Sunday, September 23, 2007

BYU's Got Talent


Every Friday, 1st year MBA's attend a management seminar with a different guest speaker. This week, we had the fantastic opportunity to hear from Gary Crittenden, the CFO of Citigroup Inc. and former Executive VP of American Express . How amazing is that?

He gave us some great insights about how to be successful both personally and professionally, as well as what it is like to be a top executive at a major corporation. He also touched on his experience on the events of September 11, 2001 in New York City. Here are the five points he shared with us:
  • Make a decision to get the best education that you can
  • Marry the right person
  • Take risks
  • Make a decision to exercise
  • Make a decision to be obedient (This was the most important)
Elder Crittenden is a fantastic example of great leadership! I loved his advice on how to meet the demands and responsibilities of such a busy life: "If you are not fitting everything in, you are not spending enough time on your knees [in prayer]."

This is just another reason why the BYU MBA is so amazing. They bring in huge corporate talent like Elder Crittenden to tutor us lowly students on how to be successful, ethical, business people and still be close to our families and fulfill church responsibilities. There is no way in my "previous" life that I would have ever been in the same room with the CFO of Citigroup, let alone just seven or eight rows up from him in a lecture hall. What an awesome opportunity!

(Also, of note...I really need to bust out my thesaurus. I'm only three weeks into this program and I've already hit my limit for the words amazing, fantastic, awesome and great on this blog. Apparently business school inspires me to speak in superlatives.)

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