September 8th, 2009. The first day of class. 8:00am. In the pit of my stomach, I felt a sense of excitement and hope, but also a dash of trepidation mixed with a subtle hint of fear. As I sat in Amphitheatre A in Spencer Leadership Centre looking out at 61 other faces in the room, I thought to myself “How on earth am I going to compete successfully with so many bright and motivated people?! Why have I taken one year off from my career?! Why have I taken one year off from seeing my family and friends?! Why have I forgone one year of income and cash flow!” In the back of my mind, I thought that I had surely made a mistake.
Fast forward only 60 days, and it is hard for me to describe how truly wrong I was. The Ivey MBA experience is exceptionally unique in the sense that you grow so quickly. As you are forced to step out of your comfort zone daily, you are forced to change how you think and act very quickly.
You are exposed to people from different ethnic and work backgrounds. You are exposed to business functions that you may love or hate. You learn by stepping into the shoes of a manager every single day, and you learn to make decisions while your classmates and professors challenge you continuously. You are exposed to new thoughts and ideas, as well as new and better ways of doing things. In short, you develop both personally and professionally. To be honest with you, I feel like a completely different person compared to who I was only two short months ago. I’ve developed new friendships, gained confidence in public speaking, and learned an incredible amount about how to manage and lead companies.
Most importantly, however, I have learned that life is simply what you make it. By that, I mean that you must learn how to leap on opportunities when they are presented to you. Ivey has afforded me that opportunity on so many levels. For example, I have always wanted to learn about real estate in the past, but have never had the time or resources to do so. At Ivey, I recently joined the Real Estate Club where every two weeks I have the opportunity to gather with like-minded real estate professionals and learn about the business of real estate and REITs.
I have also had the opportunity to join the Ivey Finance Club, and have started contributing to the bi-weekly newsletter by researching and writing about real estate and the REIT sector. Overall, the newsletter is designed to highlight major news in the industry, hone in on that news with analysis, and then follow-up with a few key takeaways and implications. For a sample of the quality of the Finance Club’s research, take a look at our most recent publication
Finally, one of our largest projects during the Ivey MBA program is to develop a “New Venture Project” from concept, to business plan, to tangible business.
I have been so fortunate to have the opportunity to join a group of five other bright, young real estate professionals in forming a team. Our firm, entitled “Ivey Green Real Estate Development Corporation”, will be a boutique real estate development firm with a primary focus on mixed-use commercial and residential redevelopment projects. I am extremely excited to develop our firm concept, and to also be involved in the sourcing an actual real estate project. I believe actually being involved in the concept design, development, and execution of an actual real estate development project with experienced and high quality individuals will give me the framework, confidence, resources, and abilities necessary for building a real estate portfolio in the future
What I have touched on in this blog post is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the opportunities available to you at Ivey, and whether not you decide to come to this school, they key message is that life is simply what you make it.
Kyle graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree, majoring in finance. Prior to pursuing his MBA at Ivey, Kyle achieved his CFA designation, worked for five years on Bay Street in quantitative equity research, and most recently worked as an Analyst on the Institutional Equity Sales & Trading desk at a boutique investment dealer. At Ivey, Kyle is a member of both the Investment and Finance clubs, and is a contributing member to the latter’s bi-weekly newsletter. In his spare time, Kyle enjoys reading the WSJ, analyzing stocks, playing on the Ivey recreational softball team, and enjoying nights out on the town with fellow classmates in glamorous London, Ontario.