A common mistake I have seen while collaborating with applicants with background in contracts or someone whose job is to do due diligence is the focus on perfecting the MBA essay right from the start.
What happens is that the story elements become weaker, and the essay is a perfect version with no unique voice.
The uniqueness of your voice cannot be captured if you are worried about how you come across to the admissions team, or you are self-censoring some of the expressions, or you are focusing on examples that might look good for your background but might be one of the most commonly cited examples in MBA application essays.
This mindset to capture the perfect essay in your first three to five iterations is the biggest mistake I have seen applicants make.
To avoid this, you must wear a creative’s hat and watch some of the behind-the-scenes footage or director’s cut of classic movies. There are take after take of absurd angles, dialogues, sub-plots, and narratives that eventually didn’t make it through to these classic movies.
Some of the director’s cuts are close to 3 to 4 hours long, while the movie might be just 1.5 to 2 hours long.
The 3-to-4-hour version is only revered by true movie fans.
For a general audience, these long narratives are too boring and don’t leave the same impression as the final cut of the movie that became a classic.
Iteratively improving the essay from the 5th to 10th edit and even 10 to 15th edit is where most magic happens in MBA application essays. You don’t have to worry about the edit and perfecting the essay while writing the first 3-5 versions of your essay.
