Woke up to a throwback post on my Facebook shared by my brother this morning. It has been seven years since I graduated with an MBA qualification. Honoured to be featured on national newspapers, it was my first personal reflection published to wider public. MBA, a mean to an end, I haven’t stop learning from reflection ever since. Hence the existence of my personal blog today.
“Reflect and learn” has always been the essence to my personal growth and development. By reflecting, I was able to review how far I’ve come from point zero. Reminiscing a decade ago when I was young and free, I didn’t know which path was best for me. At least, I know I wanted to succeed in life. To stand out from crowd requires resources, considerable efforts and sacrifices. Resources were always scarce and I’m too of a mediocre to earn any scholarship or convince my parents into investing my education abroad.
My learning journey
Instinctively, I pursued MBA on part-time locally. I wasn’t sure where it will bring me, but I know learning is never a waste of time. I spent three years juggling it with a demanding career at L’Oreal. Thankfully, there was University of Strathclyde that provided distance learning opportunity in Asia. I was working over-time almost everyday. Work-life balance didn’t exist in many organisations back in Asia. I am not sure about now though.
Perseverance to succeed
Meeting classmates twice a week after working hours, I remember arriving study centre at 8.30pm and left around 2am. Then, back to work the next day at 8.30am. Sometimes, we didn’t go home when approaching assignment’s due date. Weekends were sacrificed to attend back to back lectures. I held on to these commitments for over three years, saying no to a million other things. I took these as challenges and constantly reminded myself – “If I’m not doing this, what else would I be doing? Probably partying on ladies night or sitting around on weekends and call it a day?” Besides, while I have resources to do it, I didn’t want to regret not capitalising on them. I was also at a juncture of trying to achieve something meaningful at early 30s.
Hard work pays
Call it hard work or by luck, I graduated with merit at the end of 2014. I couldn’t believe it. The achievement made me so proud inside-out and completely changed my perception towards ‘impossibilities‘. I’m not as smart, but hard work has got me there. I always wonder why institutions only provide scholarships to A-students or students with a cause, and not hard-working or practically-sound individuals? Risky investment and nothing to gain, huh? Throughout my life, I applied for three scholarships during undergraduate years and none of them got through. Not as clever? – Yes. Can’t think of a cause yet? – Yes. Naive, at least I tried. In view of my desperation, my parents have fortunately funded my education. I promised to make them proud in return.
In the end, I must say hard work and willpower eventually paid off. They are infinite and pretty much immeasurable.
Today
Education is just the beginning
One must be crazy to expect massive return from education investment immediately. I see education as personal growth and development; a good career will come along the way at the right time. Didn’t move much of a needle at the beginning mainly because I was already starting a new role in a new organisation, I was determined to practise what I have learned at work. Well, this is a tricky one as theories are idealistic and may not necessarily work in a real world. In this context, I am talking about management skills and not technical ABC process. People management is by far the most complex skill one can learn and it takes time to master. I took on different roles within similar organisation, reflected and learned along the way.
Seven years today, I’m currently based out of London within similar organisation. It wasn’t an easy move to the UK due to the long list of stringent requirements. Apart from being a self-sponsor and receiving support from my current organisation, part of the license to work in the UK requires relevant experiences, good academic results and qualification from recognised institutions. My MBA finally came into play. It echoed so many times by the officer that I had to say it here.
Reflect and learn
I would say whichever qualification is a mean to an end than an end itself. First, MBA taught me self-awareness via reflect and learn. Only by being aware of ourselves that we can learn meaningfully. Of course, workplace serves as a practice ground to accumulate these valuable experiences. Second, combined with experiences, it provided me basis to face future challenges. Some say undergraduate should have prepared us for that. But honestly, I know nothing about career until I joined the workforce. It was shock after shock that postgraduate study was indeed a refresher for me; I guess that justifies the existence of internships these days. Third, a qualification is just a qualification. It has no meaning if we don’t know how to put it to good use.
Finally, like any other expertises – reflect and learn, do it a thousand times can only make us improve to a better self each day. As said by many, learning is a journey, not a destination.
“Its the not the Destination, It’s the journey.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
