I'm really posting this to wish the 2010 fellows all the best of luck - they are off to Babson in just a few days now.  I expect we'll start seeing blog posts from them pretty soon.  If the guys who worked on a pre-work project with a company I support are anything to go by, it's going to be a very impressive group.

I won't pretend I'm not a little jealous of them having this opportunity in front of them - not that I would want to be away from Ruth that long again.  This was heightened by the fact that I've been on a sales training programme sponsored by Informatics Ventures and run by Ken Morse of the MIT Entrepreneurship Centre.  By any standards it was an excellent course, and I really enjoyed taking time out from day-to-day pressures to think about sales.  The pitch competition is a great learning tool too - I equalled the highest average score but didn't win as I only did 7 pitches in two hours (My excuse is that I got distracted talking to an investor about an opporuntity... a connection originally made on the Saltire Fellowship).  I learned a lot and it was a very valuable experience, but it made me realise something sad.  It is likely that I will never get another chance to receive education of the quality and intensity that we had at Babson on the Saltire programme.  Money just can't buy the exceptionally small class size, and the dedicated group of fellows who prepare thoroughly for the sessions to take full advantage.  You can't buy the value of intense debate within a group of people who have come to know each other well, and respect each others experience. You just can't do it.  I could do an undergraduate degree, a masters, or even a PhD at a top institution, or pay for commercial training from the leading providers and it wouldn't be close.  Even the Babson MBA classes we shared were relatively large and that reduces the opportunities for participation.  The chances are that I'll never do anything quite like the Saltire programme again.

I'm so glad I did it, and I wish the 2010 cohort all the best of luck - but you take with you a burden of responsibility to take the most advantage of the programme you can, because you are about to do something very few people will ever have the chance to do.