“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
The rhythm of chirping Blackberries. Students running from classes to meetings to a ringtone that never ends.
Another kind of rhythm. What I dream to produce one day. To become a percussionist in a live salsa band is my secret passion. Towering atop the timbales, touring the world, turning dancers' hips on fire. What a vida that would be!
Who inspired this unlikely vision of an engineering MBA turned musician? First it was my mom. When I was nine years old she took me to a drum studio near our Paris, France hometown and said "Amuses-toi (just have fun)!" Then it was my engineering professor at UC Berkeley. At graduation he remarked that "Marc has an infectious enthusiasm that lifts the spirits of around him" (gosh, if this trait came out in an engineering environment just imagine the damage I could do on stage!). And then of course there is Ray, the Cuban percussionist who taught me the art of the clave in his sun-drenched Havana driveway when I spent a summer in Cuba.
Where does HBS fit in? A transformation did occur here – just not the kind I expected at the top school of management in the country... Jamming on stage at the first-ever HBS Talent Show in front of 1,000 cheering classmates and friends, annihilating stage fright with a blast of fresh funk. Now that was one of the three best hours of my life!
Which naturally leads me to an unusual job (or is it life?) hunt: would you happen to know of a salsa band looking for a drummer... and a CFO? Do I even have what it takes to nurture a passion for numbers and music simultaneously?
Another kind of rhythm. What I dream to produce one day. To become a percussionist in a live salsa band is my secret passion. Towering atop the timbales, touring the world, turning dancers' hips on fire. What a vida that would be!
Who inspired this unlikely vision of an engineering MBA turned musician? First it was my mom. When I was nine years old she took me to a drum studio near our Paris, France hometown and said "Amuses-toi (just have fun)!" Then it was my engineering professor at UC Berkeley. At graduation he remarked that "Marc has an infectious enthusiasm that lifts the spirits of around him" (gosh, if this trait came out in an engineering environment just imagine the damage I could do on stage!). And then of course there is Ray, the Cuban percussionist who taught me the art of the clave in his sun-drenched Havana driveway when I spent a summer in Cuba.
Where does HBS fit in? A transformation did occur here – just not the kind I expected at the top school of management in the country... Jamming on stage at the first-ever HBS Talent Show in front of 1,000 cheering classmates and friends, annihilating stage fright with a blast of fresh funk. Now that was one of the three best hours of my life!
Which naturally leads me to an unusual job (or is it life?) hunt: would you happen to know of a salsa band looking for a drummer... and a CFO? Do I even have what it takes to nurture a passion for numbers and music simultaneously?
— Marc Oman