Five years in a row I dropped out of high school because it was boring.  I made three attempts at my undergrad and never made it more than a year in to a program.  When I told my wife I wanted to take an MBA she doubted I could get in anywhere because I don’t even have an undergrad degree.  To me that was a challenge to prove her wrong.

About four months after my encouraging conversation with my wife I accepted invitation to University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management’s Global Executive MBA program.  And I wasn’t just accepted, they also gave me a small scholarship.

My reasoning for taking an MBA is different than most.  I don’t feel any need for an MBA other than to give me a challenge and not be so bored.  Spending the last three years making trails, riding ATVs and dirt bikes, and planting trees on my 45.5 acre property isn’t as therapeutic as it used to be.  So I signed up to develop my emotional resilience and social presence which are hugely lacking due to my natural tendency to hide from people.  If I’m lucky I’ll build a few meaningful friendships over the next 18 months.

The Global Executive MBA travels around the world together in two week modules.  Module one was in Toronto.  I’m part of team Vision 20/20.  The first week was very exciting.  The second week was a bit more difficult because I wasn’t able to self monitor and process information effectively so I lost two full nights of sleep.

My favourite part of the first module was the Self-Management Workshop by Maja Djikic.  She went in depth on the models of the mind, function of emotions, personality alignment, self-regulation, and narrative reconstruction.  I learned the differences between self-regulation and self-disciple.  After the program she made a case for survival and development instead of Maslow’s pyramid of self-actualization was made, and it makes a lot of sense.

The rest of the material presented was very good too.  But even better than the material were the opportunities to work on developing emotional resilience, enriching friendships, and social presence.  I’m still a very long way from where I want to be.  But now that I understand the survival-development model Maja shared with me I find meaning in the process not the destination.

Overall, I’m really enjoying to the program.  Definitely time and energy well spent.

Below is a photo of the OMNIUM 15 class.