David Lu

Home | My Profile

• This week, like many other weeks at the GSB is marked by not accomplishing everything that I wanted to. But reading over this list of things, I can't stop smiling. So many wonderful and inspiring people. I'm disappointed I didn't get as far on my life planning goals as I wanted to; I've been feeling listless about my future career plans after the GSB since I started this year, but looking back at the experiences I've had this week, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

• Finally understanding that grades don't matter
• GSB Show! / GSB Unplugged
• Personal coaching with my MBA2 coach

• Being an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow
• Spending my summer in Beijing, China
• Spending my Christmas holiday in South America

Today's  biggest accomplishment: Finished a paper, helped a friend,caught up with a friend, met a close friend's family
Today's biggest challenge: Too many wonderful things to do, too many people to see
Most fun: Meeting my friend's family from Singapore

Today's biggest accomplishment: Supporting one of my closest friends despite a very busy schedule.
Today's biggest challenge: In almost all of my commitments today, other people were depending on me, finding time to take care of my responsibilities to them as a friend and teammate
Most fun: Working session for my Managing Growing Enterprises paper. I had a great partner and if the people are right, the work is fun!

Today's biggest accomplishment: Spending the day with my friend who doesn't go to the GSB. Reminds me that there is life outside of this wonderful and crazy place. It's very centering
Today's biggest challenge: Taking a whole day off to reconnect with the outside world when there is so much work to do!

Today's biggest accomplishment: Making it through the week!
Today's biggest challenge: Feeling prepared for classes. The finance classes that I'm taking are a real stretch for me.
Most fun: Catching up with my friend that I knew before GSB.

10:30 AM Wakeup and breakfast.

Work on coaching work sheet for Fellows.

10:45 PM Commute to school. Car or motorcycle? I can only have one parking pass which I have to switch between the two vehicles. 15 minutes to school if there's no traffic or I take the bike.

12:00 Noon Lunch with a friend who's visiting from out of town, we've spent the weekend together, but there's work to be done!

2:00 PM 1:1 coaching with one of my MBA1 Squad members, he's just led his first section and we're doing a debrief. Part of the core of the GSB curriculum, personal development.

3:00 PM Help an MBA2 inspect a used car she's buying from a recent grad. I designed cars in a past life. We all have these interesting esoteric skills. Glad to help a classmate.

4:15 PM Drive home.

4:30 PM Work on paper for my automotive industry strategy class.

6:00 PM Drive to Escondido Village to see my classmate from undergrad who's just moved to the US with his family to join the d.school and complete his lifelong dream.

6:15 PM Get interviewed by my friend concerning ubiquitous computing.

6:45 PM Dinner with my friend's family and in laws. Feels like all of my friends are getting married and having kids. I feel behind, yikes!

8:30 PM Drive back home to do some work.

10:00 PM Drinks with a friend from out of town, no other time for this, the day never ends.

1:00 AM Bedtime

Today's biggest accomplishment: Reconnecting with a long time friend who I haven't seen in years and talking about Asia
Most fun: Today wasn't as much fun . . . . it's Monday and it's time to catch up from the week.

7:30 AM Wakeup and work on a group project for Managing Growing Enterprises. Prepare for Institutional Money Management class.

9:05 AM Drive to school.

10:00 AM Finance 346 - Institutional Money Management class. Three hours of lecture in a row, yikes.

1:15 PM No break for lunch, straight on to OB 330 Fellows class. I love this class. Preparing us to be coaches and managers and leaders.

3:15 PM Friend visiting from Asia for her 5-year Stanford reunion. We have coffee in the Knight Center and talk about our experience in Asia. I spent the summer between my MBA1 and MBA2 years in Beijing.

5:00 PM Make some calls, take care of some errands, pay bills.

5:30 PM Work on Managing Growing Enterprises paper.

6:00 PM Grab and go sandwich from Arbuckle and head to my next meeting.

6:30 PM Work with my Automotive strategy team on a paper on Ferrari and the global automotive industry.

8:00 PM Meet up with my Leadership Fellows Clinic for some quality time, we've set up time to really get to know each other. This norm is one of my favorite parts about the GSB, we're coming together to contribute to our community by giving back to the Leadership Labs program, something that we all personally really benefited from our first year, and in the process, I'm getting to know a lot more of my classmates a lot better.

10:00 PM Home to do some more work.

11:30 PM Physical therapy, I hurt my hip last year training for a triathlon, have to stay in shape!

12:00 Midnight Bedtime.

7:30 AM Wakeup and breakfast. Prepare for morning classes; I have a study group at 9:00 AM and want to be prepared

9:15 AM Commute to school.

9:30 AM Managing Growing Enterprises study session, practicing the way to maintain talent at our organizations.

12:00 Noon No lunch break. Grab food at Arbuckle and rush off to StratMgt 574 class. Give a group presentation on a new ownership model for cars.

3:45 PM Finish off Managing Growing Enterprises paper with my work partner!

5:15 PM Grocery shopping at Trader Joe's.

7:15 PM First dinner at home in a long time.

8:00 PM Commute to school for a 1:1

8:15 PM 1:1 with one of my MBA1s, we have trouble finding each other and the meeting starts late.

The interior of the Bass Center.

9:30 PM My friend from San Francisco drops in on her way back from out of town. She's been helping a close friend through a family crisis and I'm supporting her.

10:30 PM Another friend from out of town arrives. We're spending Wednesday together and she's just driven in on Tuesday night. We have a drink and catch up.

12:00 Midnight Bedtime

8:00 AM Wakeup. Yup, this is my breakfast.

8:45 AM Commute to school, to turn in my Managing Growing Enterprises paper.

10:00 AM Leadership Labs session! This week was a lab where we practiced persuasion and assertiveness, always an exciting lab, the highlight of my day

12:00 Noon Lunch with an MBA1 through the GSB blind dates program, meet a random person, make a new friend!

1:00 PM Meet up with my friend from out of town, a relaxing rest of the day, spent the day working on Halloween costumes, running errands and cleaning up the house.

10:00 PM Career and life visioning session with my roommate Julian Jordan, he invited a bunch of his closest friends and advisors over and we had a working session in the living room.

Post it notes everywhere, all of us focusing on our friend. We're trying to help him figure out his life because we know that he would do the same for us.

Julian Jordan, my roommate.

12:00 Midnight Bedtime

7:00 AM Wakeup and breakfast. Prepare for class.

8:00 AM Commute to school.

8:30 AM Mergers and Acquisitions, this class is awesome ! Today we had a personal visit from Mark Hurd, formerly CEO of HP now at Oracle. He came in and spoke with us frankly about his time at HP and about his new role at Oracle.

12:00 Noon Fellows Lunch, all of the leadership fellows together in one place. A rare occurrence, a huge feeling of camaraderie, being a part of something larger than ourselves.

1:15 PM Leadership Fellows Clinic session, 5 fellow fellows together discussing how to move forward with our MBA1 squads.

3:00 PM Work, work work, it never ends.

5:00 PM 1:1 with one of my MBA1s.

Friday LPF in the Knight Management Center's Town Square.

6:30 PM Catch up with one of my MBA1 friends who I knew before school. Exams are coming up; everyone is stressed out.

8:00 PM Reunion dinner with the GSB folks I went to Tibet with this summer - we're meeting over hot pot. Awesome.

10:30 PM Time to head home and get some rest. I wanted to go to the Diwali party tonight, but I've been sick all week and don't think that would be wise.

Tomorrow we have a dinner party at the house and on Sunday we're showing a double feature on our big screen while carving pumpkins, can't be sick for those two house events!

Decorating the house for Halloween with gigantic spiders...

... skeletons...

...and plastic rats.

House party with friends. We carve pumpkins...

and light them up with candles.

Movie night.

ˆ Back to Top

Glossary

Copyright © Stanford Graduate School of Business

The content on this page reflects the experiences and opinions of some students and does not necessarily reflect the values and opinions of the Stanford Graduate School of Business