My New Career
João Baptista
Uncertainty and ambiguity have increased since we left GSB with our shiny new MBAs. The present generation of graduates are very aware that the world changes every day and that their work will have to adapt constantly, much more so than when we left Stanford.
When talking with my children’s friends about what they would like to do, I still mention vocational calling, single-mindedness in the pursuit of goals, making money…but I observe that most youngsters do not use such language and place me squarely in the appropriate age bracket. Yet, even for me those words sound hollow. My own career has not followed a linear path, and Stanford GSB had both a lot to do with it and prepared me well to deal with change.
My passion is painting; it has been a constant in my life, but until recently only as a hobby. The desire to make more of it kept nagging at me and two years ago, I finally became a full-time artist. Talk about change! I went from having all my days planned, traveling around the world to meet staff and clients, running multinational businesses, to facing an empty white canvas, alone in my studio, with only a vague deadline for a possible exhibition.
Stanford GSB instilled in all of us huge amounts of confidence, flexibility, and independent thinking – and a certain arrogance, a belief that we can achieve pretty much what we set ourselves to do. I left behind corporate finance, accounting, and industrial engineering, but doubled-down on marketing and strategy, to support a very personal undertaking.
Back then business school seemed a good platform to enhance my engineering degree. It did open doors to different paths, first in consulting, then line management and corporate management, but ultimately it also gave me the confidence (and the financial independence) to become an artist. I had to choose between steering a path and going with the flow, but mostly, recognizing when to pursue a dream. (If I have piqued someone’s curiosity, my paintings can be found under my nom de plume João Amadeu.)
It used to be that everyone had three lives…well, it seems our generation has had more than three, and our children’s generation will face even more diverse journeys, requiring everything Stanford can offer. I can say that GSB was all that I expected and hoped for; it helped me throughout my life, along the many changes in my career, and now in the pursuit of my most personal journey.
