Full Transcript for So ... why a CEIBS MBA?

Bulgaria. I did a double major in economics and finance and then. During my senior year at college, I went to our lungs  [00:03:02] I was seeing at the university of London. And then that was basically my very first international experience. After this couple of months at the Limerick, I moved back to Bulgaria and I started my full time job at the ward. I did that little bit of auditing for about a year, but then throughout this time, I already knew that I wanted to continue my education and. I decided to actually go to the us to continue my education.  [00:03:35] Nelson: So I'm curious to know , you had a sounds like a pretty good job at Deloitte. Why was education an important thing for you? Why would you thinking about going back and doing a master's degree? [00:03:46] Radina: So there are a couple of different theories on scene. You're very right that the void, especially the Lloyd in Bulgaria was a very good and a very stable job. However, at the time I knew that I can either [00:04:00] start this career track and basically live in Bulgaria for. For the rest of my career or I can try to do something very different. [00:04:10] And I think, especially when you want to try something different with your career, one way to do this is through through the education.  [00:04:18] Nelson: So like many of the rest of us, you got the travel bug and you wanted to travel and do more international things.  [00:04:24] Radina: Yes. But money was also a constraint. So I had to think, I didn't have the option of just traveling. Pouring  [00:04:31] Nelson: so you applied for some scholarships and to a master's degree in the U S  [00:04:37] Radina: E s. So the story here is that I had a very good friend, also Bulgarian who did the very same program at so basically in the us, I went to Brandeis university and. Brandeis university was recommended by my friend who already graduated and she started her career in the U S so when I was looking for schools in the U S my, my factors in deciding where to go were a couple. First of all, it was important. In which schools I can get a very good scholarship package.  [00:05:11] Nelson: So connor. you already know. Coming out of college that you wanted to have an international experience , you didn't want to stay in the U S you didn't want to stay in Pennsylvania,  [00:05:19] Connor: correct? Correct.  [00:05:20] Nelson: And how did you come to that determination? Why did you have this global or international mindset?  [00:05:26] Connor: It's an interesting question. I guess the easiest way to answer it is to say that. I really believed and continue to believe in the ideal of being a global citizen. And I felt a really important part of living up to that ideal and being part of that ideal was to have meaningful, international experience. [00:05:45] If I live my entire life, the right. I can't really be a global citizen in any meaningful sense of the term. [00:05:51] I can't really understand the world as a whole, nearly as well. Up to that point I had spent one summer in Russia in college and I spent one summer in Mexico. But other than [00:06:00] that, I had never really lived outside the U S for any meaningful period of time. [00:06:03] When I finished college, I knew that I wanted to. Learn more about the world. And I wanted to do that by actually living in a nuclear.  [00:06:10] Nelson: so  [00:06:11] radino.  [00:06:11] You went to Brandeis university and received your master's degree in.  [00:06:16] Radina: Finance and economics,  [00:06:17] Nelson: what did you decide to do with your degree and what were your thoughts afterwards?  [00:06:21] Radina: So my plan was actually to find a job in any of these fields, finance, investment banking, or, hedge fund but the reality was that it's not an easy field to be in. So I had to deal with basically the opportunities that we had in terms of campus recruiting at Brandeis and that. What happened was that after graduation, a friend of mine called me with he, he had just finished his interviewing at Anthony Yang. And through his recommendation I got a couple like five rounds of interviews and then five rounds of super technical interviews. In fixed income. And then after this I joined Arnstein yang instructor finals. [00:07:07] Nelson: And how long were you at Ernst and young?  [00:07:09] Radina: Three years. Three years.  [00:07:11] Nelson: And this was in the U S  [00:07:12] Radina: in the U s  [00:07:13] Nelson: in New York so you were in the U S in New York. How did you end up in Shanghai?  [00:07:19] Radina: After a couple of years in New York, I moved to Shanghai because of our family, basically. In late 2016 I got married and that then in late . 2017, my husband got an opportunity through his company to move to. He called me and he said do you want to go to China? And I said, yeah, of course. When do you want to go for a vacation to China? And he stopped me. He explained no, we're not going for vacation. [00:07:51] We'll do it. Going relocating to China and that was over the phone. And then I said yeah, that sounds good. When are [00:08:00] we go? Like, how long do we have to decide? And he told me we just have a couple of days. Yeah, for a couple of days we made the decision  [00:08:07] Nelson: to China or known any Chinese. [00:08:11] Radina: I have never been to China, but I had a word of Chinese friends because when I was in,  [00:08:17] Nelson: did you know any? No,  [00:08:20] Radina: not at all. Not at all. And this is when I actually made the decision to leave my job at UI. And then yeah, after that, I went back to the us for a couple of weeks and then back to Bulgaria just to to enjoy some time with my family. [00:08:42] And then and then we came here  [00:08:44] Nelson: so Connor, you chose China, you came to Shanghai and you started teaching. So you were teaching  [00:08:52] Connor: Second grade at the time.  [00:08:53] Nelson: What was that experience like? [00:08:54] Connor: Honestly, my first year

in China was pretty difficult. That was my first job out of college. I didn't speak the language at all. When I came here, I spoke like basically zero Chinese. I could say like Neha, and that was like about it so I didn't stay at SHS ID beyond Shanghai high school, international division. I didn't stay there beyond the one year. I continued in the education sector, so I was still doing teaching related work. [00:09:15] But I kept doing more like, of smaller classes, one-on-one training test prep and especially college admissions consulting. After that first year at SHS ID  [00:09:23] Nelson: so you were finishing up second grade teaching? [00:09:26] Connor: Yes.  [00:09:26] Nelson: You're there making the decision to leave the school at that point, you had maybe some ideas about continuing education, but what were your considerations? Did you consider going back home, staying in Shanghai, going somewhere else? What was that process like? [00:09:41] Connor: I think at the time what I knew was just that the job that I had didn't fit me and I needed to do something else. . I did discover that not really consciously, but over time I found. [00:09:53] Shanghai was an like China and especially Shanghai was a very good place for me to be. Hopefully I can physically leave Shanghai, at [00:10:00] least occasionally we'll see how we'll see with COVID allows that are not class for all of us. But yeah, at the time I still wasn't really sure.  [00:10:07] Nelson: So I want to come back to something that you said that you knew that what you were doing, wasn't a good fit. Could you tell me more about that? How did you know that? I think. Might be in similar situations, but we don't know it's scary. Yeah. Decisions. Can you tell me more about that?  [00:10:23] Connor: I guess really, first and foremost, it was just very stressful. Like it's, you have 25, 8 year olds that you have to deal with when you're teaching second grade. That's very difficult. And then I think also this is taking place in the background of Chinese education in. [00:10:38] Which I think is just, it tends to be very stressful, maybe a bit more so than it would be in other parts of the world. And I think part of what made it stressful was just that background. And I felt like I didn't have the skills to deal with that in a way that was productive. I think that was what it was. Maybe just the stress of the job, the feeling that I was going in circles. And the fact that I didn't really know where this was leading very well. I think if you don't have a clear path going forward, if you don't know where this is going to be going, it's very easy to become discouraged  [00:11:08] Nelson: so you decided to move on and then you took some work doing education consulting, helping students apply to college. Fast-forward now it's five years, six years. Into your experience in China. And then you're deciding that you want to change again. So what were some of the considerations that you had and options that

you considered?  [00:11:25] Connor: I reached a point where I felt like I was experienced enough in education consulting and just just enough of an adult enough of like I had enough life experience in a way that I felt ready to do things more independently. And I always felt that the kind of more academic educational mentorship side of things came relatively naturally to me. But the business side of things was always a bit more alien to me. So I think that. If I took the time to actually study the business side of it, More methodologically. I could do it much better than if I just went and started working on it myself. [00:11:57] Nelson: So Redina union husband [00:12:00] relocated from New York directly to Shanghai.  [00:12:03] Radina: Me, my husband and our daughter. Yes. At the time she was eight. Seven eight months old. So yes, we moved here.  [00:12:13] Nelson: And what was that transition like settling things with your family, finding work here, what did your life look like when you arrived? [00:12:23] Radina: Oh, let me think about that. There is so many angles that they can answer that question. The transition. Was it easy in terms of living here? It was super easy because at the time that was of course pre COVID traveling was very easy. Shanghai was a place with a of foreign foreigners and especially. [00:12:44] Like certain places where you live, they're very foreign are friendly, basically. So even though that I didn't speak any Mandarin when we moved here, it was very easy for me to navigate day-to-day life and have the time to pick up with with the language. And again, The language, just to learn the basic phases of getting a taxi, doing shopping, groceries, shopping, and so on. [00:13:13] But yeah, it was easy at the time. It was super easy for foreign art. All  [00:13:16] Nelson: And then what did you solve? 2016 you're in Shanghai  [00:13:19] Radina: at 27, 20 17,  [00:13:21] Nelson: late 2017. And did you work in that time period or whatever? What did you do?  [00:13:28] Radina: Yeah. So that's a tough question. So basically when we moved here, my background was in finance, a very, technical hardcore finance background in a particular niche area, so we came here and I had a couple of different options. When I was thinking about my career, I was thinking about A few different options. Option one was to try to to go back in a very similar career track to what I had in the us either to find a job in in structured finance here or to just [00:14:00] move to any other area in the finance or financial services domain. [00:14:04] So that was option number one, option. Number two was a little bit more different to try to work on our own ideas or to co it start up ideas in a sense which was a great opportunity for me to just experience something very different from what I had already worked on. And one thing to mention here is that I was super lucky because I had the full support of my husband to just take a step back of my Professional career development. [00:14:38] So to say, and think about what I want to do and to have the resources to actually try and and run this ideas from like the very beginning and see where it can end. So, Yeah, to answer your question for the past four years receipts, I was doing a couple of different banks. Technology sector e-commerce  [00:15:05] Nelson: could you tell us a little more about those ventures?  [00:15:08] Radina: Sure. So sam high is famous for holding expos and there are two very large export areas here in Shanghai. [00:15:18] So pre COVID pretty much every week, there was a different expo event in one. To places. I sold this huge expo and I was thinking, okay, what are the things that are happening there? [00:15:30] So let me just figure out the schedule of this events so I started attending these expos just to get ideas about what are the potential things that I can do in terms of. [00:15:42] Trade import export to Bulgaria. And , one of these expos was actually an expo about children's products. And also I was always interested in this children's items because I had a very young daughter. So from this expo, [00:16:00] I got the idea that I can start up a company in in Bulgaria, which is a subscription-based model where we can offer products for different ages. And we decided to start with shoes because shoes are the one that children outgrow them very quickly. [00:16:18] So our idea was to send shoes and socks every every site. So the parents so that they don't have to think, okay, I need to go and buy new shoes for my child.  [00:16:30] Nelson: So you ran that and you did a few different ventures in  [00:16:34] Radina: that was the first one. Then the idea actually pivoted, we started importing various products from here and we switched a little bit more from like the subscription. [00:16:46] To just the general e-commerce and that was a very operationally heavy model because we had to set up the entire, basically we had to set up the business. From zero. But that idea was actually, it's a good idea, but the thing is that you have to think, is this something that's going to be scalable? And is this something that you can more move forward from? [00:17:13] Having it from just having a positive net income at the end. At the same time I was thinking about, what are the other things that we can also do? The the idea that came to my mind, which wasn't something new. But bulgaria is way behind in terms of. Using mobile applications for day-to-day services. Equivalent of what we did, is Zocdoc. [00:17:39] Doc is about looking compartments for for for doctors, right? And again in Bulgaria at the time, if you want to make an appointment, you have to pick up your phone, you have to call the studio. There is a world of, there are a lot of inefficiency. In our process. So our idea was to develop a mobile application where you can [00:18:00] make appointments online for beauty salons and basically based on your GPS on occasion, you'll figure

out whether the place is nearby that you would like to make an instant booking appointment. [00:18:14] Nelson: So that sounds pretty cool. So you were involving yourself in different ventures and startups and. How did you decide that it was time to do another master's degree or MBA?  [00:18:24] Radina: Sure. When I finished my school at at Brandeis, I did a master's degree. [00:18:29] I didn't do an MBA and I wanted to have that door open in the future to. To do an MBA program in a well respected in a well-known university.  [00:18:41] Nelson: connor. I'm curious because you've got a fascinating story. And one of the questions that I asked myself about your particular story. Why an MBA versus an education degree where it's a little bit more academics since you are in the education space. [00:18:55] Connor: Yeah. So that, that was definitely something I considered I do think in many ways I'm an academic at heart. So for a very long time I had planned to study like history or something, get a master's in history here in China. [00:19:04] But I think part of what drew me to the MBA. Was number one. I wanted to work on what I was not good at. I didn't want to work on what I was good at. Like I wanted to give myself an opportunity to really gain a new skill set and gain a skill set that I think is very useful. Even if you're not doing super businessy things, even if you don't want to be the CEO of some kind of huge fortune 500 company or whatever those kind of skills that you gained in an MBA. A lot of it's business understanding and so forth. A lot of is also just learning like career planning. A lot of it is learning how to network with people, make connections, and spot opportunities and use those opportunities. And a lot of those kinds of skills I just wanted to develop. [00:19:42] So that was part of it as well. And I knew that no matter what I did and later on, I would definitely use it. Part of it also was the fact that I knew I wanted to be in Shanghai. There was no real question in my mind that I would go to any other part even any other part of China. [00:19:57] I'm really not interested in living [00:20:00] in any other part of China in the near future. I really like Shanghai. And I feel like it's my second home. So I knew I wanted to be in Shanghai and there are good MBA degrees in Shanghai. And I don't, to my knowledge there aren't really so many. [00:20:11] Education degrees that he could be doing in Shanghai. So that was part of my consideration as well. But at the core really was just that sense that I would like to be able to be like an education entrepreneur or something. And I feel like I need the business training, I think more than I need, like the education training.  [00:20:27] Nelson: So you are in Shanghai, you decided you want to go for an MBA. And you want to come back to Shanghai by why not? I mean, You're from Pennsylvania when I Wharton or any other place. Why seems,  [00:20:37] Connor: I guess the most direct way of saying I'm not on that level. Like my resume is not on that level on it, to be perfectly Frank, but also, that's just. Really what I'm trying to do,  [00:20:45] I guess, sell yourself. It's not bad grades. [00:20:47] Okay. It's okay. It's pretty good. But yeah, so I think really, I think it comes down to in many ways, just I knew I wanted to be in Shanghai and there was never any question in my mind do I want to go somewhere else? I've spent a lot of time, trying to learn Chinese language, Chinese culture, Chinese society, and so forth. And I think especially given, be given the fact that I'm an American, I think the relationship between the U S. [00:21:14] At least for the next 20 or 30 years, , it's going to be a super important just bilateral relationship. And I feel like if I'm the kind of person that can serve as a bridge between those two places, there are just so many different things that I can do. And so I know. I really want to stay in China. And I really want to be like a, I don't know, like a dog at home, like someone who's like an old China and and I think I can, if I'm in that niche, I can rise to a level that most people can not rise to. I think  [00:21:41] Nelson: at that, at this point, you've decided Shanghai, you decided MBA, did you consider multiple MBA programs or what was that process like for you?  [00:21:49] Connor: So really it was, for me, it was only down to Siebs or like Shanghai. Uh, University like the college. And that's anti a N T a I not [00:22:00] anti as, and against what I told my parents that they were like the anti college. [00:22:03] It's like the college, what is this? Exactly. You know what I mean? They were confused at first, yeah. But anyway my initial thinking again, if I, if one of my selling points is that I really want to be extremely. Just Chinese, like language, culture, society, whatever. [00:22:19] Like doing an MBA in Chinese would be a huge value add for me because then I'm learning the content of the MBA program, but I'm also learning a whole extra layer of linguistic and cultural, skillset that comes with that. So that was my initial thinking. Later on I changed my thoughts for a couple different. [00:22:36] Number one like that, the program that I initially was going to apply, but I actually did apply to him. He was accepted to at jealous home that was a part-time program and I was still gonna keep a full-time job and then do that part-time program at the same time. And as I thought more and more about it, I became more and more. [00:22:55] Wary of trying to work myself just that hard for that long. It was like a two and a half year program too. If I remember correctly. And I just didn't think that would be very feasible, honestly. And a lot of it also seems so it is an English language program which initially to me was like a hard, no, I was like, I don't want to do an English language program. [00:23:11] Later on, I thought more about it and I really liked the fact that it was just an

extremely good. It was like the top ranked MBA in China. It was, it is again still, even though it's an English, there's a lot that I can learn. And it's not like I'm not continuing to understand Chinese language or society better than I would. If I had not done this program the motto of seeds is China depth, global breadth. And I think we do have a lot of opportunities to learn more about China as a society, as a political entity, as an economic entity, as a business entity. Which I think is at least from my perspective, from what I want to do, I'm the niche I want to fill in life. [00:23:47] I think that's extremely important and really useful.  [00:23:49] Nelson: Radino.  [00:23:50] I'm curious, what would you say are the differences in consideration between having a master's in finance and economics and then an MBA, why would. [00:23:59] [00:24:00] What to do on either or both?  [00:24:03] Radina: Sure. For me, there is a very big difference between a master's program and an MBA, first of all, use 30 different things. So I'm a master program in finance is very focused on building the financial skills in that particular domain. So most of the classes. Taking would be very technical cashflow modeling corporate finance, fixed income equity, valuations, and so on, but this will be very like you would get the needed skills for finance. [00:24:36] If you do an MBA program, MBA is a very broad range of skills that you're developing. And MBA is something that you do when you reach a stage in your career where when you want to connect the different dots that you have already. Experience. So let's say you started at someone, you started a career in finance and now you're, everything that you need to know in that particular domain, but you're more interested into, okay, how do I mentor people or how do I lead my team? [00:25:10] How do I expand my business? Or yeah even in finance at some point. Business, because you have to work with clients who have to sell whatever product you have. W what I'm trying to say is that the, this. Between a master's program and an MBA is a very different one. And I don't recommend an MBA program before a certain level of experience, because it's just, okay, you're going to learn it on paper. [00:25:41] Maybe you will do a lot of case studies as well, but you don't have the experience to connect the adults. What you have learned from what you have seen.  [00:25:52] Nelson: So for you, you done your masters degree, you'd gotten experience in the industry. You felt you had reached that level and [00:26:00] understanding with finance and also had done some entrepreneurship and thought, okay. [00:26:04] An MBA would be a great way to connect the pieces and develop some additional way of understanding business  [00:26:11] Radina: that's right. But let me give you also the full picture here, which is it sounds cool to say, yeah, I did start up ideas. I try to be entrepreneur, but the sad reality is that I don't know, don't quote

me on on the numbers here, but I would say. Small percentage of people actually succeed in running businesses or in creating a real like business from zero to one. So entrepreneurship is cool, but it may fail for various reasons. It may be the business model. It may be the execution. [00:26:46] It may be the team. The team is. Key in my opinion, or it may be also the founders in a B inability to create this ecosystem to make it to make it a big real.  [00:27:00] Nelson: You reminded me of the framework, right? It's when opportunity meets market need or know, we were talking about this.  [00:27:06] Radina: Yeah. That's why this classes are super helpful for me now, because I can reflect on the past experience and say and see I thought that this was something that kind of happened to me, but now I know, no, it's not the luck or it's not the, just something external. It's maybe something that I didn't do the right way. [00:27:26] So to answer your question. The startup ideas were great, but they didn't work out in a sustainable way. And and yeah, for me personally, it was time to decide, should I keep doing what I'm doing? Or should I just take a step back again and think about what I want to do going forward? [00:27:49] Nelson: So you were at the stage where you were thinking about possibly continuing to do what you were doing with your startup, or maybe make a change. [00:28:00] What were some of the factors And options you considered at that point?  [00:28:02] Radina: Okay. First one family. My very first question was where are we going to be as a family in the foreseeable future and at the time, and even today we are here in China. Because of my husband's job,  [00:28:20] Nelson: trajectory [00:28:21] Radina: so yes, his trajectory is very much China and our children. [00:28:27] Actually, they go to school here now, kindergarten. They're fluent in Mandarin and therefore we are four. So 75% of us are very much anchored in China. So for me, when I think about my career, I have to think about what are the options around them basically. So that answers the question. [00:28:50] Why here? When I stopped with what I was doing with the startup ideas, I had to think, okay, what can I do in China of one is to go back to school and do an MBA program. And then you use the time to rethink and reposition myself. Possibly get an different ideas about future career potential career tracks. [00:29:15] That was one or the other one was just to try to get a job here and maybe to get a job in. However, that is a little bit difficult for someone with my background, because my background as I mentioned to you is in asset backed securities., this is an industry that is Very sensitive. [00:29:40] So I don't think that foreigners have that many opportunities to to build a career instructor sinus in China now. So that's why I thought, okay. Maybe the best option for me is to go and do an MBA program and use the time and network. [00:30:00] To to find my next career both.

So I think it's very important for people to know. And to be able to say enough, this is the end. [00:30:14] And to live with the idea that it's time to move on. And and I had the door, which was the MBA program, and why MBA? I think because you get the network, you, meet a lot of people who are coming with very different backgrounds than mine in the case. So you learn about potential. Job opportunities or industries that you haven't told before, because you're constrained by your own experience. [00:30:46] Nelson: Going back to where you're deciding that an MBA is what you probably want to do with your next step. Did you know about before applying or how did you go about your search process  [00:30:59] Radina: I'll be absolutely honest here that before I started before even opening any like websites, financial times, Frank Kings and the, any of that stuff, my. [00:31:12] The idea about the MBA that I have is Ivy league schools in the us in Seattle, Singapore, France. And that was pretty much everything that I knew. Th the second step was actually to start doing my research. So I opened a couple of sites. I read a little bit, what are the best schools here? [00:31:31] And when you start reading the very first thing is CEIBS and you start feeding about the school . So we, yeah I saw. The name there. And my very first thought was okay. So let me just try to figure out from the friends that I have from Brandeis university, from the alumni network here, just to see if if anybody can give me advice about the school, about the people, because when you go to an MBA program, the first question that, [00:32:00] that I. [00:32:01] Was what are the students like? And what are the professors like? And number two was I don't remember what was the name of , but I saw a couple of events that were happening in Shanghai  [00:32:12] I sold this opportunity for for an open day here. And what I actually really liked was that it was there was a lecture which was which was a lecture about AI artificial intelligence. [00:32:25] So I attended the info session and I just use the time to try to get a sense of what are the potential students in the program and what are the professors like? So for me, that was a very important in my. In my process of learning about the school.  [00:32:44] Nelson: Did you consider other schools besides from CEIBS and apply to other schools?  [00:32:51] Radina: Yes. . So after learning about the CEIBS MBA program my, my thought process was okay since. Putting off the, like the time and effort to put up an application. [00:33:06] Let me just figure out, is there any other school that I may apply to and then have options to choose? And when the time comes, if I have the option, then this is when I'm going to decide. And yes, I applied to inset Shinwa, which is a joint EMS. Program, but after I got the offer from CEIBS and I got the offer from , I started asking again, friends and I tried to find people from both programs to to make the best possible decision. [00:33:39] And everyone told me that CEIBS is a great place to be , if you want a career in Asia, and, particularly in China, there is no better place than CIEBS  [00:33:50] Nelson: So Connor turning back to you. You decided to apply you go through the application, the interview process. You are admitted. And now you [00:34:00] are currently in your second term.  [00:34:02] Yes. Second term.  [00:34:04] The MBA experience. Could you tell us a little bit more about what that experience has been like? [00:34:07] Connor: So it's been really busy. we have a lot of things that we have to do and even more things that we can do and would like to do. And it's really one of those experiences where you'll never really know. The time and the energy to do everything, to take care, take advantage of every opportunity. So again, this is one of the, very fundamental skills you get from doing an MBA it really does teach you to prioritize. I really think about. What do you really want to do most, cause you can only do one thing at a time. You can't do eight things at once as much as many people think that they can, you, you just can't do that. And you really have to stop and think what do you really want to take advantage of? What are you most interested in learning? So that's been really useful and I really appreciate that.  [00:34:48] Nelson: What is a particularly example of having to step out of your comfort zone or ways in which you've been pushed out of your comfort zone?  [00:34:57] Connor: I guess part of it is the fact that we do have a lot of group work, a lot of our assignments, roughly 30, 40% of your grade is based on group assignments. You have to be thinking about what people's assumptions are or how they're approaching different assignments, you have to take that into account And Adjust the way that you work. That's really useful, cause it, in many ways I think I can maybe be a bit of a perfectionist but working with other people forces me to step back and ask what are we really trying to achieve here? And let's do it. And I think that's just, a very good skillset to have.  [00:35:26] Nelson: So Regina, how about you? Is there anything you can mention about, uh, how you've been pushed to think about the world or about business differently? Well, During your time at CEIBS  [00:35:35] Radina: I want to mention the focus that we have here . About China, even when we do case studies and when we analyze them, the type of discussions that we have are very different from the type of discussions that for example, I have I have seen in the us, you may be looking at the very same. [00:35:57] Case study very same [00:36:00] background, very same facts that you're seeing, but the way you end up analyze it and the weights that you put on different different ideas is very different here in China, from what it is in the U S or in Europe. So again, to wrap up that and to answer your question for me, the most valuable thing is to be able to

understand much better. [00:36:25] The differences in the Chinese culture and , way of thinking more than just a standard. Yes. The business culture compared to other places, because that. Businesses as well. And even if you go to, let's say a more established career track, corporate job or financial services or whatever, if it's here in China, you have to understand how people are thinking how is that different than. [00:36:55] What's your now.  [00:36:56] Nelson: So turning back to you, Connor. You have about. 13 months left to go 12 months left to go thereabouts here. And what's left for you in the future. What do you see yourself doing during those the next 12 to 13 months? And then beyond that?  [00:37:14] Connor: Yeah, so I know one thing I definitely want to do before I graduate. I want to give myself meaningful experience in some kind of field. That's not education. Most likely consulting, but it doesn't actually have to be consulting, but that's where I'm thinking. I would most like to get some more experience. Honestly, my, my thinking right now, , long-term, there's a very high chance that I will continue to do education it's something that society needs. It's something that I like doing. It's something you can make money doing. It's something that you can even use. A lot of MBA and business skills doing. You can be doing administrative roles, you can be an education entrepreneur. But an MBA is an extremely good opportunity, especially the seeds. MBA is a very good option. To gain meaningful experience in some kind of industry, [00:38:00] that is new and unfamiliar to you. And I want to do that. , to see if I can give myself an extra path, another industry, another direction that is also attractive and worth doing  [00:38:11] Nelson: What is sort of goals long-term for you? Like where do you see yourself at the end of your career?  [00:38:16] Connor: I'm going to try and give you an answer. That's not too wishy-washy. Honestly, like the thing that motivates me most in life is I care about finding ways to make different groups of people manage their differences are managed complex in a way that's ultimately constructive. So again, I come from the U S and obviously there's a lot of kind of political conflicts that people exhibit that exist between in the U S in the U S and China and so forth. And I think ultimately, I want to find ways of managing those complex in a way that's constructive for everyone. [00:38:46] That's again very open-ended. But I think but where I envision myself right now is spending more time as a teacher, as an educator as someone who's very engaged working with people and helping them become better versions of themselves honestly like much longer term. I really still want to get a PhD. And once I've had the opportunity to gain more of that kind of academic and practical experience over the next 10 years or so I want to be able to turn around combine academic macro perspective with the more practical experience I've gained and offer some useful advice or narrative. [00:39:17] Nelson: Connor, we're going to wrap this up with one last question. If you could give advice to a younger you, or, someone who's out there. [00:39:24] In Shanghai considering where to take the next steps of their life, their career will come in advice. Would you give them ?  [00:39:31] Connor: Yeah, so I think really, I think the single most important thing, thinking about where I am now versus where I was maybe five, 10 years ago, I'm like, they want you to think long-term, I think is really useful and it's. [00:39:42] Very useful, because again, you can just make sure that you'll like number one, because you actually are having you're moving in a direction that you care about in life that you like. But also, I think it has a lot of kind of psychic benefits in so far as you just feel better just on a day-to-day basis, you feel more secure, you feel more calm, [00:40:00] you don't worry about things quite as much, your quality of life improves greatly. [00:40:03] So I think gaining the skills and the resources and. The perspective and taking the time to really sit down and try and write anything even very vague things, any kind of positive statement you can make about this is what I want to do in the future. This is where I want to be in five years, 10 years, taking the time to invest in those kinds of thinking. [00:40:24] And that kind of thought, even if your plans totally change . It's a very positive thing you can do for yourself. I don't know, the past five or 10 years of my life. That's maybe one really great thing that I've gotten,  [00:40:35] Nelson: radino.  [00:40:36] what next, maybe at this stage in your MBA journey, what are you thinking that you might want to do beyond.  [00:40:43] Radina: Can I answer that question maybe in a couple of months? Have you heard the phrase that. Basically hum actually let me try to translate that in English because the thought comes to me, not in Bulgarian, but life is what happens to you while you're busy making plans. [00:41:02] Which doesn't exactly. Stay right with the business concepts that we, everything is about planning. But yeah, I honestly, I don't know what it takes. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here because I'm using the time to, to figure out what are the best options. To keep doors open for things that I still don't know, but have the opportunity to surprise me. [00:41:27] Nelson: Thank you. Redina it's been great chatting with you getting to know you and by the way, fabulous Latin dancing. Last night [00:41:34] I was particularly impressed and happy that there are people displaying Latin culture and Latin music to  [00:41:41] the community here.  [00:41:41] Radina: I'm super happy about last night and the gala that we had here, I think it was a great opportunity to spend time with our classmates and see more of the social life versus the case that is and  [00:41:55] the work. [00:41:56] Nelson: Yes, absolutely. That was one of my favorite memories [00:42:00] here at Steve's, uh, our Chinese new year gala and your performance there. So once again, thank you so much. Redina for joining us Connor. Thank you. Once again. And to all of you listening.  [00:42:11] to This episode of Maple side chats and i have been your host nelson wood. Yeah.