Journey to my MBA has begun

Today has been very unproductive, from the 1 hour plus spent commuting to a meeting which lasted 30 minutes and the neverending interruptions from fellow colleagues, I managed to squeeze in some work. Anyways, have got too much on my mind right now, with the foremost being "when will I stop procrastinating and write the bloody essays". Well, the long journey I mentioned earlier actually started December last year when I decided that I wanted an MBA. That started the process of finding out about schools, application process, costs, GMAT (I have to study again??), etc.

After finally getting the go ahead from Dad (who is also my current boss), and from my wife (actually this may have been first) and rest of the family, i've decided to go ahead and start the process. I've pretty much narrowed down the schools I'll be targeting and coming from an International background, one big (and I mean BIG) criteria is the reputation of the school as well as the breadth of the alumni network. Well that pretty much narrowed my top choices to HBS & Wharton... appart from them I'll also be applying to Columbia, Chicago, MIT and LBS. As for backups - I never really thought about it and hope not to have to resort to backups (surely I'll get accepted at one of these schools.... at least i desperately hope so) oh well guess I'll have to deal with it when the time comes.

As for GMAT, after painstakingly studying for 2 months, I took the exam and lo and behold - managed to get my targeted score. I'm proud to say it is within the range of the averages of the schools above. Now that it's out of the way (and after wallowing in the glory of my achievement for 2 weeks) I realised have to get cranking on the rest of the application. Note to self: Gotta start actually writing the ESSAYS as all those notes and bullet points will not miraculously be transformed into something legible when I wake up one morning.

till next time....

Hello world

Wow! Never thought I'd actually be writing my own blog, after reading so many wonderful ramblings online these past few months. Actually blogging is a new thing for me (being the tech savvy person that I am!) but i thought that since I'm going to embark on a new phase (or "journey") in my life, I might as well jot down a few things so that the significance of all this will not get lost in the whirlwind which is my life. Well as the name suggests, I am planning to get admission to an MBA program for next year (2006). Application process already started in that I'm done with the GMAT (achieved my target score - WOO HOO!), and got to get started on the more difficult part.... writing the essays.

For those who don't know me, here's a quick intro - I was born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but left home in my early teens for Perth, Western Australia where I spent 5 years in school/5 years in University at UWA/and 2 years of working (or bumming around). I returned home 3 years ago, ready to take on the world (or KL at least) and now after having finally settled into the hustle and bustle of life in KL, I'm ready for a new challenge. That's the short version of my life story so far but I'll keep filling in the blanks later.

Oh yeah - one more thing, I have to mention that I'm a die hard fan of the Arsenal Gunners ("oooohh...that explains the odd blog name" - i hear in the background) so don't be shocked to hear me rambling on about the team in the coming months.