INSEAD MBA Essay 3: Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (approximately 300 words) *
The first example is from an applicant - a vlogger and a writer, who cites an American friend as an inspiration in starting trekking through the remotest trails in North India. The experience of isolating oneself and connecting with the vastness of nature acted as the trigger for many of the applicant's creative writing sessions.
The applicant's weeklong writing session after the trekking expedition brought a unique imaginative quality to his writing. The experience also enriched the applicant to go back to his happy place when faced with the stress of the daily job and helped him separate the essential from the urgent. The attitude towards opportunity and surviving the chaos of the professional responsibilities are connected to the experience as a hiker.
The applicant also mentions the accidental venture into Vlogging as a way to document the trails - an initiative that transformed into a popular YouTube channel on hiking that garnered over 50,000 subscribers and 12 million views. The experience of serving an audience with fresh content made him a better editor and a presenter.
