The Naked MBA

One of life’s first rules is that you should never make any important decisions over cocktails. I tend to ignore this rule, which is why, after three caipirinhas on a beach in Brazil, I ended up as co-president of one of my business school’s largest student clubs.

During my first year I was ultra-committed to the club. I narrowly avoided being hospitalized for exhaustion while planning a spring break “study” trip to Brazil for 100 students and alumni--on top of recruiting, socializing and studying. I decided it would be a good idea to tone down my responsibility and be more relaxed my second year. Then on the Brazil trip D caught up with me. We had several caipirinhas and convinced me to run for club president with him. It didn’t take much—all he had to do was bow and start introducing me to people as “Madame Le President”.

A week later we were being toasted by the outgoing club presidents as the new leadership team. “This is gonna be the best job ever,” said D, raising his glass to me. “All we have to do is tell other people what to do.” The outgoing presidents shared a knowing look.

The next day an email showed up in my inbox, “inviting” me to a mandatory all-day club leaders training—scheduled for 9 am the morning after the semester’s biggest all-school party. Then other emails started showing up:

From the club treasurer, “We have to submit our financial report by tomorrow and my account access is frozen—what should I do?”
From the events officer, “The keynote speaker for tomorrow’s conference is stranded in a tornado in Chicago—what should I do?”
From a school administrator, “Alumni want to know why they weren’t invited to last week’s wine tasting event—what should we tell them?”

Soon my inbox was full. My calendar was next. There were meetings with each of the club committees, with administrators and with the presidents of other clubs. There were reports to file and action plans to author. Second year was well underway and I was anything but relaxed. I ran into D in the club office and he looked as haggard as I felt. “Who knew telling other people what to do was so much work?” he asked. We needed a system or we’d never survive to enjoy spending our signing bonuses.

There were two of us, so we divided and conquered. D handled the events and technology committees. I handled conference and membership. We worked together on the spring break trip. We also selected good people to work with us as club officers. Instead of just choosing our friends, but we made sure to pick the most dependable, organized people. That way we could delegate with confidence. We did most of the club business over email to minimize meetings. When we did force everyone to come to meetings we brought beer to keep them happy and working hard for us. My inbox cleared out and open space appeared in my calendar again.

D and I caught up one night at a club happy hour. “Hey, nice job to us!” he said. “Things are running smoothly.” We clinked glasses. Just then a fellow student came up to us.

“You guys are the club presidents, right?” We nodded. “Well your technology officer has had a bit too much to drink—he’s outside puking and asking for you. Someone needs to take him home.”  I sighed and looked at D. I bet Jack Welch never had to deal with this…