Believe it or not, these holidays of mine are not only about traveling. They are also a lot about preparing about the MBA. First, I am recharging my batteries, as I will face a very demanding MBA start.

Second, and most important, I am planing what I want to do with the MBA. And I am planning it on several levels. I am trying to apply helicopter personal leadership. Simple enough, the idea is to be able to go up and down in my mind like an helicopter.

First, when I was applying, I went up up up, and got the perspective on my goals and motivations, the why an MBA? and what to do with it? questions. The long term future.
Trouble is that, once into the MBA, I anticipate the social dinamycs to be quite intense. A pound or two of herd thinking: Everyone should do IBanking / PE / VC / Consulting / Join the Rugby team / join the rollerblading team!. You get the idea. And that can be quite a distraction from my high level goals. That is why I need to go to the second level of the helicopter.

From the high altitudes (like now in the Andes), go midlevel, be able to plan for the intermediate steps to get to my goals during these next two years. For example: If I am not going to Consulting, it makes no sense to train a lot for case based interviews. I know that it looks simplistic now, but inside the MBA the herd thinking can hit very strong (ask your MBA graduate friend…).

Third, like an helicopter, land and be on the terrain, walk my talk and talk my walk and get my results deliver. This will happen in (OMG!) a couple of weeks when the MBA starts. Work towards my goals as the way to accomplish my midterm and longterm goals.

That is the basic cycle. I am working on defining midterm goals for my MBA and planning on how to reach them. However, I believe that during the next years conditions and opportunities will change. Therefore make no mistake: I intend to have my mental helicopter well maintained and with a tank full of gas. Anytime I need it, jump on it and soar to the heights, get a fresh perspective on the longterm goals, go a little bit down, get more details on how to reach them, plan next actions, land and keep working.

Like my previous recipe for a succesful move, this one is simple too: Get in the helicopter as much as you needed, get perspective, plan next steps, get them done, and redo as necessary.

Simple, yet it can be quite exhausting at times

My travel keeps going. After witnessing the final of the World Cup in a house full of French people (depression was in the air) in the Bay Area, I flew to Lima, the 10 million people capital of Peru. Now, I write these lines from a youth hostel (I have no luxury hotel points left to redeem, like the angel) in beautiful Cuzco, and tomorrow I will visit mighty Machu Pichu.

Now the best part in Lima was not the city itself (wintertime, cold, humid,…) but meeting with friends over there. First we meet with Mario, Martha and little Paula, from the Bay Area. They drove us around, gave directions for Cuzco which we are following and brought us to the best restaurants in town (La Gloria in Lima was amazing!).

Then I organized a lunch meeting with the three admits and future classmates from Peru. I was not in admits WE, but I take advantage of every other opportunity to meet future classmates and catch up. We had a great time sharing plans, histories, motivations, goals, and tips. The only regret is that they only had two hours to meet, (they are working until the end of July) and time flew like an arrow. That is life! we still have plenty of time to catch up on London.

Tomorrow, Machu Pichu

(not MBA related post) I’ve just finished my 2nd visit to LA. The first one, almost two years back in time, was a complete disappointment.

This time though, my visit totally rocked! L.A. is a very special place that needs a special state of mind for it to be enjoyed. Let me share with you the wisdom (passed unto me by others) that allowed me to enjoy it:

• Discard the notion that L.A. is a city. It is not, it is a connection of interesting neighborhoods / sites / communities and attractions. If you expect a city, you will be dissapointed.
• Choose what you want to visit and plan to stay nearby. Driving can take forever otherwise. You are not “on the other side of the city, just a 30′ drive” but most likely 2h traffic jam away.
• Go visit Orange County beaches and relax for a day. The beaches are so much welcoming here than in cold-foggy Northern California!
• Think twice before visiting Hollywood attractions. They are tacky and in real light quite dissapointing. Either a movie buff or you’d be better off…
• Visiting the Getty Center. What a beautiful complex. The picture does not pay justice to the moving architecture. A must-see world-class collection housed in one of the most amazing yet very subtle classy and understated elegantbuilding I have visited in my entire life.
• L.A. - O.C. - San Diego has something for everyone, take advantage of it. I had a blast visiting Legoland, the LEGO theme park, and remembering about all those hours I spent as a child playing with the brightly colored bricks. Priceless!

I hope you can enjoy your SOCAL (South California) experience.

Today I have a computer to catch up with my emails and my online reading. So many days on the move, I have plenty of material to catch up online:

• 100+ emails (all of them got an automated reply explaining that I was Away)
• On the London Business School Portal, 70+ conversations without reading!
• Blog posts of fellow students: 50+ posts (bloglines is counting for me)
• Other stuff…

That is all I get after two weeks away, not bad. And I am reading a lot offline also. O love having holidays!