In October 2019, 48 ambitious students, including myself, started the Executive MBA journey at Frankfurt School. One reason for my decision was to get new insights and approaches to understand the bigger picture in business. Almost a year and a half later, nearly at the end of the journey, I can say that it was and still is a challenging time, but it is worth spending it. I gained both the desired overview and the confidence to apply the demonstrated approaches in my daily business. Sure, I am not an expert in these fields, but it is a good starting point and an excellent chance to continuously improve my skills. My key takeaway from this journey is not to hesitate but be curious and courageous to try something new.
In my opinion, there are three crucial elements that enabled me to find my way and try new things: knowledge and confidence, time management and priorities, and the feedback from my fellow classmates.
For me, the knowledge conveyed by the professors during the lectures, combined with the additional reading material, represented the start point of my journey. On these insights, I built trust to plan, test, and launch my studies. During that process, I gained confidence and was able to adapt and repeat it. To be more precise, in 2020, I started three surveys and wrote two articles on topics I was previously unfamiliar with.
Besides the time I invested in my work and my family, my assignments for the EMBA cost me some extra hours. Therefore, time management was of utmost importance to me. My calendar was usually busy during working hours, even more, when the first lockdown took place. Hence, I had to plan my time wisely and learn to step back occasionally to set the right priorities. In my opinion, there is still some room for improvement, but overall, it worked out well.
Within a few months, the EMBA classmates formed a homogenous group with different backgrounds and fields of personal experiences. Personally, it was of great value to me discussing thoughts, ideas, or problems with classmates. Their feedback helped me to think twice and to find an even better approach.
Looking back, it was the right decision to leave my comfort zone and discover new areas of knowledge. Best of all, everybody (professors, staff, career service, classmates, etc.) supports you in finding your way. With a lot of helping hands, two classmates and I are assessing the opportunity to start our own business. I am very grateful for the journey, and I feel ready to take on the next challenge.