Fertility Preservation and Cancer

It looks like I have gone from an extremely big to an extremely small opponent as I was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago now - and my encounter with the sperm whale leading to my sinking in the middle of the Pacific was just a few months before that.

My cancer grew so attached to her reproductive tract that it decided to keep it as a souvenir. As I had not planned on being a tourist ground for cancer and menopausal at 32, I sought help to preserve my fertility. This affected me so much that she worked with top physicians in the field to make a documentary to raise public awareness of these solutions. Fertility preservation options are little known to patients and physicians alike and many patients embark on irreversible sterilizing therapies before exploring options.

You can see the short video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFGg3yyDNYs

I now count on the frosted Mini-Nats to keep her spirits up! If she can dodge an 80-ton mammal, what's with a bunch of microscopic malignant cells! You can read about Nat's story and make a donation to sarcoma research at stories.beatsarcoma.org.

BeatSarcoma

Hello hello hello -

We have launched the BeatSarcoma website - looks all shiny at www.beatsarcoma.org. Feel free to pass this around of course.
There are links to a summary of the Alien story as well as the Pacific Cup blog. The full Alien blog is not public (or at least not yet, debating whether it should ever become public or not) but like I said, I will be happy to send you an invite if you e-mail me.

Friends and family members have volunteered to translate the site into French so there are even a few pages in the language of Moliere. Hopefully, I'll be able to add some Spanish, Chinese, etc...ones too! One advantage of having gone to INSEAD...

Oh - and for anyone curious about who is behind this blog, you can find pictures on the site!

Pacific Cup Blog Launched

and available at this location.

Update on fight against cancer

This is a repeat post from the Alien blog.

"Hi everyone -Sorry for the delay in posting an update. I am actually maintaining a private blog and it took up a lot of my time. I am still in treatment and still chatting with a bunch of doctors, fighting off the nasty Alien but I have some news. I also founded a non-profit to help with sarcoma research since it currently gets less than 1% of funds available for cancer research. Still very early stages but it looks promising!

I may not be able to update this blog regularly. I am tired from the treatment which annoys me greatly, trying to do some work and setting things up with the non profit - in addition to some sailing and maintaining the private blog.

I will post an update once the non-profit is ready for prime time."

Meanwhile, if you are interested in finding out more about the Alien story, please email me and we should be able to get you an invite to the private Alien blog.

http://financemonkeyvsalien.blogspot.com/

I keep receiving a lot of emails asking me to keep blogging...So there you are! Talk to you soon!

My email address is still valid!

I have not written much about the application process - which is a tough one since it is a process where you must relegate control of your "destiny" to a 3rd party. However, if you take a look at life circumstances, there is only so much you will be able to control, and that's ok.

I have been asked several times about this application process. It may be worth a post.

There are excellent blogs on how to write application essays or prepare yourself for business school. My number one recommendation is to plan ahead and take the time. Talking about oneself is difficult. Talking aobut oneself in a meaningful way requires more introspection, and most of it just comes with time, and maturity of reflection, not necessarily an active effort.

- people who will read your essays may read them at 2am. Make it clear and easy for them to understand. Tell them what you are going to say early, then tell them in more detail, then conclude by reminding them of what you were going to tell them :)
- try to find something "remarkable", including how you present stuff. Originality is likely to be remembered. Doesn't have to be in what you did but in how you present it. More importantly than this, be yourself. It is remarkably easy to spot something that doesn't ring true.
- don't just make statement, prove everything you say. For instance, if you say: "I care about others", show an example of this being true. otherwise, find something else that you will be more representative of who you are, what you care about, care enough to dedicate significant time and resource to it.
- take the time to write your essays, let them mature. Chances are your first draft will be very descriptive, let the story sink in, stop thinking about it consciously, then revisit later
- the challenge in this process is to get to know people with very little. Every detail counts. Make sure every word you add adds something to your story.
- don't try to assume anything else about the other applicants other than the fact that they will be of extremely high quality. you won't know them, so don't position yourself "competitively". Diversity is important in business school. Concentrate on your story, think about what it is you want to convey, make it real and clear.
- don't make suggestive statements such as: it is clear that I am the most qualified candidate because. state facts, talk about state of minds, talk about your path, how you matured, what you learned, how you learned, what you are passionate about. Talk about everything that makes who you are, let them decide.
- always remember the objective of the admission committee: they need to make a decision about you in their program. Write only about what will help them with this decision. What matters? your motivation, your likelihood to accept an offer they may extend (e.g. why their program in particular), your ability to follow the curriculum, your active participation to the program, what will you bring to the school (during your MBA and thereafter) and to your fellow participants, etc...
- It is true that past behavior isn't necessarily a good predictor of future behavior. However, in a lot of cases, that's what you will have at your disposal to help the Admission Committee find out more about you

I will write more if I can think of something else

I have received a few timid enquiries - yes I am still alive and happy to take questions! You can just email me!

It's been a while since my last post...

I am on a business trip. I went running the other day. Chose the biggest city park, conveniently located a few blocks away from my hotel. Left at 6.30am, half awake. I was planning on doing a 5 mile/45min loop, full of fresh morning intentions - and I paced myself for this dynamic morning re-adaptation to life.

I got totally lost. I did two or three loops inside the park, at a very professional looking pace, waiving at the patrols along the way, greeting dog strollers and admiring these weird flashy orange gates that have mushroomed everywhere. Found a cute icy lake and some Star Trek decor looking rocky hills before finally ending up on the North side of the park, when I was really looking to go back to the southWest entrance. I was also some 70 streets north of my origin. I ran a quick market analysis in the back of my brain (and old reflex acquired in business school, seems to run constantly as a background job now) and concluded: not good.

I tried to zig zag back through the park, ran all around some large reservoir only to find myself on the exact opposite side again from where I really wanted to go. I was facing East and wanted to go West. this stupid sun chose not to show up, so i didn't know which way West was. I tried many paths and bridges, got chased by a tiny dog who could run surprisingly fast given the size of his legs (maybe I was surprisingly slow given the size of mine) - stopped for half a second to ask for directions. I spotted a lady who was walking dogs from an entire neighborhood - managed to hear her say "you must exit the park" in the midst of barking and roaring and finally, picked a direction and started to look for an exit sign. I had long stopped trusting the twists and turns inside this evil park.

I ran all the way back ALONGSIDE the park, on the west side, until I found my point of origin. I was another mile or so away from my hotel, which I covered at supersonic speed as I was getting horribly late for my first meeting.

Bottom line, I ran between 10 to 12 miles, and was out for 1 hr and 40 min.

Since then I have mutated into a snail.

But really the reason for my posting something is simply because I did promise some late perspective on this blog - and I have not forgotten my promise. I will get organized around it...one day

Aaaaaaaaaah...the joys of work....completely swamped...no time to breathe....

so let me look back at my situation

I was working a lot. Then I did an MBA and I worked a lot. Now I am working a lot again.

How do I measure the return?

I will be starting work on November 15th - a dream company but not in my dream location.

I am in Asia right now. I will spend some time in Europe too before I start. I am talking to a lot of friends from my promotion, from other promotion, from businesses in general.

Some people have argued that Insead is a mirror of the world. Only a positive reflection then. Reality hits you hard in the face when you step out. I hear Pakistanese friends who moan about their families arranging marriages for them back home, I hear French friends who bash about some traditional French companies who did not want to recognize their degree, I hear Chinese friends who work for an old school Indonesian leader who cannot take criticism and must micromanage everybody, I hear Hong Kong friends who worry that high levels of mistrust in the new government will lead to an increased number of deals under the carpet and undermine Hong Kong's reputation for transparency; I hear a Paris fan who had to settle for Switzerland, an Africa fan who has to settle for Europe, a Tokyo fan who might have to settle for Shanghai. I hear European friends who must postpone their Asian dreams, Asian who must postpone their US dreams, disillusioned American friends who were just asked to be "fit for the job, without having to wave an MBA as a sine qua non condition to get in".

It will be interesting to see where all these people will, 5 yrs from now.

A personal project - before I start work - has taken me back to Singapore for a few weeks.

I just had a conversation with an Algerian friend. She is a truly formidable woman in my humble opinion.

There is a common stereotype about the Arab world, which associates Arabs with the typical carpet salesman, the "bargain" type. Even negotiation professors use this example as the ideal negotiator. Some people argue that well conducted negotiations make for nearly perfect market as there would be no need for price discrimination. This only holds insofar as you consider all of these negotiations perfect...Guidebooks "educate" tourists to negotiate everything, even a 10th of a cent on a cab ride. Note that most of these guidebooks are written by non-natives who have extensively travel (not lived) in these countries and that not all of these books will get reviewe by natives.

My friend was telling me that in general and for most common items, people just pay the price on the tag. People will negotiate only if they have strong reasons for doing so. For instance, suppose that the quality advertised for an item differs greatly from the observable fact. If the price on the tag is associated with the advertised quality, it might not correspond to the value of the item. This can be grounds for negotiations. What I understood was that Arabs do not negotiate just for the sake of negotiating, because it is a "culture" thing. I can then also understand if they become irritated at tourists negotiating because it is "fun", because it is just a game. We were taught that everything is "negotiable" - unless it is clearly illegal. Does it make negotiating everything desirable?

We also talked about languages. My friend shared with me that Arabic was a language of love and passion. I can try to talk about languages I am more familiar with. I experience Spanish as a language of passion and fire. It has Arabic roots. I experience French and Italian as languages of love. They have latin roots, and French slang contains a lot of Arabic terms.

Poetry does not translate well. It would be difficult to appreciate the beauty of a Pushkin or a Goethe poem without reading it in its original form. However, for many of us, a translation will be the only way to get exposed to the diversity and richness of poetry in Arabic. This culture offers many poems, songs and stories which are well worth discovering.

We still have not received our deposit back for our house in Fontainebleau (and we did not have any hot water for the last two months). So if anyone of you decides to live North of Fontainebleau, across from Barbizon, let me know. I can tell you if you will be dealing with our dreaded landlady...

No news from France Telecom. I bet they forgot me. But SBC Pacfic Bell conned me into paying for a lot of extra months of line rental because they forgot to disconnect my phone. I am going to use VoIP from now on, wireless access points or smoke signals. I think wired telephone companies hate me.

I talked to someone last night at a dinner - She's Canadian, lives in the US and spent a few months in Paris. I thought I should post this as it might be a useful lesson for anybody trying to "Frenchise" their English.

This lady was walking around Paris telling people that she didn't like American bread because she didn't like preservatives (too much in American bread according to her). She was also telling everyone that she was very excited (to be in France, in Paris, etc...). Preservatives does not translate into preservatif. "Preservatif " in French, as she found out later, means condom. And excited does not translated into "excite" in French. Excite (pronounce excitay) means "horny".

So this lady was going around Paris, telling people about how "horny" she was, and then adding that she really didn't like condoms. The poor Parisians must have been thinking: "and the world bashes about our liberalism! It should look at the other side of the Atlantic!"

Just in case anyone's still listening.

I may have a job in my dream company...More soon...

How strange - it seems that the blog URL gets redirected to some weird Linux page. I can't access it. I hope that you aren't experiencing too much inconvenience.

Some people have enquired about France Telecom.

I did manage to get them on the phone - as I put pressure on the law people to get access to their service directly. They indicated that the law office never passed on any of my letters (great...). It took me two phone calls to get them to realize that I never had a phone line. They passed the enquiry to their customer service department (I was talking to the claims and legal issues department) as they figured it must have been some sort of mistake but they are apparently months behind with their claims. I indicated that I was leaving the country and was quite anxious to close this matter off. They will do their best and they assured me that they now understood better the situation, although it was still puzzling to read that I had requested a line and claims not to have any. I invited them to visit the property and check for themselves. Anyway, it looks as if there is some progress...Back here, I now have to phone another local company who hasn't figured out that I left months ago and forgot to disconnect my number...For some reason I never get on well with phone companies anywhere I go...

There you go. The day things clear out completely and I become a trusted customer again, I will let you know.

Welcome to this journal, offering to the world the lunatic mood of an MBA ape participant. This journal is about living and studying in France, and living and studying in Singapore at INSEAD – an international business school. It started at the beginning of the first term, in August 2003 but because the primate could not figure out the technicality of Internet posting, it was brought online a couple of months afterwards.
This journal is as accurate, comprehensive and honest as possible. It was inspired by my predecessor, Lucky Goldstar, whom I must thank tremendously. Both the Lucky Star and the Immature Primate had noticed an information gap between the INSeaDE and the outsEAde world. I dearly hope that it has or will be of use to you, readers of all nations, who choose to gather around these words. These writings are meant as a service to you.
More information about Insead can be found at www.insead.edu. More information about MBA bloggers can be found at http://mbaleague.blogspot.com/.
If you cannot find the answer to your question in this journal, I will be happy to be of further assistance. You can e-mail me, by just clicking on the left-hand side of this page.
I must now go on with my life – and cannot wait to become a more concrete contributor to the global economy. I will summarize the key lessons I have learned at business school, and more specifically at INSEAD during the course of the summer. It will be a repeat of the main takeaways. I must wait and gain some perspective. This journal per say, ends here - unless anyone of you emails me with an urgent question that will benefit all - or if I hear something extraordinarily useful.

If you read some of the "Dean at INSEAD" posts again, and focus on the "seriously" section - some ideas might start appearing, after discussions with good friends and fellow classmates.

- Decision to go to Business School
- Application Process
- Choice of Campus
- Move and Expensive, sorry Executive Solutions
- First Periods
- Group Work
- Campus Exchange
- Elective Choice and Bidding
- Job Search
- Becoming a member of the INSEAD Family.

Regardless of the flaws of the program - like of every program - this year has been an AMAZING year.

I must thank all of you readers, supporters, classmates, sailors of the 7 seas. Thank you to the founders of INSEAD, visionary leaders of the global economy.
I will keep writing as I have much to share and explore with all of you – but today, I bid you goodbye.

Finance Monkey
Fontainebleau, 9th July 2004

Our Global Strategy Management professor gave us the most inspirational lecture to conclude is inspirational course.

“The successful companies are the ones that manage to achieve profitable and sustainable growth – however, the most admired companies, the ones that will go down well in history are the ones that are also the most ethical and that have had a positive impact on their ecosystem and society at large.”

“It is not necessary for all companies to go global to be successful. It is necessary for all companies to think global. A few years ago, Philips and Thomson did not count with a Samsung, the computing industry with an Acer, Dell with a Legend – or Zara with a Giordano. Ford did not expect Toyota to emerge, nor Lafarge Cemex.”

“There was an experiment done a few years ago – people put in vitro communism, socialism and capitalism. The experience is over and a mix of capitalism and capitalist socialism has won. However, has it really? Is it a victory to have 40 million people without medical coverage in the US? In that respect, with their slow and backward looking attitude, the French might be rendering the greatest service to humanity, as it pulls it back a little as, to me, the biggest question is: To Grow, yes, but how FAST?
We cannot make unlimited uncontrolled use of public goods, we cannot use up our oil reserves, without planning for replacement, we cannot burn down the Amazon forest, we cannot build cities and deplete the land from its natural rejuvenation mechanism, we cannot produce more carbon dioxide than nature can absorb, we cannot make more babies than there are daycare facilities, etc…”

“My recommendation to you is to take a stand – choose your values and represent them well in your communities. Do not hurry and weigh carefully the consequences of your action. Be what you say you are and the world will admire you.”

Heard in our BBQ last night

“I now understand why the French don’t travel – I went around the country and it is just amazing – so varied and beautiful” – South African MBA graduate

Heard at my last dinner at Ty-Koz
"there is an obvious equity agency cost at the school. There are some key shareholders: faculty, participants, alumni, staff and the power seems to reside totally in the hands of one of them..." - French MBA graduate