The road to success is constructed, step by step, along the journey. This is the promise of both professional and personal growth, offered by an MBA master course.
An intense journey filled with emotions, encounters and new discoveries, able to enrich any type of profile and offer new incentives to the professionals of tomorrow.
The desire for growth, personal development and a new edge to your career can spring up at any time: in fact, that’s how Zeljka Banicek made the switch from a quiet work life in Brazil, to becoming a full-time MBA student.
After leaving Rio de Janeiro to head for Milan, Zeljka Banicek completed her MBA in 2014. One year later, as an ex-student and with a successful career on the horizon (thanks to her new role as Business Development Manager for Microsoft), she returned to MIP in the capital city of Lombardy, to explain to current graduates how an MBA can truly make a difference.
And not only from a professional point of view: for Zeljka Banicek the MBA experience was an enthralling adventure, above all from a soft skills perspective. A means of testing one’s limits, pushing one’s ambitions to the max, forming collaborative relationships with people from all over the world, and learning important life lessons that stay with you forever.
Here are 5 highlights taken from the speech Zeljka made to the new graduates.
1: In a fluid world, change is important
How many people in a static yet comfortable situation would decide to leave it all behind and make a change? Very few, no doubt.
According to Zeljka in fact, people in a state of well-being are reluctant to change, unfortunately missing out on great opportunities. Ironically in fact, it’s precisely during periods of calm that a future professional needs to fuel the fire of his experiences, putting himself to the test to run faster than competitors.
2: Making mistakes is well expected. The important thing is to pick yourself up again
MBA courses often require a probing into the most sensitive and delicate areas of a student’s mind. It’s by taking our mistakes on-board and acknowledging the most difficult challenges, that we understand how failure is an inevitable step. That which makes a true professional is the ability to understand an error, quickly get back up on his feet and make the most of the lesson, making sure he does not fall over again.
3: Diversity is a value
Have you ever seen a great businessman blend into the crowd? Uniqueness is the keyword to successfully offer our professional and personal profile, a touch of diversity. Diversity is a value: embracing it, means communicating with our ability to look at things from a new perspective.
4: Reflect often, to open up your horizons
Never get carried away by events at the mercy of your emotions. Reflecting upon, evaluating and analysing every choice, are constructive actions, necessary to guide every professional towards his most important goals.
Reflecting means finding the time to ask yourself: where am I going? What do I really want? Which challenges am I ready to face? A seemingly simple activity, but one that is capable of taking our personal awareness to new heights.
5: Never abandon your dreams
It’s our dreams that drive us to want more.
What we are today is the fruit of our strengths, placed at the service of our dreams; it is the result of our efforts to reach the finish line.
“Follow your dreams, and be different”, is what Zeljka Banicek tells MIP MBA graduates: a valuable piece of advice filled with encouragement, the ability to dream big and stand out.
