My weekly drive down Lancaster Ave from Vanguard to Villanova always allowed just enough time to reflect on a few important questions:
-At the end of a busy work day, is it worth going?
-If I’m going, how can I make the most of my experience?
-And if I’m trying to make the most of my experience, can I realistically juggle the program with everything else going on in my life?
Now, as I reflect on those questions while eating what’s left of my graduation cookie cake, I’m confident that I found the right answers along the way. I’m glad that I chose to pursue an MBA at Nova. But I’m especially proud that I chose to keep showing up, embrace every opportunity, and live life throughout my entire journey. And as I look at the family picture that we just took in my cap and gown on my virtual graduation day, I’m quite happy how all of these choices turned out.
With Vanguard’s academic reimbursement benefit, I stretched my part-time program more than 6 years to avoid paying out of pocket. And it was sitting in rush hour traffic over those 6 years where I learned that “showing up is half the battle.” I understood that in order to add some letters to my LinkedIn profile and to claim partial connection to Jay Wright and the 2 Men’s Basketball Championships, I had to keep going and keep putting in the work.
And I chose to put in the work. During my first year in business school, I remember choosing to show up to Managerial Accounting or Data Analytics over Conshy happy hours with my roommates, Gary and Ort. I sometimes chose Operations or Corporate Finance over Vanguard Rec-Basketball games. Through the middle of the program, I often drank Wawa coffee instead of red wine after work because I chose three hours of lecture on Corporate Governance and Innovation instead of dinner and Netflix with my fiancé. And towards the end of the program, once or twice per week, I chose Global Strategic Management and the Social Enterprise Practicum instead of spending time with Charlie in between daycare and bedtime. Outside of class, I occasionally chose to attend group project meetings during NFL games. I read Harvard Business Review case studies and textbooks while Jordan escaped into novels. I would find ways to sneak in assignments between parenting and my at-home to-do list. The course load itself was never too stressful or overwhelming, but showing up remained a constant item on the priority list amidst everything else.
And of course, I couldn’t just show up. Too much time, effort, and money were invested to not fully embrace each opportunity. A few months into my commute, I began turning off the Mike Missanelli sports talk radio show and tuning into various audiobooks and podcasts with Ryan Hawk, Michael Kitces, and Dax Sheppard. I figured even if the class that night wasn’t all that valuable, I could choose exactly what I wanted to learn for my hour in the car. And when I got to class, I couldn’t just sit there for three hours revamping my Fantasy Football roster, scrolling social media, checking work email, or checking out houses on Zillow (ok..I’ll admit, I did all of those things at some point). Instead, I made a deal with myself to fully engage, ask questions, provide real world examples, and facilitate discussions. For group projects, I vowed to serve as an active and productive member of the team, whether it was taking the lead on the simulation in our inaugural “Leadership Challenge” or writing a rap for Khayelitsha Cookies in South Africa. If 6 years of my life would be spent on that commute or in that classroom, I was going to make the most of it.
But despite all of the time I spent getting my MBA, I’m glad I chose to “just keep livin’” (as Matthew McConaghey would say) through it all. We too often say, “once I finish x, I will then start y.” But with a little encouragement from Jordan, I decided to just make school another part of our journey through life. I didn’t need an MBA to get married, buy a house, or become a dad. And I didn’t need an MBA to become a leader or a CFP(R). So it didn’t make sense to wait on those things until after graduation. Jordan and I kept the train rolling down the tracks and figured out a way to make it all work. And I think in doing so, being a student made me a more curious husband, more diligent homeowner, more dedicated father, more thoughtful leader, and more dynamic financial professional. My life experience enhanced my learning in the classroom while the lessons in the classroom helped guide the way I lived and worked. By choosing to just keep livin’, I really chose to just keep learning.
So as I sit here in my cap and gown, it’s natural to think about “What’s next?” And since I’ve graduated and completed my formal education, people have begun to ask, “What will you do with your MBA?” But I guess the answer is really, “what I’ve been doing.” I think about how I can apply the three most valuable lessons that I learned amidst all of the advanced business courses in the curriculum. As Kevin Janiec, CFP, MBA, I’ll just keep choosing to show up, embrace every opportunity, and just keep livin’. And If I do that, every hour and dollar of my education will have been worth it.
Congrats to the class of 2020! Thank you to Jordan, Vanguard, Nova, my classmates, and all of the people who encouraged and helped me along the way. It feels great to be done, but it feels even more exciting to just be getting started.
*If you’re thinking about pursuing an MBA or trying to make it all work, please reach out.
The Janiec Reflection 