What I Didn't Learn in Business School

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A WORKING LUNCH

I awoke the next morning at 5:30. I hadn’t had any exercise since starting this project, so I forced myself out of bed and down to the hotel gym. Besides, some time on the treadmill would let me think through the last couple of days.

Obviously, sleep had not come easily last night. But ultimately I decided my conversation with Ken was more like a coaching session than a reprimand. In fact, I was willing to bet Ken had had this talk with lots of other junior consultants. This realization provided only hollow comfort—while others might have the same problems, they were still my problems.

I also reviewed what I knew—or rather, what I didn’t know—about the project. I knew that HGS’s present value calculations were not going ...