MB-Eish: Part 9: 25

**"Eish" is a South African slang term expressing surprise, dismay, anger or frustration.** 

As I mentioned two years ago, I have joined the droves of engineers who have sold out to the dark side: Banking (and more recently, the elite league of the dark side: Asset Management). To make myself more comfortable in my new, murky surrounds I have decided to do an MBA part-time. This is the ninth in a series of posts about my MBA experience.

I used to be religious. These days I am a bit cynical about it all. If you are sensitive about such I suggest you eat ice-cream while you read this. It may take away that bitter taste...

In certain Christian circles it's popular to walk to the front of a large room and publicly commit your life to the Holy Troika. There are tears and sometimes there is clapping. Music swells in the background and your friends hug you as you return to your seat. From that moment on you are "saved". You are special. 

But... almost immediately you are susceptible to the force of your old habits pulling you back to a comfortably sinful equilibrium. Heavens! Back to the old you! Except that you have had a glimpse of glory. Kinda like watching something in HD and then going back to regular TV. The people who were doing the clapping when you had your moment call this "back-sliding". I know it sounds like a retro dance step, or a maneuver you might execute at a skate park. It is not. It is what happens when you don't surround yourself with like-minded people who keep you on the straight and narrow; Reading the Good Book and discussing the challenges of being so straight, and so narrow...



Now what the fudge** does this have to do with MBA you may ask? Well, I'm surprised you can't see the connection! 

A few months from now I will walk to the front of a rather Gothic,  rather large room and publicly become special. Graduation! My mother will cry. There will be clapping; perhaps even swollen music. And my friends will certainly hug me as I return to my seat. 

And then... the trappings of mind-numbing reality TV, computer games, cheesy novels, cotton-candy women's magazines... they will be calling out! Pulling me away from the good books (and magazines) on my diligently compiled Recommended Reads list: The Intelligent Investor, The Smartest Guys in The Room, Freakonomics, HBR, The Economist, Steve Jobs: A Biography, to name a few. Intellectual back-sliding will surely be my fate unless I surround myself with people who are interested in keeping the conversation going, who are smarter than me and knowledgeable about different things than me. Fortunately I've moved from The Bank to The Fund and nerdiness is encouraged, even lauded there. Most people are damn near overflowing with knowledge.

Enough to give me oil in my lamp, keep it burning; keep it burning til the break of day. Sing hosanna, y'all.

**Fudge. The word sometimes used by the people who do the clapping when they would rather not say "fuck". Also yummy and frequently sold at annual church fêtes.