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Life Starts at NO - Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay Sample

Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.

Curiosity: Philosophy

Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.

MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer. 

Theme: Persistence

Theme (Explained): A persistence theme is overplayed. It works if you have other narrative threads running in parallel. For the essay, I have several unique milestone expositions mixed into the narrative so that when the applicant mentions ‘curiosity’ to overcome ‘NO’ as a philosophy, it connects. 

Profile: Creative       

Industry: Design

Opener: The opener takes the reader to the applicant’s philosophy of overcoming limitations with persistence.
 

Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay - design applicant

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Life Starts at NO (245 Words)

The innocent eyes, eager to be mesmerized, didn’t know the reality that the visually challenged market wasn’t profitable for the publishers of “Ship of Theseus.” My curiosity to learn pushed me to painfully decode each English word to the most authentic braille word. The children’s smile was my reward.

I hate ‘No’. 

When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, I ..

Download F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide for the Persistence Narrative

 

F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide

 

• Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (up to 300 words)
• Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)

Download F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20+ Essay Examples & 300+ Pages of Essay Writing Wisdom)

 

About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.