Stopped by the police

Last Friday I was stopped by the police (NYPD).

I was coming from having some birthday drinks with my friend Rui Silva (who is doing his MBA at NYU) and it was already 2am when I arrived at the subway station of the A train on 125th street. As it was late, cold and I wanted badly to get home, I decided to run from the station home. It's a distance of around street 7/8 blocks. I also thought it was a good safety measure because the area around the 125th street station is not the safest (it's the heart of the Harlem).
So I ran!!!

Of course it was weird to see a white guy running in jeans, winter jacket and dress shoes at 2am in that area. Within the first 100 meters, a bad looking guy on the street said something to me that I couldn't understand. However, the best part was that after two blocks, there was already a police car coming after me with the sirens on.

I stopped.

They asked me if there was anything wrong. I thought to myself "Will they believe that I am just running home....that will sound weird". However, I really didn't have any alternative, I just said I was running home because I really wanted to get there fast :) They probably thought I was crazy...

After we ended the conversation, they still stayed there, and I was thinking if I should just walk home, or keep running.

I decided to be consistent.
I kept running :)

A Night at the Opera

Last Saturday I went to the Opera.

The first time I went to the Opera was in Lisbon, with some friends from McKinsey, and we went to see Madame Butterfly (Puccini) at the Coliseu de Lisboa. It was nice, but not too spectacular.

Last Saturday, however, it blew me away. The Opera was Turandot (also from Puccini) and there were a couple of things that made me love it.
First of all the production was really impressive. It was the New York Metropolitan Opera, and they really have great singers/performers, beautiful costumes and, most of all, the scenarios were magnificent.
In addition the music of the opera is also good, especially the opening of Act III with the classic Nessun Dorma (if you want to see and hear this beautiful song, go to the end of this post where I put a memorable Pavarotti's rendition of the song in LA in 1994, it is really worth watching it).
Last, the seats I got were amazing, the best in the house. I was in the first row of the Met Opera at the Lincoln Center. I didn't buy the tickets for the first row, though...too expensive. They were offered by Paul M. Montrone who is a Board Member of Columbia Business School and of the Met Opera. My big thank you to him!
The story is also very nice, and for those of you interested in it please check the synopsis on this website: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=26





Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma from Turandot

Last semester

My friends, the last semester is starting.
During the Orientation Week of the new J-term class, every once in a while the new students would ask "So, are you sad this is your last semester?". And I responded "Thanks for bringing it up!". I know I am going to miss all the time here at CBS and it is very hard to believe that one year and a half have passed.
Today I payed my last tuition payment, and I guess this is a sign that the end is really coming.
However, I know it is going to be a great last semester and more good things will come after I graduate. After all, there is life after the MBA!

Great Classes

The objective of doing the MBA is, also, to have a good academic and knowledge experience.
Because most of the time I write about parties, trips and other fun stuff here on my blog, you all must think that I came here just to have fun.

Let me then talk a little bit about classes.

In general they are all pretty interesting (not all, I have to confess) but I have had here some of the best courses I have ever taken. Let me talk about a few.

High Performance Leadership
This is one of the hardest courses to get here at CBS (you have to bid a lot of points). It is taught by professor Mike Feiner, who is the former Chief People Office of PepsiCo (he worked there for 20 years). Currently he is an executive coach for senior executives in companies like American Express and Home Depot.
This class is exceptional because Professor Feiner has, in fact, a great career full of experiences and knowledge supporting him, and also because he puts all his energy and commitment in every single class. I have never seen a Professor putting so much energy into a class and vibrating so much with the discussions. And this guy is not young, I think he is over 60 (but still runs one hour every day).
He has an interesting book on leadership that I really recommend reading:
Retailing Leadership
I didn't start this class with very high expectations, however it really impressed since day 1.
It was taught by Professor Mark Cohen, who is the former CEO of Sears Canada and former CMO of Sears.
The class was interesting because Professor Cohen always had an interesting point of view on every aspect of business that we wanted to talk about. Exactly, of what we wanted to talk about, not what he wanted to talk about. The first 20/30 minutes of each class were dedicated to discuss current news that we students chose, and he would always provide us insightful comments about them and the economy in general.
In addition, he brought guest speakers to every class. People like Michael Gould (CEO of Bloomingdale's) or Stephen Cooper (former interim CEO of Enron, and currently CEO of MGM Studios and in charge of bringing that company back from the slums).

Personal Leadership and Success
I took this course last week in an intensive format (everyday from 9am to 6pm) with Professor Hitendra Wadhwa. The course focused on thinking about ourselves, our values, feelings, happiness, meaning of life and we even did meditation and yoga. I know it may sound a little bit cheesy or lame, however it was a great course and I believe this topic is very important for everyone. I have always been interested in the subject (mostly through reading books ) but this class really helped me put things into practice and hear about the subject from other people who are really role-models. Let me see if I can be a different (better) person int the future...


Now that I am going through the list of courses I mentioned as my favorites, I realize that they all have the word leadership in the title. Maybe that can be a criteria for selecting further courses.

Spring Orientation 2011

You have seen three posts before about CBS orientation.

The first one was when I came here to CBS, back in August 2010, and went through Orientation as a new student. It was a great week of fun and learning.

I had such a great time that week, that I decided to become a Peer Advisor (the non-new students that help run Orientation) in January 2009 for the incoming J-term class.
I loved being a Peer Advisor, and decided that I wanted to do it again during the next two Orientations that I would be at CBS. I even committed more to the Peer Advising (PA) program and have been Chair of the PAs for the past year.

This was my last Orientation and, again, I had a blast!
There are many activities and things that students can do at CBS, but being a Peer Advisor is for sure one of the most challenging, fun and rewarding experiences.

I had a great time being a PA, and I am going to miss it!