(Post) MBA Blog

What does parachuting have to do with leadership? Hmm, not a lot at first glance. But for those who have parachuted solo before, there is more than a tenuous link...

A few MBAs headed up to the North London Parachute Center (not in London, not even North Cambridge!) on 25th April to train for a static line square chute solo jump, (rather than a cissy tandem jump). We didn't realise that training would take about 10 hours and be so damn tiring. But train we did and the next day we headed back, butterflies all round and went for the jump.

We climbed, plane door open, and climbed and climbed. The ground fell away until it was like a fuzzy patchwork, a scene from a Manga comic. Then the call came and one by one, all twelve of us took the leap: Jorne, Sarah, Lisa, Alvin...I was the last to go, nerves building as I watched all the others get pulled away from the plane and dangle, helpless in the air.

Then I was up. I got into position - head up, legs round and then WHOOSH! I pushed off, flung into position and began the count:
"One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand. Check Canopy!!!"

and the canopy unfurled, oblivious to adrenaline coursing through my entire body. I thanked God there and then and began to laugh spontaneously "It's open! It's o-o-open! Ha haaaaaaaaaah! It's OPEN!"

But I was running on instinct, fighting back the panick that would arrive if the though of being suspened so high even dared cross my mind.

I went through the drill, with sharp breaths of almost elemental excitement - beyond thinking, just feeling my way through as the ground below reminded me just how crazy the whole thing was.

When I got to the ground and composed myself, I got to thinking how much like leadership the whole experience was: you're up there alone, no one to rely on, to bail you out if things go wrong. You have to summon the kind of courage that comes from somewhere deep and ancient - primordial almost. Now, while leadership isn't guite as bad, there is a lot to be learned from parachuting and I recommend it to anyone aspiring to leadership as a taste of things to come. I floated the idea to the director of the MBA here. And floated it did - right past. No sell.

Oh, well, I for one am hooked and can't wait to head back up to the blue yonder.


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I was hooked up with a Boston VC called Hemant Taneja the other day by a Judge prof., and gave him a call recently. Nice guy - working at General Catalyst on wireless etc. Man, the guy has like THREE undergrad degrees from MIT plus a couple of Masters I think.

Needless to say, got him on LinkedIn as well, which increased my network from about 7 to over 400 in one fell swoop! Not sure how much I'm bringing to the party here people, but then I haven't been really serious yet about this LinkedIn in stuff.

So, Hemant gave me a lot of valuable advice on starting up - largely confiming what I had learned over the year, but it's good to get another angle.

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So I applied to a consulting firm, just to test the water, and shockingly got through to the final round which I had last Monday.

The great news is...: I didn't get it! Great news because I really, really didn't want it and was afraid I would just take it if offered, if only to pay off The Debts. I'm glad my lack of enthusiasm shone through, aided by a touch over 5 hours sleep the night before and a 7.15 train down to London. Mind you, the other chaps at the assessment center were nice enough.

Now it's time to either apply seriously or get my arse into gear with my start-up ideas...



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I haven't written about the Jesus May Ball yet, and for good reason - it's taken me this long to recover from the trauma!

Oh, it all started off well enough: black ties and ball gowns aplenty, a touch of magic in the air as we entered Jesus College to be greeted with feasts and marquess, all that jazz. We hung out for a while then I dragged a few MBAs over to the hypnotist's show. When we got there he was just starting and I volunteered to be a subject - BIG MISTAKE.

I was hypnotised, along with 7 others and made to do the strangest things. It's not that I was put into a trance as such...more that he made me not really care anymore about the 300+ audience.

So I started off with an impression of Jimi Hendrix, (which went well according to many), but moved into rather dodgy fantasies which was when it all began to go downhill...

From there I was made to dance Swan Lake with another guy (I was the prince, thank God) and the grand finale was a bizarely erotic dance we all had to do. I seemed to find my Inner Tom Jones, much to the crowd's pleasure. All together I provided about 2 hours worth of low-brow entertainment. It felt like half that.

From then on, I had a lot of trouble adjusting to reality, so I can't say I greatly enjoyed the rest of the night. I tried to erase the memory with plenty of bumper car action. All I got was a very sore neck the next day.

So tip #1 gang - by all means go to a hypnotist, but just make sure you're not the butt of the joke, eh?


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I've been fiddling with iTunes for a while now, encouraged by the Ethanator who loves it, although I never figured why. I was quite happy with WinAmp, then I ran across the Radio feature in iTunes and WOW! Like 20 channels of music, and about 200 stations altogether.

Now I can finallly get some decent jazz and trance, both of which I missed since coming up from London. I feel many hours about to be wasted...

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