All MBA applicants have a purpose. Some are scared; some are embarrassed; some are not sure if such deep introspection is required, but all of them would love to share their core story when the right person asks them.

This is one of the common reasons why a GMAT 750 or someone with an excellent GPA gets dinged. They don’t ask themselves, “What is my Purpose?”

Every forum will have an Applicant quoting with abbreviations IB/M7/Male IB/American IB/Indian IT/Chinese Hardware/Tier-2 Undergraduate – all a shorthand to evoke an association of traits.

I discourage clients from starting with the motivation in the opening line, except for schools where the goals essay is limited to 250 or 200 words. In such cases, you don’t have much of a choice but to be direct and then expand on the circumstances that led you to believe that your goals are important and why an MBA is the tool that you need now to achieve those goals.

To understand how ingrained our beliefs about universally appealing traits are, we must go back 1000 years before the birth of Christ and read Homer. Greek Literature is the originator of all the heroic qualities that we value in our peers and modern culture.

Many applicants obsess over opening lines instead of the entire narrative. So much so that they forget that the purpose of the opening line is to spark curiosity about your story.

Here are 5 Openers to create a memorable MBA Application Essay

Breaking stereotypes can go in surprising directions in an MBA application essay.

Indian-origin applicants in Rugby, American White Applicant with interest in Chinese Art, Chinese Applicants with virtuoso skills in Guitar are some that made me pause and think.

There is an insightful chapter on cultures in Erin Meyer’s best-selling book Culture Map, where she demonstrates how professionals from different countries choose to offer more context or less context in conversations.

This is the one quality that separates each culture.

While editing MBA Application essays, I noticed a pattern of writing that requires a complete rewrite. These are applicants in the top 5% with measurable impact and visible career progression validated by promotions.

So what happened?