Big dog, small dog, no dog, hot dog

The meeting took about 5 min. It seems we can have as big a dog as we want! Unless of course there are complaints. Seems fair enough. Now we have 3 potential leads: a couple with a big dog, a dude with a small dog and a international visitor with no dogs. Which of these will pony up and sign the lease?

On another note, we have been finalizing our vacation trips in the next few months and that has been fun. The dates are drawing near and the anticipation is building up. In the mean time, the 2011 class has also been filling up. About 60 students (33%) in the class already and 8 months (33%) have gone by in the year... talk about swiss precision!

Next week, a trip to Nathan's hot dog in NYC? A friend of mine also mentioned a Kim Chee ladened deep fried hot dog at PDT (please don't tell) pub. I don't know about that one.

GEM #5

John Maxwell does an incredible job boiling down the "laws" of leadership, 21 to be exact. After reading this book, it definitely seems to me that only a handful of leaders in the world are practicing every law and great leaders are definitely hard to come by. A clear, succinct book with numerous examples that show you the way to being the best leader you can be.

GEM #5: The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership
SPECIAL BONUS! My top 5 quotes:
1. "Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less"
2. "Leadership is developed daily, not in a day"
3. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"
4. "You are the message, people buy into the leader first, then the vision"
5. "A leader's lasting value is measured by succession"

Use this as a guide in all your future leadership endeavors and I know you will be successful. I'm preparing for the day that followers will look to me to steer them into the clear, are you?

Sneaking up on you

It's been a flurry of activities trying to get ready for the move, and the weeks are just flying by at this moment. There are a couple of big rocks to move before the trail gets smoother. The 2 big things are the Condo and Financing. Other little ones include insurance, visa and storage.

The trick is to keep our focus on the big rocks and still enjoy the anticipation and excitement of it all. It's never easy, but constantly stepping back and looking at the big picture always helps to bring us back to the ground. Little distractions will continue to pop up and try to steer us away from our main items! IMD activities have slowly started to gain momentum. Enthusiastic MBA candidates are planning a ski trip in January and perhaps a new year party. Pre-program courses have been suggested by IMD on Finance and Finance Accounting. I anticipate more TO-DOs will pop up shortly.

In the mean time, reading about current students continue to prepare me for the next year. The second half of the year seems to be more dynamic and less structured. No more big lectures, traveling to different countries for the International Consulting Projects, just a more flexible schedule in general. I have a feeling the second half of the year zooms by pretty fast and that is the part most students will miss.

On a different note, but related, our big dog meeting has been moved again! Alright, time to buck up and flyer the town this weekend. I have 80 flyers waiting to be posted and I know there is a potential renter out there waiting to be found.

To rent or not to rent

To our dismay, the one showing we managed to score did not pull through for us. Even after listing our condo on the MLS ($400 down the drain), we did not receive any hits. We are finally open to the idea of renting and perhaps, it may be the better option after all (only option?). We have a good candidate as a renter, but the only problem is that our friends that want to rent our place has a Bernese Mountain Dog. It's a 100 pound dog, that's affectionate, good natured and stable, one big friendly giant!

The problem is our association has a weight limit on dogs - 35 pounds. All we have going for us is that there is a dog that's about 75 pounds that is living in the building and it was allowed for special reasons. I think helping us get good renters is a special enough reason! Maybe we can get the dog to lose about 20 pounds...

The verdict comes August 20th, let's hope it's a good one, if not, it's time to cast a wide net and hope we nab some fine renters.

1st showing

We showed our condo the first time this week and it went pretty well! The couple recently got married and a little older, so they should have no problem with the condo price. They were pretty impressed with the space and the best condo they've seen so far. So it's time for us to just buckle down and wait. Hopefully we get more bites now that we listed our condo on MLS (multiple listing service).

With the real estate market still pretty depressed, it has been a bear for sellers and a bull for buyers. Since we want to sell and nothing to buy, we are in a challenging situation. There is always the option to rent out, but that would mean managing the property from afar.

I'm visualizing the sale and I hope readers send out some positive energy to make this happen!

A time to reflect

I've been following the 2010 students on the IMD Blog and it's been fascinating to live vicariously through their posts. Summer vacation is almost over and they head to South Africa on Sunday, as they head into the 2nd half of the year. I feel their sense of excitement while realizing that the program is a little more than halfway done. I feel some really complex emotions as I put myself into their shoes: apprehension, excitement, calmness, sadness, happiness, melancholic... Deep down, I also prepare for a quick year, but also reminding myself to savor each moment. The over-night assignments, hanging out with my classmates, the lunch buffets, and dates with my wife over the 11 months next year .

I sense a common theme in the blog posts. It's apparent that the MBAs have already transformed quite a bit after a couple of months at IMD. I'm more excited than ever, to learn, to transform, to experience.

Good luck applicants and see you soon future classmates!

Ouchy Ouchy Ouchy

We've reserved an apartment on Ouchy street, and have received the lease contract. We will have to pay about 4000 CHF up front as a deposit. I guess it's not that bad, a little less than 3 months rent. I don't really have a sense of how this compares in other European countries, but we have no choice.

On another note, more and more students are being admitted and the class of 2011 is slowly forming, it's been fun looking at the sitebuilder webpages and facebook profiles of my future classmates. Our condo is currently on sale and hopefully we will get some bites, but in the mean time, we are selling items and lightening our load as best we can. December will come very soon!

our humble home - up for sale!