When I was at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Executive Relationship Manager Copil Yanez’s mantra was “ABI”, Always Be Interviewing. He was right; you never know when the hallway discussion or chance street corner meeting could become your next business connection. We were encouraged to treat every encounter professionally and look and speak the part. I adopted his mantra, lived by it during my time there, and I still follow it today.
But there is a mantra that I have lived by a lot longer…one that has enabled me to continue to evolve and grow professionally and as a person…ABL.
Always Be Learning
When I was a high school student I loved to learn (though my grades would have never reflected that). At that stage of my life, give me a Popular Mechanics or Popular Science magazine, and I’d read it from cover to cover, dog-earing the pages learning about the next big thing. But I was a lot less interested in formal schooling. In my teens, I didn’t equate the possibility of success with the new technology that I was reading about with the foundational things I needed to pick up in school. It wasn’t until a few years later as a young man in my 20s that I realised the need for more advanced education. So I went back to school, starting at Wilfrid Laurier in Waterloo, Ontario and finishing with two diplomas from McMaster University in Hamilton.
Upon my retirement, I made a decision to follow a lifelong dream and get my MBA, and so I applied and was accepted at the University of Edinburgh or the full-time MBA 2018-2019.
I got a distinction on my dissertation, “A Critical Analysis of the Current Measurement of Value in Policing and Testing the OMNIDEX OM30: A Proposed Replacement Model” and I am quite pleased to be graduating with an overall Merit this November
I am now looking for an opportunity to do my PhD, and I am continuing to upgrade with courses. The first will be an 8-course series on Data Science hosted by Harvard University on their EdX platform.
It’s exciting to embark on new journey and continue to increase my knowledge, learning new tools and techniques that can benefit my clients and society. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams and increase your knowledge, skills and abilities. It doesn't matter whether it's a free online course or something more formal, what does matter is to ABL and never stop.
I want to encourage you to head over to www.wbglobalpartners.com, our new corporate consulting website and check it out.
Over the coming weeks, I hope to share regarding my learning journey, thoughts on public safety, short breakdown articles on my dissertation and much more.
You can also follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.
Let’s grow together and ABL!