Brilliant post by Guy Kawasaki about wheter it is appropiate or not for someone to try to be an VC. GO READ IT NOW! The Venture Capital Aptitude Test (VCAT)

After you have read it (very insightful), here are my results (I just leave the points that apply…)

Part I: Work Background

What is your background?

* Engineering (add 5 points)
* Sales (add 5 points)
* MBA (subtract 5 points) (definetely not cool this one, Guy)
Part II: First-Hand Experiences

* Worked at successful startup, so that you can speak first-hand about the ecstasy of entrepreneurship. (add 1 point)
* Worked at a public company, so that you know what the end goal looks like, warts and all. (add 1 point)
Part III: Necessary Knowledge

* How do I introduce a product with no budget? (add 2 points)
* How do I determine if there’s really market demand for my product? (add 1 point)
* What do I do if customers hate our first product? (add 1 point)
* How much time, energy, and money should I spend on patent protection? (add 1 point)
* What kind of people should I hire: young, old, unproven, proven, cheap, expensive, local, remote? (add 1 point)
* How do I get them to leave their current jobs without throwing a lot of money at them? (add 2 points)
* How do I tell my best friend that he can’t be chief technical officer just because he was a cofounder? (add 2 points)

That was fast, I just deleted many lines on the original post. The total is… 17 points.

Results

Here’s how to assess your readiness to become a venture capitalist:

* 40 or more points: Call CalPERS and tell them you’re raising a new fund.
* 35 to 39 points: Call Sequoia and Kleiner, Perkins and tell them that you’re available.
* 25 to 34 points: Send your resume to 2,000 venture capitalists and pray.
* 24 points or less: Work until you can score higher, keep flying on Southwest Airlines.

Good news, I am just 8 points away from being encouraged to send my resume to 2,000 VCs.

And I am working hard during the MBA to get them!

If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.
Bill Gates

There has been some comments about workload on this first quarter (angel angie: Time to celebrate success, World Sojourner: Why are they so awake?, karlitos: a note on workload). Is it really intense? Nerve-wrecking? Or a walk in the sun? (In London Business School, a walk in the rain maybe)…

From the quote above, you can infer my opinion, pretty in line with the Angel blogger: “If you had a tough job before the MBA, the MBA is a vacation.” It does not mean it is easy, and it requires a lot of time, but just going through the MBA is quite light, very light if you come from a tough engineering school like karlitos and I do.

However, it all depends on your context and what are the extra things you want to do above that minimum.

Autum Quarter is NOT tough if…

• You are a ticket-puncher. “I just want my degree”, then it is a 2-year holiday. I would say it is also a waste of money and time, but we are all grown ups. In my opinion, this is a minority of the MBA population.

However, the quarter becomes a little bit trickier when you add the extras. Analogy: The MBA is like a car, basic model is affordable, but the more equipment, the more expensive the price tag. Examples on how to increase the toughness of the quarter:

• “I want to be president of clubs X, Y and Z”
• “I am trying to save money while living in London the MBA life”
• “I want to do a radical career change”
• “I am starting a new venture”
• “I want to figure out what to do with the rest of my life”
• “I blog” (Ok, this is a minor one)
• “I am looking for a partner among fellow MBAers”
• “I want to be the social king/queen”
• “Party is my new name”
• “My study group is a continuous challenge”
• “I want to be in the top 10% of the class”
• “I want to travel every single WE” (this one is very demanding, trust me!)
• “I want to allocate a reasonable amount of time to my loved ones”
• “I want to lose all those kilos I gained in my high paying sedentary work!”
• “I want zillions of offers for the summer”
• …

You get the idea, right? Going back to the ultimate philosphy guru (F.G.), ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’. Or more appropiately, the MBA is like a box of chocolates… We were taught this one during orientation week, and I loved the analogy: There are so many thrilling things to do at the MBA that it can be a little bit too much. Like the chocolate box, if you try to do all at the same time, you will end up sick!

Making clear choices (lesson #1 in Strategy class) is a prerequisite for success also in the MBA years.
Going back to the toughness of the quarter, it all depends on how many hours one chooses to allocate, and the goals oneself has.

And this is the beauty of it all: It is all about choice, choice and choice.

Never forget, dear reader, that all MBAers choose to be in this situation. One really needs to want to be here to be an MBAer (admissions filters out non-motivated people with great accuracy). And the door is always open to leave. We are all adults here, so…

…next time you hear or read a MBAer complain about the worload, keep in mind he/she has a lot on her hands, extreme workload, little sleep, etc… But it is his/her choice to have too much! And doing MBA stuff is as delicious as chocolate!

I am not American, maybe that is why this test is not that relevant for me. But if you want to give it a try, just let me know whether the test predictions are right!

After two years in California (dude, that was awesome!) and four months in London (Brilliant, my dear!), my english is evolving in funny ways

In Google Video / YouTube there is much more than funny videos of people dancing. Please enjoy this very interesting video of recently deceased Nobel prize winner

It looks quite old, does anyone know when this program was recorded?

The econ exam (Ceteris paribus - Studying for Managerial Economics) was very straightforward. Similar to previous years exams, once you know the stuff, it was quite easy. Definetely nothing to write home about. Econ exam, DONE.

On the contrary, Hyde Park autumn colors are something to write home about. Unlike most of my classmates, I do not live five minutes away from the school. It takes me 20min walk (or 8min bike ride) to reach campus. But I live 5 min walk from Hyde Park.

And Hyde Park is beautiful. It has become my destination for walks. I love walking for at least 30min: It helps me gain perspective, refresh my mind, go to the outdoors, do photosynthesis (a must during London winter time).

Since last week, autumn (fall) colors are in full plenitude. On a sunny day, a London park is the place to get away from the school, take a deep breath and reenergize for the rest of the week.

I expect that, in a couple of weeks, there will be not a single leaf left. And the winter light will come through the branches directly. Like in the MBA: In a couple of weeks, all the assignments, classes and exams of the Autumn Quarter will be gone, and all the learning will shine through a clearer schedule. Which leads me to the next question:

What will that learning be? How good of a learning? Which quality?
As with everything in life, what you get out of the MBA depends on what you put in. The more effort you put in, the more you learn out of the experience.

I choose now to return to study frameworks and work on projects, because at the end of the quarter I truly want tons of learning to shine through my eyes.

OK I’ve done the useful part last time, so I just want to write about personal impressions so far.
To me somehow MBA is a program of extremes – it’s like a rollercoaster, when at certain moments you are flying high above the ground, but at others you’re so close to it, you don’t know if you survive…
Adventures of absent-minded MBA student: up close and personal

A roller coaster, an excellent metaphor for the program. I want to extend a very warm welcome to a new blogger, an absent minded genie in a bottle. I wonder who this is!

As a blogger, she is 5 star: Relevant content, nice style, no whining, a nice picture or two in every post, insight,… MBA content does not get any better!

Hello Reader!

It’s been 19 days, I hope you are doing great! I’ve been busy with many things in the last days…

• Econ exam, a long time ago
• My friend Xavier visiting and staying at my place. He discovered London. Now he knows London better than I do.
• Walking all over Hyde Park
• My Birthday
• Stan O’Neal, CEO of Merril Lynch, address
• Strategy D-Day
• Boeing 777 Finance case
• Sundowners
• Arch valuation Finance case
• Bruce Springsteen concert on Wembley
• My friend Xavier leaving after a week
• Dinner at home with Stanford and London Business School friends
• Learning how to write down my thoughts
• Today, walking around Portobello Road, Notting Hill and Kensington. And Hyde Park, as well.

I will try to blog with more details on these events. But given my limited amount of time, I will not cover all. Therefore, leave me a comment if you want me to cover something specific.

Yours truly,