This little narration is an attempt to share what I did to achieve the goal of graduating with honors in my Executive MBA. I think it will provide you with a template for succeeding at similar endeavors or generally anything difficult that you really want to achieve.
Let me start by saying that getting the Quantic Executive MBA honors is not easy. It requires getting an average of somewhere between 98% to 100% average. You have 12 courses – 9 Compulsory and 3 Special Electives, 5/6 projects and 1 Capstone project. You also get to do about 70+ smart cases, which are like continuous assessments. To average 95 requires super deliberate effort. So, what lessons would be helpful from the process of achieving this, here are a few.
1. Set a goal early – When I started the Quantic EMBA I didn’t really have any goal other than to graduate. I knew staying on course for 13 months for any academic course together with doing business was not going to be easy. It was a big goal, planning to graduate on time alone. I honestly didn’t know where the time would come from. A few weeks into the course, however, I participated in some conversations that opened my eyes to what was possible, so I decided to research the highest goal possible and made it my goal.
2. The Company you keep counts. I never would have achieved the goal if I had been in the wrong crowd. I had 2 other colleagues who started doing the course before me, and I had the pleasure of feeding off their energies. Temitope Adeolu-Akinyemi and Ajayi Johnson Oluwatosin were pushing themselves consistently above 90, and I made up my mind that less was not an option. The mind needs to be helped to see possibilities, and once a mind is stretched by those possibilities it never goes back to its original state (Hooke’s Law modified). Roger Bannister broke the 1 mile in under 4 minutes record, and by doing so, opened the minds of other athletes to see that it was possible. Keep a company that pushes and drives each other to break existing limitations.
3. Attend a Celebration Event of Previous Sets. There is nothing that crystallizes a plan for success than seeing people who have done it. I remember watching speech and prize-giving days in secondary school when I was in JSS 3 and SS1 and making up my mind that I would be the person who would be called over and over to keep collecting prices. Watching it in the past and reinforcing those goals, helped me to get 6 subjects in my days. The same worked here, I had the opportunity to attend the graduation of my people, and in that graduation ceremony, I realized that all the names I saw with honors were Indians. This told me that it was possible, and it required more deliberate effort. My friends scored about 96% but were not given honors, it made me realize this would require more effort than I had imagined. To apply this to anything else, find people who have achieved what you want to achieve and try to feel the energy of their achievement. (You are all cordially welcome to my online graduation ceremony)
4. Take a challenge. One day I was part of a discussion, where the gist was that getting 100% in any of the exams was going to be near impossible because of the very creative ways the questions were set and designed to trick students. One of my quantic mentors kind of emphatically said it wasn’t possible. I told him that I thought it was and wanted to prove it. This challenge pushed me to score 98, 99, and ultimately 100. This challenge made scoring 97 feel low to me. Yes, many people will celebrate you for 90, but what is your goal? This challenge method is how my son was able to score over 97% average in his exams. I always tell him, that if your eyes are on 97, you won’t need to compete with anyone, just yourself.
5. Seek for Leverage. Leverage is when you put in 25% and can get 100%. The sources of leverage are phrases starting with “Other People”. Leverage is the utilization of other people’s time, other people’s resources, and other people’s strengths to gain maximum advantage. As you are leveraging others, be well aware that for it to work sustainably, you need to be leveraged as well. Partnership is leverage; mentorship is leverage. These symbiotic relationships help you not to burn out and help you to be a part of other people’s success stories as they can also be a part of yours. In Quantic, this worked well with the projects. I was able to work with great minds like Ogunbowale Olugbenga to ensure we all scored 5/5 in most projects we did together. Our capstone team was an all-star team, we could very easily take our project further and run it as a business. Much kudos to Olugbenga Ogunbowale, Ekene Odum, and Rafiu Ajayi.
6. Set yourself up to make success inevitable. I did this by sharing my results for exams online. I also did this by encouraging a lot of proteges and friends to also take the course. I have a few people already enrolled, but more importantly, knowing I would share my results made me work harder to make sure the results were worth showing. Many people wondered why I wasn’t so happy with high scores like 93, 95, and 96, well, it’s because they were pulling down my average. The difference between graduating with honor
rs and without can be as small as 0.2 marks. So to get that little extra it’s not based on just one exam, one must be consistent throughout.
7. Maximize the things you can control. In life, there are things you can’t control, and there are things you can control. Stop focusing on what you can’t control, but on the things you can. I ensured that I scored 100% in my continuous assessments. I had control of these as I could redo them as they were really part of the learning process and only contributed 10%. The exams however were one-offs, if you get an 80, that’s it. Don’t complain about what you can’t control, focus on what you can and make the best of it.
Interestingly I didn’t have a study group for my set, but I’m thinking about it, maybe I should have a study group to help some other sets. We need more Nigerians finishing with Honours, I think. I don’t think the Indians are better than us, only better organized. Our problem as a nation is not of lack of skill, it’s the lack of leverage. This cuts across so many areas, and it’s why in the coming year, one of the things I want to blow with, is helping people upgrade and make the most of their potential. Certainly not for free, so keep your eyes out for details.
