HBS Business-Minded Essay
HBS Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Background Information: The backstory is about the family’s immigration from Nigeria during the troubling 70s. ‘Freedom’ as a value became obvious as they fled the war-torn country. Although ‘freedom’ and ‘safety’ were big motivators, the family was conservative, with conversations on sex and sexuality barely entering the living room. The applicant’s battle with his own sexuality is the transition that sets up for a setback event.
Theme: Failure, Acceptance, Entrepreneurship
Theme (Explained): Growing up in Miami with multiple identities was isolating. It was only through Entrepreneurship that the applicant felt that he belonged to the community. Despite building a loyal brand following, his venture was not scaling as expected. There were systemic roadblocks that required overhauling the funding metrics used by VCs. The failure is a guiding force that motivates the applicant to be the public spokesperson for minority entrepreneurs and steer the attention of the investment community toward minority entrepreneurs and the biases in VC fund allocation that perpetuates a cycle of neglect.
Profile: Entrepreneur
Industry: Retail
MBA Essay Strategy: Failure narratives captured with nuance also read really well. If you are an immigrant or child of an immigrant, don’t let the opportunity go to waste, as some of the values you acquired are truly unique. However, applicants overdo the ‘hard work’ or ‘persistence’ narrative quite a bit. Some weaknesses of the family captured cleverly would also provide the admissions team with the conflict you had to face while finding your own voice.
Opener: Starting with a line on identity is the safest route in MBA essays. For this essay, the person had two identities – an identity as an immigrant but a dominant identity as a black and LGBTQ+ person. By capturing a secondary identity in the opening line, the applicant can now focus on the dominant identity and capture a more authentic narrative for the essay.
Sample Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Entrepreneurship as an Identity and supporting minority Entrepreneurs (297 Words)
Immigrating to the land of the free was an escape from the sectarian violence that was plaguing the newly independent Nigeria of the 60s. The story of my mother’s ancestral home burned to ashes during the 1976 civil unrest was unsettling as our grandparents lost their lives to the pogrom.
Despite my parents’ immigrant status, our family values ..
