What is Your Greatest Achievement? - 工管

What is Your Greatest Achievement?
QUESTION:

Iˆm having trouble with the essay questions that ask me to describe my
greatest life achievement. No matter how hard I try, I completely freeze up.
After all, Iˆm getting my MBA so that I could have achieve great things in
the FUTURE. I just feel that what Iˆve got to say is boring… Any ideas?

ANSWER:

I find it hard to believe that youˆve had NO great life achievements to
date. Yeah, an MBA is going to help you get ahead in your career, but Iˆm
SURE youˆve done some great things so far. And even if they arenˆt GREAT,
youˆve done SOMETHING… and that something could make for a great essay. So
relax. You got this.

The best way to approach this sort of question to take the pressure off a
bit. It doesnˆt have to be the biggest, coolest thing on earth. Not even
the biggest, coolest thing youˆve done. In fact, some of the BEST versions
of this essay are very ¨simple,〃 or ¨not impressive accomplishments.〃
Crossing the street, for example. Man, that sounds so easy! How could it be
your best accomplishment, the reader wonders? Well, in the second paragraph,
we learn that ¨I was born with no feet.〃 You get the idea.

Also, the impressive-ness comes when we talk about the lessons. So letˆs
say itˆs a deal you worked on. Any old deal. Blablabla, it only made the
company $10,000. Not a ton of cash, no, but the LESSONS you drew from it
were priceless. You learned to be CONFIDENT. You learned how to manage a
team. You took SOMETHING from this experience. Sure, the accomplishment wasnˆ
t amazing, but it led to some AMAZING learnings. Again, itˆs almost BETTER
if the lessons are simple or obvious – it makes you seem that much more
confident when you get to the lessons.

Lastly, in choosing the one to go with…donˆt forget what we ALWAYS say:
think of your app like your lifeˆs Greatest Hits album. Which of your
greatest hits havenˆt you written about yet? What story do you want the
adcom to know that you havenˆt shared yet? Got one? Go with THAT one. Write
about THAT one. It doesnˆt have to be so amazing or something youˆd
include in your memoir 30 years down the road, but itˆs good for now and for
showing those adcoms who you are and what you can do. Gussy it up by focusing
on the lessons and youˆve officially unfrozen yourself.

Now, get writing

– Jon Frank
Founder Precision Essay
http://www.precisionessay.com

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