Today was the last day of classes for my first semester of business school. This is likely the last time I'll ever be a full-time student, so I'm trying to savor these 16 months. One pleasant surprise this semester has been how much I've enjoyed my Accounting class. I had already taken Accounting as a freshman almost nine years so I was looking forward to a refresher course. The material hasn't been that groundbreaking because I was familiar with it before, but I love my professor and his enthusiasm for teaching. I appreciate how he challenged us to think about and debate Accounting. As an added bonus, he told at least one good Accounting joke per class.
As an undergrad, Accounting was technical. We learned all of the different rules and it was very black and white. MBAs are not going to be CPAs most likely, so my professor has taught everything from the manager's perspective - what they need to know and, most importantly, what decisions we'll face. At first I was caught off guard when half of our class was spent debating all the different ways to approach a problem, but now I realize it's the most valuable way we could've spent our time.
Our professor gave one of the best closing lectures that I've ever heard today. It was short, sweet, and poignant. He didn't say anything about Accounting, except to outline the structure of the final exam. He talked about his "lessons learned" from life and what really matters the most.
His advice: be honest. take care of our health and don't overwork ourselves. always question the financial statements and don't take them for fact. the people in our lives (spouse, friends, coworkers, teachers) bring the greatest happiness. most importantly, recognize how lucky we are.
He used anecdotes from the business world and his own life to illustrate most of the points and then closed with the following analogy from Warren Buffet to illustrate the last point.
"There are 7 billion lottery balls in a tub. You pick out one ball and that's your life. If you could put your ball back, and they took out, at random, a hundred other balls, and you had to pick one of those, would you put your ball back in? Now, of those hundred balls … roughly five of them will be American. … Half of them are going to be below-average intelligence, half will be above. Do you want to put your ball back? Most of you, I think, will not. … What you’re saying is, “I’m in the luckiest 1% of the world right now.”
This really struck me. It's something I've thought about a lot. I often feel so blessed and wonder why I'm one of the lucky ones. My professor grew up in a small rural village in India and now has a great life. He gave our class credit for working hard to get where we are today, and acknowledged that he also worked hard to have the opportunity to be where he was standing today. However, he reminded everyone to never discount the role luck played in our lives. We should realize that "being the luckiest 1%" is a privilege, not a given. We all drew a good lottery ball. And because we are lucky, we should be good and do good.
As an undergrad, Accounting was technical. We learned all of the different rules and it was very black and white. MBAs are not going to be CPAs most likely, so my professor has taught everything from the manager's perspective - what they need to know and, most importantly, what decisions we'll face. At first I was caught off guard when half of our class was spent debating all the different ways to approach a problem, but now I realize it's the most valuable way we could've spent our time.
Our professor gave one of the best closing lectures that I've ever heard today. It was short, sweet, and poignant. He didn't say anything about Accounting, except to outline the structure of the final exam. He talked about his "lessons learned" from life and what really matters the most.
His advice: be honest. take care of our health and don't overwork ourselves. always question the financial statements and don't take them for fact. the people in our lives (spouse, friends, coworkers, teachers) bring the greatest happiness. most importantly, recognize how lucky we are.
He used anecdotes from the business world and his own life to illustrate most of the points and then closed with the following analogy from Warren Buffet to illustrate the last point.
"There are 7 billion lottery balls in a tub. You pick out one ball and that's your life. If you could put your ball back, and they took out, at random, a hundred other balls, and you had to pick one of those, would you put your ball back in? Now, of those hundred balls … roughly five of them will be American. … Half of them are going to be below-average intelligence, half will be above. Do you want to put your ball back? Most of you, I think, will not. … What you’re saying is, “I’m in the luckiest 1% of the world right now.”
This really struck me. It's something I've thought about a lot. I often feel so blessed and wonder why I'm one of the lucky ones. My professor grew up in a small rural village in India and now has a great life. He gave our class credit for working hard to get where we are today, and acknowledged that he also worked hard to have the opportunity to be where he was standing today. However, he reminded everyone to never discount the role luck played in our lives. We should realize that "being the luckiest 1%" is a privilege, not a given. We all drew a good lottery ball. And because we are lucky, we should be good and do good.
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