — GSB Class of 2019 is divided into 6 sections)

2. Next up: Reflections on other wonderful days of the fall quarter, my first taste of business school academics (TLDR — there’s lots of reading to do for classes), beginning to work on a venture and most importantly, how the GSB has made me truly believe that I can do anything 💪

I did not have enough space to fit in all of the #kodakmoments of my quarter on this blog post. Also posting this 3 years later, as I found this in my drafts!