Blonde MBADocumenting the life of a blonde MBA student in sunny California. Maybe some blondes DO have brains!

So I haven’t really talked about the current Wall Street mortgage crisis for a few reasons: 1) I unfortunately (or maybe fortunately right now) I don’t own a house (hello, I live in CALIFORNIA where they cost 5x more than they should); 2) I’ve been studying for a few tests this week so haven’t really kept up; and 3) simply, although I’m an MBA, I don’t really understand financial markets and don’t usually like to talk about things I don’t know much about because, let’s face it…I’m blonde!

That said though, as this is so far the biggest financial crisis of the century, it is going to affect all of us if it hasn’t already. We don’t know what the short-term or long-term effects of this or any number of financial crises will be for any of us.

What I’m concerned about as an MBA student? My federal school loans; an ongoing unemployment crisis that could affect the job market when I graduate; my taxes now or when I again contribute towards a dual-income household. Beyond that, every American is struggling with debt in this recession. I mean, I do my best to control my debt, but I’m a young urban professional student who has to take on debt to get through school. I got used to living on a disposable income right out of college, bought a new car, moved cross-country to a more expensive state, spent money on a wedding, started thinking about owning vs. renting, then quit my job to go back to school, so I’m not really in a position where I can grow my savings right now.

I hope that our leaders, now and in the future, make the right decisions to guide our country out of this mess. As for me, the investment I’m banking on is my education and the belief that my fellow MBA students and I can learn the skills needed to become succesful leaders in these crucial times…

Phew, I just go out of my first test…not too bad, but if figured I’d wait to say anything about my study group experience until I saw if if paid off or not! On my previous post on study groups, I mentioned my fear of “groupthink” and collectively answering the question wrong…

I forgot something else…5 different people, 5 different study strategies. Alone, this is OK, to each their own device to learn the material. Collectively, however, it’s kind of hard for the person who memorized, yes, MEMORIZED the chapters to study with the person who reworded the concepts via acronyms, real world examples, and songs (j/k, sort of)! Personally, I think you want a little of all the study strategies - there is no one best way - but it does make for an interesting study group.

The results? Being the first test, none of us really knew what to expect… I think ROTE MEMORIZATION was overkill, but it was helpful for me to retype the chapter outlines for repetition, add in some acronyms for possible short answer lists (of which there were many options) and look at the cases we covered in class.

Honestly, the study group did help in a couple of ways. First, there were a couple of things I probably would have skipped over or forgotten to include if someone in the group didn’t bring it up. Second, where one person may not have understood a concept entirely, another was able to explain it in a different way that might have made more sense. As long as you keep a sense of the study strategies that work for you, this can be a helpful addition to your study time!

Yeah…Blonde MBA is on the move, literally! I finally downloaded the iPhone Wordpress applet, so I can update this blog on-the-go from my iPhone!

My iPhone is now officially boosting my productivity, beyond just checking my email or playing solitaire ’til my thumbs hurt…now I can write whenever, wherever!

Just one more step towards a mobile work environment for Blonde MBA!

Well, I’m getting ready to settle in over the weekend a bit to study for the first 2 exams in my MBA program next week! That said, with every exam (or even just for weekly homework), the study groups are forming…during the week, on the weekends, between review sessions, and even on Facebook!

I’ve never been a big fan of study groups, but it really depends on the type of class and the people involved. In a study group, it’s easier, I think, to get into the “groupthink” mode, where everyone argues about the answer, decides unanimously on it, then they get the answer wrong and have to figure it out on their own anyway!

On the other hand, your weaknesses can be another study group member’s strength, and you can really learn things that you might not understand on your own. What’s your experience??

I’m going to check out 1 or 2 study groups for this first round of exams and see how it goes (i.e. if they add value to my study time, or simply add time!). I have to say, though, this is my normal study group…

I had the great opportunity today to go to a talk by Ken Blanchard, author of the “One-Minute Manager” series, and now the “One-Minute Entrepreneur.” It was sponsored by the Entrepreneur’s Organization ($1 million in revenue at least), but tied more, I think, to organizational behavior and managing people…

Blanchard talked about 4 “P’s” or focuses that need apply for both successful organizations and successful people:
- Passion: Success knows no limitations if it is something you are passionate about. If you are weak in some skills you might need, find mentors or other business associates that can help you out.
- Profit: Find something that pays you for your passion, then learn how to best manage money and people Focus on cost creativity, thinking of related avenues to build onto your business, rather than cost cutting your business down to nothing.
- People: The more you care for your employees, customers, and the community, the more you and your company will succeed. Build up your employees to succeed, creatively serve customers, and give back to the community what you were blessed with.
- Priorities: Don’t reach for success at the cost of your life. Your priorities should be God first, spouse, kids, THEN job. In the end, all you will have is who you loved and who loved you.

Above these 4 “P’s”, Ken Blanchard’s best insight on success was “how you think about something changes it’s energy”, negatively or positively…a ‘can-do’ positive attitude will get you much further then a negative ‘never-gonna-happen, why even try!’

As with any election season (and Bush’s entire time in the White House), the satire of this year’s Presidential and Vice Presidential races is well underway, and most recently, has added VP candidate Sarah Palin from Alaska to the mix. Everyone said she was looks just like Tina Fey, and finally…Tina Fey as Palin has aired (and is sure to continue throughout the election!!)

This satire of Sarah Palin vs. Hilary Clinton makes fun of, but also brings to light, the concept of change in the White House, no matter what party comes into power…either the first black president with Obama, or the first female in the White House, period! As a fellow female professional, in the instances of both Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin, I’m curious…does this (or even should this) influence the female vote at all?

I’m all for women uniting, but personally feel that credentials and your stance on issues is more important than this such affiliation! Either way, enjoy!

So, as it’s been almost a week since I posted, I’ve obviously been still trying to figure out my schedule…i.e. I need to work on my time management. Luckily, that is the topic for our first workshop sponsored by the career management center this week!

At one of our career center meetings, we heard from some MBA alumni, who said one thing they had to learn was how to compartmentalize their life…i.e. using every hour for a specific purpose, and focusing 100% on the task at hand. As one said, he would focus completely on his work when he was there, focus completely on class when he was there. focus completely on his homework in his 2-4 hour allotted period, then focus completely on his wife during his ‘remaining’ time (a good idea I think

While I’m not working right now, so am probably not nearly as busy, my life is divided between school (just a small portion of the actual MBA experience), career management (including workshops, distinguished speakers, networking, and resume-building), building up my transferable skills (i.e. leadership through professional organizations, skill certifications) outside of class, oh, and taking care of my home, husband, and tennis skills…

Life is busy and hectic, but anything in life worth doing is worth doing well !

This was how we spent our last management class, testing our awareness…watch the video and count how many times the team in white passes the ball…

Test Your Awareness: Do The Test - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Did you see it?

Oops…with the start of school, it appears more time is elapsing between my blog posts, as I’m trying to fit in web time between hours spent on an extreme amount of assigned reading for the first 2 weeks of class…I’m still working on figuring out the best study schedule to stay on top of my regular stuff!

So…I am here in a MBA program that is turning out the decision makers of tomorrow’s business world, yet my first team for our group project could not decide on or even come up with a team name. Other teams in our class so far include “Team Cobra” (um, OK) and “Playdough Junkies”. One of our team members brought up a few…a) Happy Campers (b) The Mouseketeers (we have a Disney theme by the way) or (c) Blue Barracudas (some “Legends of the Hidden Temple” reference I don’t know about).

The rest of the team was not sure about these, but as the best the rest of us could come up with was “No Names” or “The Lamewads”, we figured we should take what we could get. “Blue Barracudas” it is then…we figured if we don’t know what it means, we should at least sound fierce!

~Blonde ‘Barracuda’ MBA

(P.S. OMG, I just found “Legends of the Hidden Temple” is some old Nickelodeon game show…I was in High School when it aired! I feel old…)

Blue Barracudas on game show...yikes!

Did you enjoy your Labor Day festivities? I had a good weekend…

As part of a last of summer ‘hurrah’ while getting into the swing of school again, a college friend and I celebrated by going to the concert of one of our favorite artists…Jack Johnson from the North Shore of Hawaii! My friend wondered how exciting a concert with one of the most mellow rock artists would be, but it was definitely something in person…

Jack Johnson up-close in concert, sort of...

Awesome visuals on the flat screens!

Jack Johnson is very environmentally active, especially in saving the environment and oceans for his native Hawaiian islands (and I suppose for his surf habit), and this was evident with promotions for taking part in activities such as carpooling to the event, bringing your own reusable water bottles, sponsoring organizations in the “Village Green” at the concert, and even campaigns to “Vote Environmental” in the upcoming presidential election…even his latest CD Sleep Through The Static was produced in a totally solar-powered studio!

I know I definitely enjoy the efforts of such campaigns, such as cleaning up our oceans so I could body board the next day in Huntington Beach, watching the dolphins, and listening to Jack Johnson reminding me to “go with the flow, you don’t stop!”