The most ‘MBA’ MBA of them all

HBS Alumni and entrepreneur Agustina Rosenfeld is back with edition two of her ‘How I became an entrepreneur by mistake’, in which gives current students a refreshingly open take on tough choices in life and career.

They say it takes two to tango. As an Argentinean I should know that statement to be true. However, as I pirouetted to the rhythm of applications, admission letters and a pre-MBA internship, somehow I lost my dancing partner. All of a sudden I found myself all alone in the stage of life trying to execute one of the most challenging choreographies I would ever pursue.
After seven years together, one of which we spent as a married couple, my ex and I could no longer find a way to make our relationship work. So we both embarked into our MBA experiences in Boston as separate individuals: I came to HBS, he went to the HBS on the other side of the river.
I guess this only proves how big of an overachiever I can be: I cannot think of a more perilous challenge for an international student than to make the decision to walk away from a dangerously fragile relationship while simultaneously figuring out the “MBA in the US experience”.
On the one hand, HBS was the best place to go through such a life-changing journey. For instance, the HBS experience was so different to anything I had done before that the novelty of being single again after 7 years was somehow diluted by everything else that seemed so new and exotic to me. Additionally, HBS offers such a packed social life that even though I was going to bed alone I was way too tired and excited to feel sad and lonely at night. Besides, HBS is –as CPD would like us to believe- a great opportunity to rebrand ourselves, and to pursue new horizons. I cannot think of a better way of rebranding myself than going from professional married woman to struggling single student.
On the other hand, at times HBS would bring an additional shade of darkness into the nightmare. By now all of you -RCs and ECs- are aware of how demanding and stressful the HBS life can be. On top of struggling to figure out the case method, staying on top on the busy social life (I was SA Events and Products rep for my section) and the many recruiting events, I was trying to figure out myself. Not only was I confused on what my next professional step should be but, more importantly, I was redesigning my identity as a whole.
It’s inevitable that you will go through or witness periods of uncertainty and paradigm shifts at HBS; some will bounce quickly, while others will hear similar stories throughout your HBS years. Some will bounce quickly; some others might take almost two years to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. That was my case and it was hard. When I talked to MBA students and alumni back in early 2012, they all told me how I was about to enjoy the best two years of my life. Well… they were not the worst, but I wouldn’t benchmark everything against them and call them the best! That said, I definitely hope to live a life in which the best two years make the ones that have just gone by fade in comparison.
They were, to be fair, indeed two years of personal growth, of building new friendships, of exploring new horizons –both geographically and emotionally, and not least of all, of making lots of mistakes.
However, I still have not shared with you why I was the “most MBA” student you could have ever met. For this, let me provide some context: in Argentina you must wait for three years of marriage to pass before you can file for divorce. That third wedding anniversary would only coincide with 2014 commencement. So during HBS I was not only an MBA student, but I was literally the in-person version of the famous “MBA” joke: “Married But Available”. Try to top that!
If anything, that bitter coincidence reinforced the importance of not taking myself too seriously all the time. It was Saint Thomas More who wrote “blessed he who knows how to laugh at himself, for he would never spend a day without laughter”. From that perspective, maybe my two years at HBS were then again the best in my life, haha.
Although this chapter seems to be a bit far off the topic of the column –“How I became an entrepreneur by mistake”-, it is not. Do not underestimate how much your personal decisions influence your career path. Take time to factor everything in while exploring recruiting, but do not rush into conclusions until you have an offer. After all you will only be able to make a fully informed decision if you know who you are, who you are with, what projects you have together and how the offer that you have at hand impacts/alters/fuels those plans.
And always remember, these could be the best two years of your life, but if they aren’t, it’s fine





November 24, 2014
Published in the Harbus - Harvard Business School newspaper
http://www.harbus.org/2014/the-most-mba-mba-of-them-all/

How I became an entrepreneur by mistake

As RCs move into recruiting season, and ECs face down its home stretch, Agustina Rosenfeld (HBS MBA ’14) shares her experience charting her career during her time at HBS.
There is some truth to John Lennon’s idea that life is what happens while we are busy making plans. But isn’t life better when we set aside time for planning?
Forgive me for stating the obvious: you are not at HBS by pure chance. As HBS students you are all excellent at being two steps ahead in your life, even the most terrible procrastinators on campus are much better at this than the average population.
No matter how much luck might have come in your way, you made it to this top business school because you were able to seize opportunities as they came along; because you were sharp and brave –or even rightfully stupid – enough to go after that dream, to push yourself harder, to stretch and reach out to that wonderful mentor who helped you redirect your career path. For creatures like you and me, a greater life is what happens because we make plans.
But what happens when we are missing the clarity to identify what the next step should look like? What happens when we run out of personal or borrowed plans? Life still goes on… but we feel uncomfortable in the absence of a map, and feel unnerved to discover that our compass no longer points to our true north.
I will dedicate this column to my tale, the tale of a girl who went from “picture perfect” –working at JPMorgan and ready to embark on her HBS experience- to graduating as the 3% without a job offer. How did a girl who graduated magna cum laude in Philosophy while also completing a full-time major in Economics became a woman who, for the first time in her life, did not know which path to follow? When did she lose sight of her direction?
I will bare my soul and share my journey with no intention other than allowing you to learn from my mistakes. There will be little self-praising and a lot more about lucky discoveries. Next chapters will include personal and career faux-pas such us “How I was the living joke as of MBA as Married but Available” as well as “How a to turn a rookie mistake during an interview into a next round pass” and “How to massively fail in an interview but still leave it with grace”.
My main goal is to create a space where, while voicing my own experience, I can channel your concerns, your fears, your anxieties, and make you feel like there is someone holding your hands and telling you “It is ok. It will be fine”. You will notice that there will be a lot of personal and professional anecdotes intertwined, because –let’s face it- life is always somehow messy.
Feeling lost was beyond scary at first, but it turned out to be one of the most liberating and empowering experiences of my life. I don’t think I would have become the happy, fierce, fearless woman I am today if I hadn’t navigated such dark streams.
By no means I encourage you to walk my footsteps. But if you find yourself on such a path, I hope my story encourages you to take the risks that you need to take; that my story motivates you to reach out to the right friends and mentors; that my story makes you feel less alone and more empowered.
Let’s share this journey together and create a forum where mistakes are seized as learning opportunities. A forum where uncertainty and doubt can become a way toward better-informed decision-making processes. A forum where a turbulent recruiting process can be an eye-opening experience. And most importantly to create as space where be learn to laugh at ourselves, because no matter how great over-achievers we might be, we are still humans and make mistakes.
If anything, as a current entrepreneur and a former undecided student I have learnt that there is great knowledge in embracing and understanding the rejections and obstacles than come in our way. And while plans might enable a greater life, make sure that before sketching your next and best version of life, and before outlining the strategic moves to achieve that version, you first set aside time to allow yourself to be lost and listen to your inner gut, as confused as it might initially appear.
Expect to face uncertainty and prepare yourself to be comfortable with doubt, as an even greater life is what happens when we our greatest plan is to become our true selves.

October 13, 2014
Published in Harbus - Harvard Business School newspaper
http://www.harbus.org/2014/how-i-became-an-entrepreneur-by-mistake/