November 14, 2007

When the learning happens

I find that 95% of the lessons I'll remember from HBS were learned at one of two times: IMG_5243.JPG

  1. The last 15 minutes of any class where the protagonist is in the room. We get a visit in about 1 out of 3 classes, and about 1 out of 4 of those visits I'll remember forever. Sometimes the entrepreneur has really practical advice, sometimes they're just inspiring, & sometimes their tale is cautionary.
  2. The last day of any class. Professors usually gives a summer lecture at this point, and it helps me figure out why we sat through all the other cases. Personally, I rarely see the big picture after discussing something for 80 minutes, but I am entertained enough that those are enjoyable. After sitting through 20-30 of those per topic, if you tell me what I learned at the end of all that, it clicks all of a sudden. If I just sit through that lecture on the first day without the cases? I'm sure I fall asleep, miss everything, and claim it's irrelevant. The system works.

After 3 semesters, I'm finally seeing the pattern.

Nov 14, 2007 11:54:01 AM | Learned at HBS, Written remotely

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From 0 to Irish in 72 hours Crazy weekend. My buddy, Paullie Walnuts, went to Notre Dame alum, & he wanted to expose a group of his friends to his alma mater. Well, whatever you think about the Fighting Irish's football squad (they're in the middle of their worst season ever), I can tell you that seeing one of their games in person is an experience every sports fan should have once. As a serious, longtime Red Sox fan, I know a lot about sports loyalty. I had never been to a big time college football game, but now I understand the vast gap between zeal for professional vs. college athletics. It's not even close. Sox fans are nuts, and I'm one of the nuttiest, but even tame Notre Dame fans would be considered over-the-top in Boston. I wanted a truly authentic South Bend experience from this weekend, & that's exactly what we got. We walked around the campus a ton. We tailgated like crazy. We saw every second of the game. We listened to a CD of the bands common songs so we could sing along throughout the game. We even threw one of our friends in the air 21 times after the 3rd touchdown, b/c that's what tradition dictates. 2 key takeaways from my time in Indiana: It's a lot of fun to be a part of a group with traditions & passion. I'm going to seek out these groups whenever I'm given options. It's unhealthy and unproductive to spend 48-72 hours obsessing about a sporting event, from the time required to the food and drink associated with fandom. I saw this during the Sox playoff run, & now it's been reinforced. I only have room for so many of these experiences in my life. These are somewhat contradictory. Perhaps I need to sped more time at tailgates and Sox playoff games to solidify my learnings :-)
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The only foul ball I ever caught Every word of what you're about to read is true, no matter how ridiculous it sounds: In the summer of 2002, the Red Sox played the Braves [complete boxscore], and I flew back from San Francisco to catch the game. I brought 3 friends from Bain & Co, and it was their first time at the ball park. In the top of the 7th inning, Julio Franco came up to bat with no outs after Rafael Furcal's leadoff double. The Sox then replaced starter, Frank Castillo with relief pitcher, Rich Garces. This at-bat would be interesting enough, because Franco would go on to become the oldest player in baseball history, and Garces might well have been the most obese. It was at this moment that Franco fouled a ball into the stands, and one of my friends thought to ask me if I'd ever caught one. I was ashamed to say (and this is as close to verbatim as I can be 5.5 years later): "No, I've never caught a ball. I've been to more than 200 games in these exact seats, and dozens more in other seats, and I've never been closer than 5 feet to a ball. I'm getting to an age where, if I do catch one, I'll have to give it to a nearby kid, which will kill me. My life will be truly incomplete if never catch one of those things." Now, if there weren't witnesses, you wouldn't believe what I'm about to say, but there are people that can vouch for this: THE NEXT PITCH WAS HIT FOUL RIGHT NEAR ME! It gets better. The ball is a screamer flying right at the girl in the seat next to me. She wisely ducks out of the way, the ball hits the back of her seat, and starts to sail back over the rail and away from us. I reach over the rail and pick it out of the air. Now, I'm not only just happy about catching the ball, but I'm flabbergasted by the timing, and so is everyone that just heard what I had said. We all start jumping up and down, and screaming things like, "Are you kidding me?!?!?!" Here's the funny part: Because the Sox were playing the Braves, whose games are always on TBS, it was televised across the nation. I start to get phone calls and text messages from...

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I'm a Sox fan first and a Harvard Business School student second.

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