Good morning boys and girls. How was your Labor Day weekend? Mine was muggy, yet full of wedding excitement. I just returned from my best friend's wedding. I am on my way to my KSI. In the midst of all of this excitement I thought I would catch you all up.

First of all. Let’s touch base on where we are in my prep for Kellogg.
- I am nearly finished with all the math camp disks. I found them helpful. Did I learn something? Not really. But, it was a great refresher. I haven't done the equation for a line in ages.
- My condo is set up and ready go. I still need to purchase a desk and a kitchen island.
- I have gone out almost every evening since I arrived. I've been able to meet many of my fellow classmates.
- I have not completed the career leader program for Kellogg. I have filled it out at the company that I interned with this summer. But, I do need to complete it for Kellogg.
- A big goal that I was not able to accomplish was deciding what I wanted to do when I grow up.

This brings us to why I went to b-school in the first place.
Essentially, I realized when I was in undergrad at Iowa State that while ISU was not a bad school overall, it wasn't a great school and it was certainly not going to be an asset in helping me reach my goals of immense wealth and world domination. There are probably two drivers to this: 1. I realized my classmates were not the best and the brightest and 2. I happened to read the business week b-school profiles of 1996. From that point forward, my goal was to get into business school. Much of what I did was not only to put me in a position to get into business school, but also to enable me to get something out of it.

After three and a half years of consulting at young, growing tech strategy consulting firm, I had wanted to work at a large, established company with a well known and organized executive management training program. Then, I was admitted and I saw all the options in front me: I-Banking, Sales and Trading, Biz Dev, Brand Management, Gen Management or even consulting. This is far too complicated to discuss in one post. Additionally, I imagine this will be something I try to figure out while blogging over the first quarter.

I'll let you all know how the KSI goes.

Peace out in the nine deuce.

- posted by Hammy @ 11:11 PM

 
Good morning boys & girls and welcome to my blog. First let's get a few quick questions and answers out of the way.

Who am I?
- I am 27. I am a guy. I am married. I am an incoming first year at Kellogg (as of Aug 03).

Yes, but who am I really?

- I like music, pop culture, money. I love money. However, I am heavily in debt and going further in debt (I guess school is expensive). I digress. I grew up in Iowa. I went to Iowa State. I married my high school sweetheart. I like to begin my sentences with I. I went to work for a tech/strategy consulting firm when I graduated undergrad. I don't have good grammar. I think we'll handle more of the "Who am I" while I blog.

Why am I blogging?

- For two reasons. The first is because I am vain. The second is sort of long winded. I have often thought to myself, where is the Paris of the 20s and 30s, the village of the 40s and 50s and the san francisco of the 60s. I don' think that I am the first to say that that community of educated people is found on the internet. As Professor McGee says, "...They (blogs) lower the barriers and make the practice of writing widely accessible. Which increases the chances we will begin to start thinking again. Writing is the fundamental tool of reasoned argument and what we need as individuals, organizations, and civilization is as much reasoned argument as we can get. In the blogosphere you get to watch good writers at work as they develop ideas."
I want to participate in this community.

So, there is so much more to write about.

The Kellogg MBA:
Why do I want to get an MBA? Is the MBA worth the immense amount of debt? What is the Kellogg experience like? What is business school like? How is my experience different than that of others at Kellogg and other schools? Can my liver handle the experience?

Getting into B-school:
How do you get into a top business school? Specifically, how do you get in with a lower gmat, a lower UG GPA, when you are not from a top undergrad?

Music, Business and Pop Culture:
Is there another business model for the major labels and studios? Is there any good music out there now? Where do you find it before it becomes commercialized? What about movies?

So sit tight for this and much, much more.

- posted by Hammy @ 4:07 PM