A letter to my fellow Kellogg EMBA students

I was prompted to write for this blog because of an email I sent to our class the Monday after a “school weekend.” I wrote the email just because I felt like it. No pressure, nobody asked me to do it, it wasn’t a part of any assignment or anything like that. I just wrote it.

Our first year at Kellogg is soon coming to an end, we had an awesome weekend in class last weekend, the sun was shining, I had a few free minutes, I was feeling particularly grateful and I just felt like sharing with this special group of people I have gotten to know intimately over the last 10 months. I can think of no better way to share these sentiments than to simply cut and paste the letter below.

I cleaned up the grammar a bit to make it “post-able,” but I think all will quickly get the point: The work is challenging, the weekends and time away from my family can indeed be brutal at times, but I’m pleased to report after nearly one full year that in my opinion it is totally worth it.

The school and the experience is amazing for too many reasons to include, but for me anyway, the top reason is this very special group of people who will forever be my Kellogg EMBA classmates.

My email to the class is below. Thank you for allowing me to share.

To all-

I’m having one of those moments where I’m acutely aware of just how grateful I am to be a part of this class. If the ROI on the program is measured quantitatively, I suppose the jury is still out. For me, however, the experience and the education have already proven to be incredibly valuable – for my business, my ongoing entrepreneurial venture(s), my confidence and even my self esteem.

And much of this has to do with what I learn from all of you guys as much as it has to do with what we are learning from our professors. 

As our first year comes to a close, I just wanted to reach out and say thanks to all of you guys. Though I may not be the most social guy in the class, I think our class is really cool and I’m grateful to be a part of it and for all that I’m learning.

One more weekend and then summer. Not sure about you guys but I’m looking forward to this summer more than any I’ve looked forward to in over 25 years! Thank goodness its almost here…

See you all soon. 

David

David Newton is the President of a print management consulting firm called Sun Cloud Consulting. David is also President and CEO of the Newton household, which includes raising two amazing teenagers (and hockey players) full time with the support of his amazingly supportive wife, Kim.