My MBA Journey to Harvard: Lessons from the Process

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to The Deu Awuok Show, where I interview professional and
collegiate soccer players about their life journeys through the
beautiful game.

In this episode, I share some context behind my long hiatus and
reflect on my MBA application journey and the lessons I learned along
the way. I stepped away from several hobbies—including this podcast—to
focus on applying to top business schools around the world. I’m
grateful that those efforts paid off, as I was recently accepted into
Harvard Business School, along with several other Ivy League
institutions.

As I looked back on the challenge of balancing a demanding Private
Equity role with the intensity of the application process, a few
important life lessons were reinforced—lessons I wanted to share with
our listeners.

These include: 1) running your own race, 2) maintaining a growth
mindset, and 3) focusing on the inputs while becoming deserving of
what you want.

I’m excited to be back on the pod and to continue having meaningful
conversations around the beautiful game!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to the D Wa Walk Show. For those unfamiliar with the show, this is the podcast where I interview professional and collegiate cycle players about their life journeys around the beautiful game. The point of this episode is to give you guys an update on what I've been doing over the last year and a half and to justify the long hiatus. So, for some context, I am currently looking to pivot from my current role in private equity to start my own venture, something that combines my passions for the beautiful game of soccer, as well as the importance of increasing education access for underserved youth. I'm going to focus on East Africa. And so, in order to accomplish this goal, I felt that an MBA would help serve as that launch pad. And so I've spent the last year and a half applying to some of the toppest schools in the world. And as part of that effort, I needed to focus on my job, which can be quite demanding at times, as well as applying those schools. And part of that sacrifice was giving up on my hobbies, which included, unfortunately, uh that podcasts. But thankfully, thankfully, all that effort and sacrifice was well worth it because I was recently excited into Harvard Business School, which was my top school. And I'll be starting that this fall. I'm super excited about joining the Harvard program and being able to learn and leverage the resources at the school to help continue to refine and launch my business in East Africa. As part of that journey, I think there were some lessons that were reinforced that I think would be helpful for some of the listeners here. Full disclosure, what I'm about to say. Many of them have probably been heard before or you know familiar with them, but I think for those not familiar with these concepts, that would be super impactful. And for those that are very familiar with them, I think hearing them again would help reinforce them. And so, yeah, let's dive into it. The first two lessons are related to me taking the standardized exam. The first one for me being the importance of running your own race. Before I started my examination journey, I had spoken with some friends about their experiences taking this standardized exam. And most of the guys I spoke to, they had mentioned that they took two to three months to take this exam with an important caveat that they were unemployed at the time, so they were just focused on this full time. And then given I had a job that could require long hours, I gave myself six months to take this exam. Long story short, it took way longer than that, and took a many, many, many tries to be complete with my examination. And I know people that take five months, people that take eight months, people that take a year, people that take a year and a half, people that take two years. For me, that was the hardest part, the examination part. But um, because I was focused on myself and my own race, I didn't get discouraged that it was taking longer than I was anticipating. It could have been easy to say, hey, my friends took it in two months' time or three months' time. It's taken me way longer. I'm just not cut off for it. I'm not good enough to be in these Ivy League schools. It could have been easy for me to say, hey, I have a very demanding job. I don't have time to dedicate it, right? But because I understood that everybody's journey is different and that you have to run your own race, I didn't really did that impact me and my confidence level, which kind of leads me to my second point, right? Which is the importance of having this growth mindset. I was able to stick it out and remain disciplined and committed to the goal because I had developed over time through recruiting for Division I soccer, through recruiting for investment banking, then private equity, these ultra-competitive roles. I had built this growth mindset that I might not be where I need to be to accomplish this goal at this given moment. But I've put in enough time, effort, and discipline, I can get there. That was the driving force behind letting me get up at 6 a.m. to study for a couple hours before work, then putting in a 15-hour ship or 18-hour shift at the office and doing that day in, day out, months on months. Without that belief, it could have been easy to just give up and then find an excuse as to why I would not be successful at this role. But having built this growth mindset allowed me to stay committed to the bit. And it's something I'm sure you people hear all the time, it's all about your mindset, whether you believe you can or you cannot, you're right either way. And I think it starts with you hearing about it, but then going further, it's you actually experiencing and going through these hard things that you maybe doubt yourself, and then overcompling them, and then building this belief in yourself that, like, hey, I can do it. And after a while, you just it becomes like muscle memory, right? You don't think about it too much. It's just like, oh, I'm not where I need to be. If I do that, do this, do this, I'll get there and maybe take me longer or whatever, but I will get there. That framing is super important. And then lastly, the importance of deserving what it is that you want. Charlie T. Mugger, Warren Buffett's right-hand man, he has this idea like one of the best ways to get what you want in this life is to be deserving of it. But just because you deserve something doesn't mean you're gonna get it. But being deserving of something gives you the best probability of getting it. Thankfully for me, it worked out. I got into my top school Harvard, but even if it didn't, I felt I was deserving enough that I wouldn't have kicked myself too much for it. It would have hurt, it would have sucked to not get into Harvard for sure. I'm not trying to belittle that emotion. But I would have had some counsel in knowing that, like, hey, I gave it my all. I was very deserving of this opportunity and just didn't work out. I know people that are in that boat who were quite deserving of a seat at Harvard Business School, but for one reason or another, it didn't work out for them. Be deserving what you want and just focus on inputs day in, day out, what are you doing to accomplish your goal? And then just letting the results take care of themselves. Because sometimes there's other factors that you can't control for, but if you focus on what you need to do, you'll give yourself the best shot at getting it. And so, yeah, summarizing those lessons, the first one being the importance of running your own race. Everyone's race is different. Don't get too discouraged or distracted by what others are doing. Two, the importance of this growth mindset. Just because you have a shortcoming right now, you're not where you need to be, doesn't mean you're gonna be permanently there. Your talents, your skills are flexible. And with anything in this life, if you put in our time and effort, you can improve and can get better. It might be longer, it might be harder for you than others. That's fine. Just keep at it. And then lastly, focus on the inputs. The best way to get what you want in this life is to be deserving of it. Focus on the inputs, what you can control, and let the results take care of themselves. I'm excited to be back on this podcast. I'm excited to have more conversations around the beautiful game, uh especially ahead of the World Cup. And yeah, I'm excited to be back and let's get to it. Cheers. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to listen and support this podcast. It is very much appreciated. Please follow the show if you don't already do so. The show can be found on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and the rest of the other major platforms. As always, be kind to yourself, be kind to others. Much love. This show is produced by Yak Awok and original music by Scott Holmes.