What an eye opener, what an experience so far. It seems like being a fly stuck on the outside of a fast moving bullet train! ‘Intense’ all of a sudden has lost its meaning and needs to be redefined. This is how the first 3 weeks can be summed up. They had been intensely engaging yet begging calm reflection, inspiring confidence yet drawing a humble pause, instilling sheer optimism yet demanding rigorous reason. The past fellows prepared us well on what to expect, but boy did it still struck us unaware. Is this the essence of experience? It sure seems so and at Babson we are urged to do just that. Experience all we can, make it our playground, get our hands dirty and push the boundaries of our thinking as far as we can. Wow never thought learning can be this much fun!

From the first day, all ten of us were put into the arena to fight it out for a “prize of unspeakable value”. Jet lagged, unsettled, ruffled; welcome to Learning 1 at Babson. Though stressing, it was an excellent lesson in team work and leadership, a lesson we ‘played’ to learn. This is how we will be taught. Role-playing, team work, performing, in short: play, play all you can. And now that it is all sinking in, it seems to be the most effective way to learn.

During the three weeks we have been exposed to some outstanding faculty members and speakers. Each faculty member brought in something unique to the table. Be it carefully formulating every single sentence you say to Anirudh or Jay’s shock and awe approach (his monkey and gorillas analogy is driving us bananas!). Be it Karen’s mind-boggling questions or Marty’s bullet train; all have made us question our assumptions, redefine our thinking and challenge ourselves. All have encouraged us to leap into the unknown and wander about. To stop worrying too much about failure and start focusing on success, defining it and taking charge of ourselves in order to achieve it.  This is the attitude that I believe will help us achieve success back home. The view that failing is just one step towards success is what is needed in Scotland.

But like a good rollercoaster ride, there is also the fun part :). We have a fabulous group and have already had a fantastic birthday party, great BBQ, an excellent scavenger hunt in Boston, and even Whale watching! As they say work hard and play hard, we can’t quite do much about the former :) but we are surely trying to balance it, as much as we can, with the latter ;)

This learning 1 is truly our playground…