Introductions

My second year of business school is just getting underway. With the flood of new emails in my school account also comes the usual hectic reshuffling of schedules and commitments.

Two important experiences in my life are coming to an end. First, I had an amazing summer internship at Sure Payroll in Skokie IL. I have to say I was quite skeptical about applying to work at a payroll company. I didn't think I'd fit in - Here I am coming from a background in video game development - full of glitz and "fun". But, I was interested in the role - developing a new product. The deciding factor for me was the people I'd be working with. I learned that my immediate boss ran an alpaca farm in his spare time. How cool is that? Not only were the people interesting, they were also smart and capable. Instead of the passion for games and product design that I'm used to seeing in my co workers, there was a genuine passion for business strategy and growth. I liked it. I came away from the interview hoping I'd get an offer. For some strange reason, the "Me and My Llama"song from Sesame Street was stuck in my head on the drive home.

Second, I'm getting ready to pass on the leadership reigns of my World of Warcraft guild, Two Dollar Horde. I started the guild almost two years ago, as a completely casual thing. Strangely, it developed into an ideal test bed for all of the organizational & behavioral management training that I'm getting at school. You've probably all read the article in wired about the leadership training inherent in guild management. In my blog, I'm going to try to address some of that in more detail. Having run my own successful small business, I'm going to try to compare and contrast the two experiences. The question that I'm sure has been on your mind for a while, "What happens when you sick a $100,000 dollar University of Chicago MBA on a video game?" will be answered at last.

I'm going to be taking on two new commitments as the school year begins. One is to get more involved in the chamber music scene on campus. I've started practicing my audition material, including the flashy Chopin Etude no. 1 (Usually guaranteed to impress the natives). I've known that piece for a long time. Every few years I circle back to it with a feeling that I've "finally figured out how to play it". The curious thing about the piano is that each new skill plateau you reach tends to open up a wider view of things that can be improved. Your practice time as a musician improves your ability to perceive shortcomings in your playing. I'm also going to be playing a softer more lyrical c# minor nocturne which has been a favorite of mine for a while. The goals here are to get a concert or two over the course of the year, ideally with an opportunity to premier my new clarinet sonata.

Also, I'm resolved to take a more active role in developing the "Fast Forward" organization on campus. I'm going to be setting up a phpnuke website for the group. I have this idea that we may be able to develop it into a useful networking tool for current students and alumni. At the very least we can "out-web" the other student groups on campus and make a bigger name for our media industry group. Look out consulting group, we're gunning for yah!

Thanks for reading so far, thus concludes my first blog entry.