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Ever since I was younger I have dreamed of having an office at the top of a huge building with a view that overlooks the city and all the people passing by. I had no idea what I wanted to do in order to get this office and nice view, but I knew that I needed to have it somehow. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I realized how I wanted to all of these things. I fell in love with the way business works and how people run companies because it was an opportunity for me to take charge of something and influence people in a good way at the same time.
After I knew what I wanted to do in life I had to figure out how to get there. I would always hear people talking about starting their own company, but I automatically knew that it was risky because not all companies succeed. I decided to take things one step at a time and figure out where I wanted to go to college based on the type of business program they have. The University of Maryland was the best option for me because it was in state and had a great business program. It wasn’t until I got to the university that I realized I need more than one bigger plan for how I want to go about my future. After reading “The Start Up Of You” by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, I realized that it is important to have ABZ planning in regards to mapping out my future. I learned to use my competitive advantage to figure out why companies should hire me and what sets me apart from other potential employees. From this book, I learned the importance of planning out my life so that I always have something to fall back on no matter what happens or what issues pop up in the future.
Competitive advantage is the advantage that makes companies stand out over other companies. It evaluates your assets, values/ aspirations, and market realities. My assets mainly consist of soft assets such as my ability to retain information quickly and easily, my eagerness to learn and connect with new people, my reputation as someone who always remains honest and trustworthy, my love and skills with numbers and math, and my understanding of a younger generation that is slowly becoming more and more prominent. However, my hard assets may not be much but they include the money in my trust fund, my laptop, and my car. The second part of my competitive advantage includes my aspirations/ values. My aspirations include my goal to becoming well known and successful in the corporate world, supporting my mother in the near future so she does not have to work anymore, being able to influence the nation in a way that will make it an easier place to live not only for the wealthy but for the less fortunate, to become wealthy enough that my children never have to worry or want anything, and expanding my career to aspects other than business. My values include family, my religion, friends, education and knowledge, integrity, happiness, relationships, honesty, and my health. The market realities are that companies need African American females to work for them because the number of African Americans that work in business in general is low, therefore presenting the need for more.
When creating my plan A I focused on my comparative advantage and figured out that a company would hire me over other professionals because I work well with other people, I have outstanding networking skills, my ability and promise to remain honest and trustworthy make me more likeable and reliable, I have a goal of expanding my assets while building and planning my future, I build relationships and connections with people wherever I go, and I do not stop working until the job gets done. Also, me being African American while having all of those qualities listed give me an edge when being hired because it is not everyday that a company comes across an African American female who prides herself on maintaining what is important to her no matter what. I realized that what I am offering is both rare and valuable because nowadays it is hard to find someone in business with all of those qualities who also wants to build themselves, let alone an African American female with those qualities.
My plan A consists of me finishing college on a strong note for now. This includes me taking all my classes seriously by attending each class everyday, completing my work in a timely manner, trying my best at everything I do, being as involved as I can on campus, making connections with the students and professors in my classes, managing my time wisely so that I am not stressed out, and working to get internships every summer that I am able. My plan A is what I am doing right now that deals with my competitive advantage. This means it is me working well with others in my classes and clubs, practicing my networking skills at every BSE or Smith school event I get the chance to do so, remaining honest when it comes to my school work and relationships, building relationships with the people that I work around, and finishing every assignment I start on time because it affects my grades. As I go along with my plan A, I make minor adjustments and changes so that I can meet my goal of becoming a business consultant in the future. My plan A uses small steps that I can follow day by day that lead to a bigger goal, that will eventually help me reach my final goal. I start off with doing well in college and finishing strong with internships under my belt, then getting a job after college that will give me experience, and finally I get a job with McKinsey and work my way to the top in order to become a major consultant for their firm.
My plan B is similar to my plan A but instead it involves me going to graduate school after college just in case I do not get a job right away. This gives me more time to get my life together and think of new ways that I can use to reach my ultimate goal of becoming a major consultant at one of the top consulting firms in the country, McKinsey. If I follow my plan B then I can still get back on track and get a job that will grant me experience so that I will be eligible and competitive enough to get a job at McKinsey in the long run.
My plan Z is where I fall back if both my plan A and B do not work out for me. If both of my plans fail, I intend on going back to school and getting another degree in accounting and working my way up, starting with gaining experience as a small accountant, then moving on to gaining more clients that I can use to build my foundation and become successful. My plan Z includes a semi different career path from my plan A and B, only because it is important for me to keep pushing and find other ways to succeed if the plans I started out with do not work out for me.
I know that if I follow my plan Z that I will get a job because of the high demand accountants will always have. While consultants are in high demand at the moment, it may not always stay that way. However, accountants have been in demand for decades because people will always have to file taxes of some sort. My certainty of plan Z is what keeps me stable and knowing that I will be set in life no matter what issues may come up. In order to start off with my plans, I decided to make a LinkedIn account to network with people all over the world. My LinkedIn account is my way of starting off in the business world and getting my feet wet in areas of business I did not know existed, just in case my plans do not work out. Me creating my LinkedIn account has enabled me to see the end in mind because I always remind myself that I have a goal that I want to reach and it is never too early to start.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-inegbenebor-9415849a
After I knew what I wanted to do in life I had to figure out how to get there. I would always hear people talking about starting their own company, but I automatically knew that it was risky because not all companies succeed. I decided to take things one step at a time and figure out where I wanted to go to college based on the type of business program they have. The University of Maryland was the best option for me because it was in state and had a great business program. It wasn’t until I got to the university that I realized I need more than one bigger plan for how I want to go about my future. After reading “The Start Up Of You” by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, I realized that it is important to have ABZ planning in regards to mapping out my future. I learned to use my competitive advantage to figure out why companies should hire me and what sets me apart from other potential employees. From this book, I learned the importance of planning out my life so that I always have something to fall back on no matter what happens or what issues pop up in the future.
Competitive advantage is the advantage that makes companies stand out over other companies. It evaluates your assets, values/ aspirations, and market realities. My assets mainly consist of soft assets such as my ability to retain information quickly and easily, my eagerness to learn and connect with new people, my reputation as someone who always remains honest and trustworthy, my love and skills with numbers and math, and my understanding of a younger generation that is slowly becoming more and more prominent. However, my hard assets may not be much but they include the money in my trust fund, my laptop, and my car. The second part of my competitive advantage includes my aspirations/ values. My aspirations include my goal to becoming well known and successful in the corporate world, supporting my mother in the near future so she does not have to work anymore, being able to influence the nation in a way that will make it an easier place to live not only for the wealthy but for the less fortunate, to become wealthy enough that my children never have to worry or want anything, and expanding my career to aspects other than business. My values include family, my religion, friends, education and knowledge, integrity, happiness, relationships, honesty, and my health. The market realities are that companies need African American females to work for them because the number of African Americans that work in business in general is low, therefore presenting the need for more.
When creating my plan A I focused on my comparative advantage and figured out that a company would hire me over other professionals because I work well with other people, I have outstanding networking skills, my ability and promise to remain honest and trustworthy make me more likeable and reliable, I have a goal of expanding my assets while building and planning my future, I build relationships and connections with people wherever I go, and I do not stop working until the job gets done. Also, me being African American while having all of those qualities listed give me an edge when being hired because it is not everyday that a company comes across an African American female who prides herself on maintaining what is important to her no matter what. I realized that what I am offering is both rare and valuable because nowadays it is hard to find someone in business with all of those qualities who also wants to build themselves, let alone an African American female with those qualities.
My plan A consists of me finishing college on a strong note for now. This includes me taking all my classes seriously by attending each class everyday, completing my work in a timely manner, trying my best at everything I do, being as involved as I can on campus, making connections with the students and professors in my classes, managing my time wisely so that I am not stressed out, and working to get internships every summer that I am able. My plan A is what I am doing right now that deals with my competitive advantage. This means it is me working well with others in my classes and clubs, practicing my networking skills at every BSE or Smith school event I get the chance to do so, remaining honest when it comes to my school work and relationships, building relationships with the people that I work around, and finishing every assignment I start on time because it affects my grades. As I go along with my plan A, I make minor adjustments and changes so that I can meet my goal of becoming a business consultant in the future. My plan A uses small steps that I can follow day by day that lead to a bigger goal, that will eventually help me reach my final goal. I start off with doing well in college and finishing strong with internships under my belt, then getting a job after college that will give me experience, and finally I get a job with McKinsey and work my way to the top in order to become a major consultant for their firm.
My plan B is similar to my plan A but instead it involves me going to graduate school after college just in case I do not get a job right away. This gives me more time to get my life together and think of new ways that I can use to reach my ultimate goal of becoming a major consultant at one of the top consulting firms in the country, McKinsey. If I follow my plan B then I can still get back on track and get a job that will grant me experience so that I will be eligible and competitive enough to get a job at McKinsey in the long run.
My plan Z is where I fall back if both my plan A and B do not work out for me. If both of my plans fail, I intend on going back to school and getting another degree in accounting and working my way up, starting with gaining experience as a small accountant, then moving on to gaining more clients that I can use to build my foundation and become successful. My plan Z includes a semi different career path from my plan A and B, only because it is important for me to keep pushing and find other ways to succeed if the plans I started out with do not work out for me.
I know that if I follow my plan Z that I will get a job because of the high demand accountants will always have. While consultants are in high demand at the moment, it may not always stay that way. However, accountants have been in demand for decades because people will always have to file taxes of some sort. My certainty of plan Z is what keeps me stable and knowing that I will be set in life no matter what issues may come up. In order to start off with my plans, I decided to make a LinkedIn account to network with people all over the world. My LinkedIn account is my way of starting off in the business world and getting my feet wet in areas of business I did not know existed, just in case my plans do not work out. Me creating my LinkedIn account has enabled me to see the end in mind because I always remind myself that I have a goal that I want to reach and it is never too early to start.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-inegbenebor-9415849a