At some point during the first week of my MBA Basecamp at Desautels in McGill, I heard the phrase “Middle age crisis usually leads people to buy a Ferrari. Quarter age crisis leads them to pursue an MBA”. This stayed with me and has made me think deeply in recent days.
The overall conclusion I have made is that if crisis is what led me to take the decision to come to Desautels, then I welcome as many crisis as I can for the rest of my life.
My “crisis” came when, just after completing my 7th year of working for Unilever in Mexico, I moved to Montreal. I held a very challenging position at Unilever where I had a job that I enjoyed very much and pleased me greatly. I was rather well paid, managed my own agenda and had an excellent relationship with my customers, peers and superiors. In general, I can say I loved my job.
However, something inside me began claiming for a change, something inside me just refused settling for that life, as good as it was. As the voice inside grew stronger I put all my efforts towards the new goal: beginning a new life at Desautels and moving to Canada.
It has been almost one month since I first arrived in Montreal and looking backwards it seems like a blink of an eye. However, it has been the most life fulfilling eye-blink. I have had the opportunity to meet the most impressive people, coming from all kinds of backgrounds and carrying every kind of breathtaking story to share. Sitting in class with such amazing people has felt like a journey around the world in a single day. At the same time, with so many thousand of traveled kilometers each one of us has on our records, a growing feeling of being close to home and close to family is developing. Though we have known each other for only a few days, the fact that each one of us has renounced something, namely a stable job, family and friends or even our native language, has made us brothers and sisters of the same purpose.
In my specific case, almost seven years have gone since the last time I was in a classroom. So much time away from school has made my comeback a bit challenging, but just attending one month worth of such interesting lectures and sessions has reminded me of how fulfilling it is to learn and how true it is that learning opens one’s world. As pleasant and enriching as it seems, the entire experience is far from easy. These past days were just a small glance of what the MBA experience is and it has shown me that I drew the limits of what I thought were my maximum efforts too short from what they really are. Everyday is a constant reminder that excellence is not built overnight, it is the result of consciously living each day as a high performer in every aspect of life.
So, after four weeks I can say that had the MBA lasted only for these four weeks, it would have already been worth the life change. Then again as the person at Basecamp said, if this is a “life crisis”, then I wish as many people could experience it. For me, movement and change mean life.
About the author
Originally from Mexico, Julio Castañeda holds a B.A of International Business at Tecnologico de Monterrey, where he graduated in 2010. After working at Unilever for 7 years, he has decided to push his personal limits and undertake an MBA at Desautels, where he plans to join the McGill MBA Entrepreneurship Club and the McGill MBA Case Competition Association. Post-graduation, he plans to go into consumer goods and retail industries.
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