"Always be in love..."

"In fact, living in the moment seems to be the French woman's approach to many things in life, the same one that separates her from, say, relentlessly perfectionist New Yorkers.  This entails always keeping herself curious and au courant of what's going on around her, whether it's the lastest Xavier Dolan film or an expo at the Grand Palais.  In the words of de la Fressange 'Always be in love with a man, a project, a home.' And when a woman is in love--no matter what age she is--it shows."

...sometimes I read Vogue

I interpret this to mean that you should have passions in life, and maintain and evolve them as you grow (older).  Those passions will shine through in your engagements with others.

Cherish today

"Cherish the face you have today.  It's the one you'l wish to have ten years from now."
-Caroline de Maigret

Wait for another deal

"There's always another deal that's coming down the chute."  Professor Charlie Wu received this advice from the head of Morgan Stanley's New York office when he first started there after business school.  Morgan Stanley had just walked away from one of the biggest bond offerings in history because they didn't like the risks associated with it.  It's better to walk away from a deal than take a bad deal due to pressures.

Ethical decision making

Many suggest you think about your decisions by imagining how you would feel if it was on the front page of The New York Times.  Instead, I suggest that you think about your life as an HBS case, a case that will be taught at your 25th reunion.  The audience will be your partner, your kids, and your friends.  How would you feel about this decision then?
-Professor Charlie Wu, Real Property, 10/29/2014

Contrarian

Always be a contrarian.  A value investor who doesn't move with the crowd.

This is harder than it seems.  Even large institutional investors don't look for value opportunities, but rather move where everyone else is moving.

This is going to require you to do your homework.  To deeply understand your company, your industry, and macro trends.  Otherwise you will be subject to the same rises and falls of the market that others experience, and you will not see the returns that value investors achieve.

Learning to speak

To speak, you have to address three prongs.

First, you have to do your homework, so you understand situations deeply so you can ask rich and informed questions.

Secondly, you have to build the confidence that your question and opinion is important.

Lastly, you have to move beyond surface level thoughts and observations, and dig deeper to ask questions, first in your head and then out loud, to understand situations and not just make assumptions.  That process of deeper thinking will allow you to move from observing others asking questions to actually asking questions yourself.

Doing your homework and learning to speak

Feeling like you have to speak can cause you to say stupid things.

I see this play out again and again in class with others who are talking for the sake of participation points.  They trip themselves up with ill-informed comments that invite criticism.

To have an opinion you have to do your homework.  You have to deeply understand the underlying principles of the situation.

I struggle to speak in class.  One part of that is related to confidence.  But another part is in doing my homework.  Not just my homework for class, but my preparation for moving into the business world in general.  I need to be better prepared, and to be successful I will need to be the BEST prepared person.

Professor Arthur Segal said at a small dinner on 10/28/2014 that no one will teach you about the real estate business.  Don't seek apprenticeship programs.  You're going to have to teach yourself, and learn on your own just like you always have.  Since he was speaking to a military student, he said "you'll have to teach yourself like you always have, maybe even how you literally taught yourself how to survive."

Professor Segal said, you know to know the deal better than anyone else.  You have to read the leases, because no one else has.  You have to meet the tenants face to face.  You have to understand the financing structure.

I need to do my homework, be the best prepared person in the room, to ensure that I survive and thrive as I transition.  Doing my homework will also give me the confidence to speak up, in class, in meetings, at social dinners, and elsewhere in a business context.

Benefits of amateurism

"Ford had attracted to his factory a core of perhaps a dozen or a dozen and a half young, fitted mechanics, none of whom had developed set ways of doing things.  Encouraged by Ford, this group carried out production experiments and worked out fresh ideas in gauging, fixture, design, machine tool design and placement, factory layout, quality control, and materials handling.  Had the factory been rooted in a definite manufacturing tradition, such as Yankee armory practice or even 'Western' practice as exemplified by the Western wheel works, the Ford company might never have finished cars for the masses.  In a sense the Ford production engineers took what was the best from each approach to manufacture and overcame limitations to these methods by adding their own brand of production techniques."
-quoted in HBS Case "Ford vs G: The Evolution of Mass Production"

Physicist Michael Polayni commented "I would have never conceived my theory, let along made a great effort to verify it, if I had been more familiar with major developments in physics that were taking place.  Moreover, my initial ignorance of the powerful, false objections that were raised against my ideas protected those ideas from being nipped in the bud."
-quote in HBS BSSE Module Note - "Exploration vs. Exploitation"

Article I wrote for the "HBS Survival Guide" on being an LGBT student at HBS

One of the reasons I was excited to come to HBS was because it would be the first place I would be fully out as gay.  But I also had concerns.  I wondered if the HBS community would embrace LGBT students and their partners.  Would HBS be a place where my partner and I could find a home?  

I am sure these emotions and questions were common among many LGBT admitted students.  There is no way to fully describe the diversity of experiences LGBT students have at HBS, so I’ll simply share three short stories that epitomize my experience as a member of the HBS community.

My first story is about getting to know students in my section on a deeper level.  Section A had four open LGBT students and two students who are members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).  In LEAD class one day, our section discussed a scenario where a gay man struggled with whether he should be “out” at work.  The conversation continued after class, with LGBT and LDS students talking in the hallway.  Both groups wanted to learn more about each other’s communities, so we set up a time in the evening to share our stories and get to know each other better.  

Tim, an LDS sectionmate, and his wife Aubrey had us over to their home one evening.  After an awkward start (one LGBT student brought wine over as a welcoming gift, which the LDS students politely declined), we started by answering each other’s questions.   After the LGBT students shared our coming out stories, one LDS student told the story of his father struggling to reveal his Mormon faith to his conservative Catholic grandparents.  His different “coming out” story had a profound impact on me.  In the course of one evening we found meaningful similarities among our different communities, and we went on to become truly great friends. 

My second story is about joining the team that planned the first-ever LGBTQ Conference at Harvard.  Since this conference was the first of its kind, we weren’t sure people would attend, and we struggled to find speakers who could inspire a large audience.  Eventually, one of the planners suggested that I share my own story at the conference, since I had served in the military under the restrictive “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.  I was initially hesitant to share such a personal story, but with encouragement from the planning team, another LGBT veteran and I put together a panel of LGBT military professionals.  On the day of the conference, this panel was incredibly well attended, in part because our sectionmates and friends attended.  They came not just to show support, but out of a real desire to hear our unique stories.  When the conference asked attendees for feedback, our panel was rated as one of the highlights of the weekend’s events.  

My third and final story took place in the middle of the fall semester of the RC year.  My husband and I had planned our wedding far in advance, and our big day happened to fall right after first semester midterms.  As a new RC, I was completely overwhelmed, not just with academics and wedding planning, but with the added concern of whether our marriage would be accepted by family, friends, and the community.  

One evening, a group of sectionmates encouraged my fiancé and me to take a break from the grind and the stress to attend a friend’s birthday party.  I went begrudgingly, thinking of all the case reading I had to do and how I still hadn’t ordered the wedding flowers.  When we walked into the bar, our entire section shouted “Surprise!”  Our section had planned us a wedding shower, to share their love, support, and happiness.  

What ties these three stories together?  The lesson is that you can feel confident that you will find a home at HBS.  HBS embraces LGBT students and partners.  In these two years, you’ll have more fun than you can imagine.  You’ll have more support than you could hope for.  You’ll be challenged beyond what you had ever anticipated.  And if you come with an open mind, you’ll find you can make a positive difference in the HBS community, and HBS will undoubtedly have a positive impact on you.

Incidental Anger

"Incidental anger--anger triggered by a prior, unrelated experience that, from an objective perspective, should not influence our current judgments or decisions--can sidetrack our decisions by making us unreceptive to what others have to say...... It seems that incidental anger can increase the appeal of criticizing others and their ideas....

"The next time you feel angry, for whatever reason, you might try to avoid tasks such as evaluating the contributions of team members or providing performance feedback to colleagues to employees.

"...choose to evaluate ideas when we are most capable of doing so objectively and thoroughly."

-Sidetracked by Francesca Gino, Pg 47-49

Creating and Capturing value in multi-party negotiations

Creating and capturing value in multi-party negotiations requires a continuous focus on information gather - what are the interests and constraints of every party?

It also requires that you prepare not only an at-the-table strategy, but also a strategy for controlling the process.

-Negotiation Intensive Class, 1 October 2014.