For the benefit of my new readers I thought I’d post a note that i got sent through Facebook a couple of days ago. Its one of those annoying quizzes which tries to delve deeper into your psyche and expose it to the world by asking you what you had for breakfast. But I figured it makes for an interesting read, if you are the type of person who is inclined to compare your breakfast to that of other people.
1. What time did you get up this morning?
10 am with a phone call from INSEAD telling me I got accepted

2. How do you like your steak?
Medium-Rare

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Il Divo… yes a looong time ago. I am fascinated by Giulio Andreotti

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Frasier, How I met Your Mother & Two and a Half Men

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Either surrounded by rolling countryside, or next to the sea

6. What did you have for breakfast?
I didn’t have breakfast

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Japanese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Turkish, Pakistani.

8. What foods do you dislike?
I am not a fan of Spanish cuisine, but maybe just because I have never had a good meal while i lived in Spain

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Corsetti Shangrila’ in Rome, Zuma Knightsbridge in London, Bosphorus in South Kensington  London, Le Relais Gascon in Abbesses Paris

10. Favorite dressing?
My own concoction, made with Mayo, Mustard, Aceto Balsamico and Honey

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
A Nissan Micra and a BMW 320

12. What are your favorite clothes?
Linen, linen and more linen

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Egypt.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
It depends on whether you are filling it or emptying it. I’m a realist

15. Where would you want to retire?
One house in the Caribbean, one villa in Tuscany and one cottage in Winchester

16. Favorite time of day?
Dawn

17. Who is your favorite Team?
Used to be Milan, but I really don’t even pretend to be into Football anymore. Italy for the World Cup. Pakistan for Cricket

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Tennis, World cup football, Cricket

19. Bird watcher?
Define “Bird”

20. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Morning person (I go to sleep at about 6 am these days)

21. Pets?
I have adopted 2 cats who live on my street and I give them food. Haven’t decided what to call them yet

22. Any new and exciting news that you’d like to share?
Got into INSEAD. Thats the best thing that has happened to me in 4 years

23. What did you want to be when you were little?
Disneyland. Still haven’t been.

24. What is your best childhood memory?
The first 10 years of my life are a sequence of very happy memories. I would pinpoint each time my Dad bought a new car, it was always very exciting.

25. Are you a cat or dog person?
Theoretically a Dog person, but I don’t ever want to have a pet dog. I find them dirty. Even though they are cute and have personality. Cats are supercilious and ridiculous creatures but at least they keep themselves clean

26. Are you married?
I went pretty close to getting married 2 years ago.

27. Always wear your seat belt?
Always. I feel naked without it.

28. Been in a car accident?
Yes, none of which were my fault

29. Any pet peeves?
People who make excessive use of exclamation marks when they write, shoddy grammar, annyng txt msg abbrvtions. Anyone who rapes any language.
People who have no civic sense.
All idiots in general

30. Favorite pizza topping(s)?
Margherita, Bresaola rucola e parmigiano, Quattro formaggi, Napoli

31. Favorite Flowers?
If I were forced to pick one I’d say Tulips, they have personality, and plus they caused a financial meltdown in 1637. True story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

32. Favorite ice cream?
Nocciola e Cioccolato Bianco

33. Favorite fast food restaurant?
I occasionally get a craving for Burger king. A craving that I satisfy once a year on average. but Sushi qualifies as fast food doesn’t it?

34. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
I actually PASSED mine twice, I just didn’t pick up my license the first time. Long story

35. From whom did you get your last email?
Nader

36. Which stores would you choose to max out your credit card?
Brioni, Zegna, a decent art deco furniture shop, a classic car dealer

37. Do anything spontaneous lately?
Do one thing every day that scares you.

38. Like your job?
Er… yes…

39. Broccoli?
Only in soup

40. What was your favorite vacation?
Istanbul and Martinique (the latter was actually a work placement for 6 months, but my beach side apartment rocked)

41. What are you listening to right now?
My neighbours humping. Oh for thicker walls….

42. What is your favorite colour?
Don’t have a favourite

43. How many tattoos do you have?
None and i don’t plan to get any

44. Coffee Drinker?
Its either Espresso or Green tea for me

Of course Mark didn’t have a bank branch close by when he was writing this. The bank. That wonderful modern institution that makes it possible to break the damning cycle of not having.

So next week I shall be speaking to a bunch of Italian bankers, pleading my case to be given my nice student loan that will in time allow me “to have”. Having been a banker myself one would hope that I have the skills to be able to twist their arms while getting them to sign the loan agreement. Perhaps they should introduce yoga classes for prospective bankers… We shall see. Hopefully within a few weeks I will have been rid of the final vestiges of anxiety that have assailed me in the last few months and will be ready to take on the course related stress. Yum yum… INSEAD’s prospectus is misleading. While it states that the average age in the MBA class is 29, it fails to mention the 10+ years that one gains due to the constant worry of being accepted.

Of course I was not turning myself into a wreck, but I did notice some pretty extreme messages of concern from other fellow applicants on the Business Week Forum in the days leading up to D-Day. I wonder if its an INSEAD trait. I was recently reading the profile of a Partner at McKinsey on the firm’s website. The partner in question is an INSEAD alumnus, and he mentioned how McKinsey consultants have an inbuilt ethos of “insecure over achievement” whereby they use their tension to spur them on to outperform. And since McKinsey is the biggest recruiter at INSEAD, perhaps I have spotted a trend early on . It will be interesting to measure myself against these people when I get to INSEAD in January. Italian Banker permitting of course.

The big question I have right now is how to spend the next 4 months. I have completed the consulting projects I was working on. So perhaps I should take some time off to prepare myself mentally for next year’s chaos (read: partying my ass off until December and destroying as many brain cells as possible to make my MBA an even greater challenge)

Alternatively I have been considering doing a course. Not sure what yet but its an idea. Otherwise I will just enjoy my last few months in my home city of Rome. I have been back here 2 years now and I have seen the city in a totally different light from when I was growing up here. Its likely that this is the last time I will ever live here full time, even though it will always be home to me.

I have a head that is buzzing right now with questions about INSEAD that will only get answered when I set foot upon the hallowed campus soil, such as: what is the dating scene like?  After my almost wedding 2 years ago I think its time I get back into the game but something in the male to female stats at INSEAD tell me it might be the best place for that… We shall see. At least I can expect everyone to be smart, erudite and interesting. I think that in itself will make for a fantastic year.

And today it all came together.

I had been considering starting a blog about my Business School application experience a while back. After much deliberation I decided to follow an uncharacteristically superstitious route, and put off my plans to blog about my applications for fear of jinxing the whole thing.

I guess it paid off. This morning I received a call from the INSEAD admissions team in Fontainebleu informing me that I have been admitted to the MBA program, starting in January 2010.

I had envisaged (read: dreamt) about this moment for the last few months, and had toyed with the various reactions I thought I would have had upon hearing the news. Of course in reality none of what I had imagined happened. There was no jumping up and down, no shouting at the top of my voice and definitely no cartwheels down the corridor (not that I would be capable of them anyway). I simply smiled, thanked my Admissions Coordinator and got onto Facebook to update my status message.

This is the end of a year long journey which started when I made the decision last year that if I was going to go for an MBA, INSEAD would be the school where I would do it.

70 nationalities? Everyone needs to speak 3 languages at graduation? 2 campuses and the chance to study at a 3rd at Wharton? Yep, INSEAD is defo the school for me.

A little about me: British/Italian citizen, Pakistani/Malaysian heritage. Grew up in Rome, went to an international school and then university in England and France. Lived and worked in 9 countries in the last 10 years.  Identity crisis do I hear you say? Well, lets just say I am immune to culture shock. Which is why INSEAD is the only school I applied to. And plus, I can’t wait to move back to France, the best years of my 20′s were spent in Paris.

I am still coming to terms with this new reality. I am about to pay 51 grand to spend one year completing my business education, making new friends, and sleeping very little. I can’t wait. Its going to be one hell of a Tango.

Oh by the way, for all of you who follow the Business Week forum thread for INSEAD Jan 2010 entry, I’m Walter Plinge. A little throwback to my days as an amateur actor. I wonder if anyone has managed to make that connection, but perhaps its a little obscure.

Roll on Accounting 101, Chateaux parties, sleepless nights and hopefully a fruitful job search.

January 2010. Here I will write the next chapter. And it will be good. Very good.

To life!