Grad school, and MBA programs in particular, provide you with a series of small goals. Accepted? Success! Got an A on a problem set? Success! Earned high marks in a particularly difficult class? Scored an interview? Got an offer? Graduated? Success!!! You get the picture.
With so many short-term successes within reach, it is easy to forget to consider what long-term, genuine success means. A classmate of mine asked me for my definition of success weeks if not months ago. I was not able to articulate an immediate answer.
I had an excuse: I was obsessing over exams and then the bar exam. There’s always an excuse. Always a diversion ripe for the picking by who aren’t sure they can answer a tough question.
To my grandmother, success was all about family. She got married, supported her husband, had children, and grandchildren. Not only was that enough, she didn’t consider any other path to success.
My mother did much the same thing, except she graduated from college–the first person (male or female) to do so on her side of the family. She worked for a few years but her version of success was wrapped up in living life as a responsible, careful person and raising “successful” children. To my mother’s credit, my brother and I have earned our fair share of gold stars.
But what is my personal version of success? For so long I defined success as graduating from Stanford and then, once that had been done, graduating from the JD/MBA program and getting a job. I’ve done that. What now?
I still don’t have a ready answer.
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