The American writer and self-improvist Dale Carnegie once wrote,

‘Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.’

This is extremely useful advice to the potential EMBA student, if you are even thinking about an MBA; it is likely that you have the motivation. Just do it, as one famous sports brand once declared.

In my first months at Oxford, it is again motivation that I have found to be king – make sure you bring plenty with you. The EMBA is tough, especially if your day job demands a lot from you – which, chances are, it does. However, the rewards are extremely rich – as a young professional I have already found myself using much of the course content back at the ranch, I have even handed one essay directly to my boss as a recommendation for future investment.

For me, coming from a creative industry my ambition was to get better at the business side of things. Whilst the assessment criteria (GMAT, Essays, and Interview) defines whether you have the latent ability, the classroom at Oxford provides you with frameworks that begin to piece together all the small parts of acumen that you had, and your overall business knowledge become much more complete and useable as a result.

The school is immaculate, the resources plentiful, the faculty members quite brilliant…even lunch is passable. Where I have found most inspiration is from my course mates. I am the youngest on the EMBA currently, and I have learnt so much from the group work, general conversations, class interaction, and very occasional social excursions. Discussing businesses, and how people make decisions in the real world has been equally as valuable as the teaching itself.