contemplating goals for 11 hours at DTW

this weekend i was reminded why i was put on this earth (and no, it was not to have the best hair in the lower 48). i did a bunch of interviewing, traveling, reading, and surfing the net. all were done with a singular purpose of me finding the right way to get the job/internship that will serve my career path. it is not to make money (though i really want one of these with an after-market 6-speed). it is not to have a cool corner office. it is not to have full dental coverage. it is to make a gigantic impact on the world through leadership in a powerful business. many guffaw at this desire, and tell me i can't do it. but i can, and i will. and i don't do so to prove anybody wrong. i do so because it's right.
this journey through my first year of my mba has taught me that when i believe in something, i have nearly limitless energy for it. sleep is not important. vacuuming my carpet is not important (aaron usually breaks down and does it, anyway). washing my car is not important (irony!). my goals are important and though i won't bore anybody with them on this blog, just trust that i am more determined than ever to make an impact in the business dealings on this planet. when the company with revenues equal to the 20th largest economy in the world speaks up and says the same thing...we might be on to something. some may stand on their soapboxes and accuse me of being brainwashed by all the khaki and cashmere twinsets of b-skool. but i am not. i'm the same girl who started at darden in august. the same girl whose summer job in high school was to raise a 4-H market steer. i'm just mandy. only i now have much more debt.
as "big business" managers, we are foolish to ignore the planet on which we live. companies are more than the sum of their parts, yes. but those parts are all human beings. and most of those human beings have souls and compassion and care about the future. and if led properly by conscientious leaders; can channel their energies into making this world better. each day i learn more and more about how business works. each day i understand more and more about the pitfalls we encounter that steer us from the path of creating a peaceful and profitable existence. it's these pitfalls that give bigbiz such a bad rap, thus emphasizing the necessity of strong and ethical leaders.
true leadership is about inclusion, not exclusion or fear. when we lead with this in mind, we can expect great things from those around us, and in turn our companies will be better than we found them. i am more and more convinced that most of us want the same things. but for some reason we forget it and let party lines divide us. the "darden bubble" is very real and though we can't always expect to have such an amazingly high-functioning and open-minded atmosphere in our future jobs; we can carry the spirit with us and truly listen to others and try to pick out the similarities instead of myopically focusing on differences. the sames outnumber the differents...and that should hearten us all.