Boomsauce!!!

The summer is long gone and I miss it! I miss spending 4 hours in class with the LGOs and I miss spending another 4+ hours with my summer team.

Our team's name was Boomsauce. To be honest, when we coined the name we were 7 strangers that had been arbitrarily assigned by the powers of LGO (Don Rosenfield) to work together. Our first "assignment" was to come up with a name for ourselves and we didn't do a very good job at it.

But over the summer something special happened: the name became a sense of identity and as time went on we identified ourselves shamelessly as "Boomsaucians" and would proclaim victorious occasions by yelling "Boomsauce in your face!!!".

The Boomsauce team: Erna, David, Matt K, Matt S, Eugene, Toni and me had a great learning experience and went from being a disjoint group, to a highly effective team based on trust (although we never were able to keep meeting discipline). We also became good friends.

I miss Erna bringing cookies to our meetings, I miss Matt K and David acting like brothers, I miss the perspective that Matt S brought to the team, I miss the Oracle Eugene working his magic and calling dinners at Koreana, and I miss Toni's contagious laugh. 

Without a doubt the summer creates bonds that will surely last a lifetime: it is hard to describe the friendships that are created but I am sure, if you read through the LGO blogosphere, you will get a sense of what I am writing about.

Boomsauce in your face!!!

Leadership

Coming into the program I believed that Leadership skills are something one is born with: you either have it or you don't and, if you are blessed with it, it is then up to you to put it to good use... over the past weeks I have consistently been challenged to question my paradigm and thought I would share this transformation.

The cool thing about the term "Leadership" at LGO is that, unlike other settings I've been exposed to, the concept is not abused, it is held in the highest of regards, and is approached as a path towards self discovery in a non-doctrinal format.

At first I was skeptical and believe many others where as well. But as the summer has evolved I have seen class discussions gather intensity and sense that something is happening. Many times now I have been blown away by some of the points of view from my classmates and more than once I have found myself pondering on what my strengths and weaknesses, understanding my fears, and cementing that which drives me to become a better person, father, friend, and leader. The LGO program, by design, will continue to challenge us to seek the Leader we could potentially become.

I wanted to share with all of you a video that had a deep impact on me. Although I am not a Harry-Potter fan—too old I guess—the words of J.K. Rowling’s message have echoed with me and thought others might enjoy this as well.

Introduce myself

Feels a bit awkward to start writing a blog: truth is that I have never done it and the feeling is a bit weird, good weird, but definitely weird. So here we go... let's see how it goes.

The short version about me:

- I am a dual citizen of Mexico and the US. My heritage has had a profound impact on who I am and how I see the World.

- I am married to a wonderful woman and have a beautiful baby girl who got her looks and charm from her Mom (lucky girl!!!).

- My first spoken word was "avión" which is airplane in Spanish: my passion for airplanes is genetic!

- My academic/professional background: undergrad in Mechanical Engineering (Mexico), a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering (Seattle), worked for GE Aircraft Engines and later for Boeing on the 787 airliner project. You can find more about me at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/erickcorona

- What else? I like dogs, red wine, pizza, and all of the good things in life.

Why am I writing this blog? A couple of years ago I started looking into MBA programs across the States and Europe. My hope was that I would find a program tailored towards Engineers with a focus on Technology and Operations; I found only a handful of programs but the one that stood out was MIT's LGO program (http://lgo.mit.edu/).

As my interest grew I started following the program more closely and found that many students had blogs detailing their experience, the admission process, the professional-academic shift, life as a student, Boston during Summer (and Winter), internships, moments of reflection, and so on.

The things on my mind back then were: toll on my family, return on investment, and wrapping my mind around the idea that this program was the best fit for someone like me. My hope is that this blog will help others who are where I was not too long ago.

One last thing for the day: as part of my introduction I do want to share my official LGO portrait as it is probably the only picture you will see me smiling/grinning. A big thanks to Brendan who, after observing that I am utterly challenged when it comes to smiling at a camera, cracked a great joke at the right time and made the grin happen. Thanks Brendan!