What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

I could talk about my family background and life stories, but I’ll dig deeper.

As one of the quietest people in the classroom, it’s hard to know what I am feeling, what am I thinking. When I was growing up, I used to think the world was a complex and empty space that would never be aligned with my emotions. Being so sensitive to energies and people around me would keep me isolated from the world regardless of the outcome, almost as if I was trying to protect myself from something that was not even real. I didn’t really understand the meaning of my behavior and emotions until I became older and decided to work on my consciousness and self-awareness as part of my daily life.

By the time I was in college, I realized how easy it was to get distracted and redirected away from your center. Most of us would do life in autopilot without actually trying to understand the reason behind our own triggers, intentions, and desires. I took my first steps in this journey when I decided to study the topic of Neuroscience through Mindful Living. The choice of becoming self-aware is a never-ending process that will show you a whole different perspective of yourself that you didn’t even imagine it was there. I consider this process as a self-awakening practice that involves sacrifices that eventually will add up to a meaningful outcome.

Based on my own experience, I learned how to use what I thought was ‘wrong’ with my personality as a tool to engage with the world around me. For instance, I invested my time in articulating and understanding the why behind my triggers and specific emotions that didn’t made sense in the moment. You train your mind into knowing how and when to pinpoint certain patterns and behaviors that will only give you more insights on your self-awareness mechanisms. I also introduced a writing practice as well as meditation into my routine that supported me in the journey towards understanding my thoughts and emotions. At the beginning its uncomfortable to embrace parts of you that you were used to ignore for most of your life, however, consistency makes you stronger while life starts to pivot towards a whole new perspective without you even noticing it.

Along the way, you’ll notice how real connections around you start to flourish. You become better at filtering, and yes, you will have to let go of people and situations that no longer align with your intentions. It will hurt, but eventually it will make sense. Suddenly you have more space to receive what your destiny has in store for you.

I encourage everyone to choose this path and work towards becoming a more conscious human being. Self-awareness will not only impact your life but also the world around you.

Thank you for reading,

Much Love,

PL

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

Every story starts with a “once upon a time……”, my story starts with a “there will be a time……..”

There will be a time when we must look beyond our own existence and consider the legacy we will leave for future generations. For me, this realization came early in my childhood from my deep love and appreciation for the natural world, and a burning desire to make a positive impact on the world around me.

As I pondered my role in the grand scheme of things, I couldn’t help but question whether simply accumulating material possessions, doing some social service, and fulfilling worldly duties was enough. It was then that I came across the words of the revered Indian saint, Sadhguru, who stated that the true test of civilization is whether we leave the world a better place for those who come after us.

After arrival of my beautiful child, this thought became even stronger and I made the difficult decision to leave behind my beloved family, disrupting their and my life for a better world.

It was this sentiment and a need for more awareness on environmental impact in business world that led me to choose Esade for my MBA, as it offered me the freedom to explore my passion, align my values, and find a career that would truly make a difference. Yet, as I soon discovered, this was no easy feat.

The quest to find a purposeful career, one that would allow me to make a real impact, is filled with challenges and obstacles. But I refuse to give up, and instead, continue this journey with a steadfast determination.

If you too dream of a life that transcends the mundane, that seeks to make a meaningful impact on the world around us, then I invite you to join me on this journey. Let us strive for a more purposeful existence, one that enriches our own lives and leaves a lasting and positive impact on the world for generations to come. For as the famous saying goes, “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

Inspire ! Grow Sustainably! Care for natural resources!

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

My name is Vineet Saurabh, but my second name is not mine at all!

A few days after my birth, my parents replaced my original surname with a random one. It had nothing to do with me or even them. In India, the second name defines the caste. During the 80s, discrimination and violence against caste were prevalent in the region of India; I was born and grew up. You could be educated and successful, but you can’t escape the vortex of caste. Except by changing your name.

During graduation, I experienced a series of dichotomies, none related to anything I did, but all related to who I was. I couldn’t speak fluent or accented English then, which made my life hell in a country where less than 10% of people speak English. Once, I was asked to take ‘the podium’, a makeshift 2-feet platform created to shame freshmen, and asked by seniors to make a 10-minute English speech. I doubt I would have elicited so many laughs had I been India’s top stand-up comedian. Ironically, in a country of coloured people, I was bullied for being dark-skinned.

During my first trip to Africa in 2013, I saw Africa’s corruption and learned about its people. I found myself surrounded by people who were, like me, desperate to be somebody. They were underdogs. I even invented a visa type in Africa – the $100 ‘instant’ bribe visa – at Malawi border control. Even though the corruption was rampant, at least it wasn’t discriminatory. I had borrowed money to make that first trip abroad, but after I returned, what had initially seemed like an expenditure now appeared like an investment.

For the next 3 years, I travelled to Europe many times for work, but to me, Africa was the underdog, and that is what I wanted to serve. In 2018, I resigned from Addnode, co-founded Rolaface Software, and moved to Zambia. For the next 2 years, I was the underdog coach. I served small businesses that often couldn’t afford us, offering generous payment terms at Rolaface because the money wasn’t my reward; the opportunity was. I implemented banking software in Africa and enabled digital transformation in Latin America. I travelled every other week and saw life and success happen in unlikely locations. In the Siwa Oasis in Africa, I saw salt-water fishing in the middle of the desert, and in Puerto Nariño, 2 hours from civilization in the Amazon, I saw people live even today like Neanderthals. I also saw how African countries grew faster than South American nations, though the former had been independent for only 50 years and the latter for over 200. Growth and progress, I saw, is a function of effort, not just the environment.

I brought the same message of hope back to the dusty lanes of Bihar I originated in. I have conducted over 20 workshops on technology careers, education, and career guidance. I continue to root for the underdog; every time I visit, the youth there don’t refer to me by name. They call me ‘Computer sir’.

In that sense, I may have lost a name because of my caste but gained an identity because of my work.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

Born and raised in Brazil, soon in life I started to experience, the challenges of growing-up in a developing country and more specially in a more female dominant environment due to my specific circumstances in life. At that time, little did I know about the meaning and life impact of all typical challenges regarding education, financial stability, and opportunities. But luckily, I was surrounded by strong and hard-working women who taught and inspired me so much, especially two which I want to introduce.

One, a primary school teacher, who was abandoned by her husband and migrated with four children from the Northeast of Brazil to São Paulo in search of work and better living conditions. From selling encyclopedias door-to-door, this woman ended up running her successful own business for many years. Her example of strength and dedication was marked in her crooked backbones, and she was also my grandmother. The other, also a public-school teacher, faced the death of my father at the age of 32, with a 4-year-old girl and a 5-month-old baby boy. Throughout her life, my mother struggled to support my brother and me, always prioritizing our education to ensure we could have a good future. Overcoming all challenges (personal losses, financial instability, gender, etc), her example taught me that education, hard work, perseverance, and faith can lead us to achieve our goals and dreams.

It didn’t take long until it was my turn to experience some of these challenges myself. Despite my family’s lack of financial means, my dedication to studies and my determination to change my future led me to a personal sponsorship for my studies in a top private school. I took the opportunity to challenge myself and prepare to enter a very prestigious business school in São Paulo, financed by a student loan. This and the commitment I had mentally to be a changer in my family pushed my dedication at work. The results didn’t come as fast as the challenges in the male-dominated environments of business school, consulting, and financial market. Long working hours, facing intimidation or disfavoring from some people, harassments from others, but I knew I had reached amazing opportunities for learning and developing professionally. I pushed and challenged myself, outperformed, achieved my goals, and helped others on the way as my role models taught me.

Thank you to the women of my life and to all the people who contributed in many ways to show that we can achieve our goals with collaboration, in addition to education, perseverance, hard work, dreams, and faith.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

Since I was younger I’ve always been very expressive, but instead of seeing it as a strength, I used to want to hide it. When I wanted to talk, no matter how relevant the topic was, I used to make everyone laugh. So at those moments I felt dumb and stopped feeling confident about speaking out loud. This, unfortunately, lasted till I was at university.

However, when I started to work everything changed. I realized how important it was to ‘speak up’, to share your ideas, to expand some debates and also to make questions. I needed to push myself to overcome my fear, which was challenging, but it is so worth it. Now, I try to do it not only for myself but also for those who are as scared as I once was. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to ‘not be afraid of your own light’, it will surprise you.

I understand the importance that “fitting in” and not attracting too much attention can have or seem to have, but sacrificing what we like or who we are to achieve it is really not worth it. I’ve learned a lot about myself and there have been moments in this journey that truly marked me: when I decided to bet on my dreams and my future and apply for an MBA at ESADE and when during the pandemic, in my eagerness to do something about the increase of domestic violence in Peru, I created “Hazlo por Ti” (Do it for Yourself). A program of free psychological and psychiatric help from specialists at a national level. In the beginning, I thought that no one would want to join the idea, but I had to believe in myself and with a lot of drive I managed to get it off the ground and it is something I will always be proud of.

By respecting and accepting ourselves we are also strengthening our empathy towards others. But to achieve this we have to take the time to get to know ourselves and not put external opinions above what we want to be or accomplish. I am still on this learning path, but every day I reassure myself that by being authentic I can build bridges and unlock benefits for myself and others. I invite you to give it a try.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

My extensive backpacking experience in over 30 countries can be a good topic to share. Growing up, I had never had the opportunity to travel abroad as my parents were not financially well-off. However, as a university student, I embarked on my first overseas journey, travelling around South India for two months by local bus, with the money I had saved from working part-time at a bar. This experience led me to explore even more countries. I am a holder of a Laotian elephant rider’s license, have jumped into an icy lake in Moscow, swam with wild whale sharks in the Pacific Ocean, taken a shower naked with well water in the depths of the jungle with locals, and did a lot more. These experiences were particularly special to me as I could speak no other language than Japanese for the entire time. Interacting and communicating with locals beyond the language barrier, despite the challenge, was fun like nothing else, and greatly enriched my humanity. Embracing and appreciating other cultures also helped me to better appreciate and understand my own culture as a Japanese.

When I became a mother, I thought my days of adventure were behind me, but I still regretted not being able to engage in deep conversations with people from around the world. So, I made up my mind to study English seriously during maternity leave. I learned vocabulary from NETFLIX during breastfeeding time and practised speaking to my baby, who was patient with mistakes and the same stories. As a result, we both were able to speak English together. This ultimately led me to pursue an MBA, in one of the most globally diverse settings in the world. For me, an MBA program represents the realization of a dream, despite my lack of overseas experience and language skills, but have always yearned to explore the world. And I am excited to see what other dreams and aspirations will come to fruition from here.

Wishing you all a successful and fruitful MBA journey!

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

I was born into a Colombian family of humble origins that built a business from scratch. Creative entrepreneurs who, without many tools, managed to excel, honestly and responsibly, by contributing to the economic and social development of their family and their community.

Growing up surrounded by successful entrepreneurs has been very inspiring but also a great challenge for me. Since I started my professional journey, I have been confronting unconscious biases and working to silence an inner voice that unjustifiably insinuated that I wasn’t capable enough to face leadership roles as my parents have done.

This personal journey began by identifying that this self-perception problem was not only mine, but that it occurs in many women, who face unconscious biases, learned stereotypes, and social barriers, which make us less prone to exercising leadership. Concepts such as the glass ceiling and the impostor syndrome are present in our professional trajectories and lead to the indicators we know today.

Naming it was a great start, but what made the difference was looking around and being inspired by other women’s stories. I am not talking just about great business women or public figures, but also about the ones whose successes might not look that big, but were really impactful within their communities.

My grandmother is the one who has inspired me the most. A woman who came into this world more than a century ago, who never went to school and learned to read and write by looking through the window of the little school in the town where she was born. At the age of eight years old, she was orphaned by her parents and then by her grandparents and finally abandoned by her brother. She was a single mother with four children. She did all kinds of jobs to support her family and educated her children with values. She always reinforced the importance of education, but the only one who was able to go to university was the youngest, my father.

Today, two generations later, I am studying an MBA at one of the best business schools and I know that I owe a great part of the privilege of being here to the efforts of my grandmother. Her will, her ambition and her desire to grow, led her to building a family that supported me to become who I am today.

Thank you for being my inspiration abuelita Margarita!

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

“One invisible but essential fact about me is that I have deep passion for mountain sports, particularly mountaineering. Not only do I derive a great deal of happiness and achievement from this sport, but I have found it to be extremely humbling and an excellent form of character building.

What started as out as a small hike up a hill in Malaysia developed into a full-blown desire to climb mountains that were bigger, higher and more challenging. At fourteen years old, I became the youngest Singaporean (a much younger Singaporean would take this title years later!) to summit Mount Kilimanjaro and in 2018, I would go on to summit Mount Elbrus in Russia. After the MBA, I aim to complete the seven summit challenge which entails climbing the highest mountain on each continent (I have five left).

I’d like to share three lessons that I have kept from my climbing endeavors over the last fifteen years.

1) You win some, you lose some. Despite the best preparation, equipment, and planning, there will always be factors outside of your control in the mountains. The weather might decide to turn bad, forcing you to abandon a summit attempt weeks in the making. The same goes for the rest of life, you are going to lose some battles; what matters is that you shrug it off quickly, avoid the blame game, and move on to the next battle.

2) This too shall pass. Every emotion – the highest of highs and lowest of lows – passes in time. Succeeding in a climb that took months of preparation feels great for a few days before the euphoria passes, and similarly, the disappointment of failing to summit a mountain passes quickly. Remember that all moments in life, both happy and sad, will eventually pass. Stay humble in your victories and stay positive in your defeats.

3) Mind over matter. While everyone has a physical limit, our brains are programmed to protect us and often cause us to think that we are at our limits when in fact, we can push much further. Summit days on mountains are often extremely long and it is common for climbers to reach a point where one’s mind becomes the biggest enemy; an inner voice telling you to give up and turn around every minute. The same goes for other aspects of life – take that step and push yourself one step further whenever your mind tells you to give up.”

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

My life has been filled with many ups and downs that have shaped me into who I am today. Two in particular stand out in recent memory that have changed how I see the world.

I studied abroad in Turkey back in 2015 and lived there for two years. I fell in love with the people and their culture. I volunteered in the local church and taught English to pay the bills. On July 15th, only 1 km from where I was living, the Turkish military marched while fighting against thousands of Turkish citizens in an attempted coup. Government buildings were bombed from the air, there were mandatory curfews, the airport was shut down, tanks were in the streets, and F16 jets flew so close the walls of my small apartment shook throughout the night. I laid under the blankets fearfully following the news. I was scared for everyone in the streets, I was scared for all the beautiful friends I had made, and I was genuinely scared for my own life.

March 13th, 2018, I rolled into the operating room of UCSF for surgery. Paul is my cousin, and we grew up in the Philippines together. We were the same age, lived in the same neighborhood and were classmates in the same school. We were very close. When I found out that both his kidneys were failing I was heartbroken. I knew I had to do whatever I could to help. I decided to move back home to California from Turkey, so that I could start the process of donating my kidney to Paul. After months of testing, lab works, and counseling, we were ready. I knew the risks. I knew I was healthy. I knew that the probability of success was in our favor. Even though the love I felt for my cousin, and my faith in God gave me security, I was still scared.

The coup was short lived, and I went on with my everyday life after a couple of days. My cousin, Paul, now has a healthy kidney and no longer has to be attached to a machine a couple times a week. 5 years later, I am healthy and well. I moved back home to the Bay Area to donate my kidney, yet to my surprise I met the love of my life, we got married, started a family, and now have moved half-way across the world to Barcelona, so I can pursue my MBA. What is invisible but essential about me is that these two experiences, sowed with uncertainty and fear, opened into moments of beauty, love, and hope. That a poor, rural girl from the Philippines, raised by a single mom in the rough streets of Richmond, can pursue higher education in Syracuse, live her life to the fullest in Turkey, and now embrace an incredible adventure in Barcelona with her husband and son. Moments like these helped me to be content and satisfied about the life I have and further affirmed and increased my faith in God. The challenges of my life have been showered with blessings and I believe that a life well-lived is a life in service of others, where that service might be invisible but it is truly essential.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

To answer this question, I would like to start with my early childhood growing up in Norway. 

I grew up with my mother and her female partner in a suburban area in Oslo. This was in the early ’90s and growing up with “two mothers” was quite unusual, I would even say radical. As an adult, I look back on my upbringing and feel a strong sense of privilege having been raised by two strong women. 

I also travelled a lot as a young child. I visited China, Fiji and Australia twice before I was 12 years old and somehow, we never ended up staying in the tourist areas. My mother was always keen on showing me what she thought was the local way of life. So, in Fiji, we visited a local village and met the village chief, and in Beijing, we would get lost in the side streets and visit local artists whom we communicated with using a simple dictionary and hand signals. 

My untraditional upbringing and early childhood travels have made me very open and curious about new cultures. I, therefore, decided to take a leap of faith and move to Harbin in Northern China to study Mandarin once I finished my undergraduate studies in Finance.

I remember Harbin as a melting pot of different cultures. In my language school, half of the class came from Russia and the other half were Korean. I remember being so amazed by Korean mannerisms and especially the tradition of bowing to people older than yourself. It was also my first time interacting with Russians. I remember my Russian classmates as friendly and fun to hang out with. The school also had plenty of exchange students from Africa and I developed close friendships with people from Benin and Zambia. 

Fast forward ten years and I am currently living in Barcelona pursuing an MBA. If you see me in the hallways, you will probably never be able to detect from my appearance any of the diversity I carry with me from my lived experiences. I think this goes for a lot of the people we meet in life. It’s generally quite hard to tell what kind of invisible diversity people carry with them. I, therefore, believe that the best approach is to meet people with genuine openness and curiosity. Be kind to the people around you and dare to include new people in your circles of friends, regardless of where they come from or what they have done in life. 

Best of luck to all of you on your MBA and future endeavours in life!