5 reasons elite mba applicants fail the failure essay

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5 Reasons Elite MBA Applicants Fail
the Failure Essay

By the Amerasia Consulting Group,
Boutique MBA Admissions Consulting
5 Reasons Elite MBA Applicants Fail
the Failure Essay
MBA Admissions Consultant | http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com

Today, we are going to be breaking down the failure
essay and the biggest reasons why everyone blows it.
This is particularly relevant to the season, as we begin to
take on our usual batch of 2+2 candidates, which means
we are about to do the HBS accomplishment-failure two-
step that is a tradition as old as time (or maybe it just
feels that way).
We have a very specific approach to the accomplishment
essay that transforms run-of-the-mill answers into HBS-
worthy submissions, but we're going to keep that locked
in the vault. The failure essay though ... we owe some
thoughts to the masses, just as a public service.

We have a phrase for what we see over and over and
over again on failure essays ... it's called "failure." Yes,
people are "failing the failure essay," and they are doing it
across the board, regardless of how awesome they
otherwise are as candidates. In fact, I anecdotal
evidence would suggest that the top of the heap - the
"elite" applicants - are blowing this worst of all.
We are going to walk through the five biggest reasons
why people fail on this essay.

1. Lack of a Thesis Statement. To be fair, this is item #1 for every essay.
It's mind-blowing how many essays are written, composed, edited (I'm
looking at you, fellow consultants), and then submitted without ever once
having a thesis. Please, everyone, go back to third grade for a minute
and re-learn how to write a five-paragraph essay. It always, always,
always starts with a thesis statement. If the question is: "What is
something you did not do well?," then the answer should be: "Something
I did not do well was X." Overly simplistic? Sure. Unoriginal? Of
course. EASY TO READ AND UNDERSTAND? YES!!!! Admissions
officers have to read hundreds - even thousands - of files. Make their
lives easier, not harder. If they ask you a question, answer it. Even
better, show them that you are answering it by composing a thesis
statement that puts them at ease, right from the start. Further, having a
thesis will ensure that your essay is focused on telling one singular story
or constructing one idea - preventing you from straying all over the
place. You will have plenty of time to be original and interesting in every
sentence that follows; just keep things simple to get it started.

2. Lack of a True Failure. This is probably the biggest issue, to be honest,
especially when a school is trying to measure maturity and self-
possession. Do you have the confidence and the guts to "be real" with
what you write about? That's half the test here. I honestly don't believe
people understand this basic idea. If you aren't able to stand up and
say, "yeah, I screwed up in this case," you aren't really going to be of
interest to a reader. 95% of the failure essays we see are soft-shoeing
it; leaning on tiny errors or totally forgivable sins. The goal of this essay
is not for your to prove how close to perfect you are by summoning up
the lamest possible mistake ever. It's not even *really* about your ability
to learn lessons and make changes in your own life. That's part of it,
sure, but the real core thing being measured here is how mature you are
and how willing you are to account for everything; success and failure
alike. What's something that makes your stomach turn, even now?
What name or place evokes feelings of shame for you? I'm not asking
you to admit crimes here, but it should be something you wouldn't talk
about at a cocktail party. If you wimp out on choice of content, you've
already punted the question and wasted precious real estate on your
application.

(Note: there is no person on this earth who has never made a mistake, in some aspect of his
or her life. It's taken me some digging and some prodding at times, but every client I've ever
worked with has "gotten there" eventually. If you are reading this thinking "but I really don't
have anything bad to write about!" you are not being honest with yourself, or you are falling
victim to the next item on this list...)
3. Fixation on External Measures for Failure. This ties in with Item #2,
but is a more understandable mistake that people make. It's hard to have
sympathy for someone who gets denied to an elite MBA program because
they write, "My biggest failure was sitting in my boss' chair in a meeting" or
"my biggest failure was not understanding that this guy from this other
country was going to be unethical and rip me off." Come on. However, we
can sympathize with people who drop the ball simply because they confuse
an external measure for being an appropriate gauge for failure. Here's the
rule of thumb: a failure should be measured by the weight of your guilt and
shame, not by the ramifications felt by others. Here are two examples to
illustrate this:
Example 1 - "My greatest failure was the time I worked 72 straight hours and, in a state of
total exhaustion, put the decimal in the wrong place on page 120 of the report, costing the
company $100 million."

Example 2 - "My greatest failure was the time I ruined a relationship with my best friend
because I valued short-term thinking and convenience, rather than doing the right thing."
In one example, a company lost $100 million. In the other, a
friendship was broken up. Obviously, if we are going by external stakes, the
first one sounds like a much bigger deal. However, external stakes don't
dicate the magnitude of the failure. Being a selfish friend because you are
too absorbed in your own life is a much bigger personal mistake than putting
the decimal point in the wrong place simply because no human being can
work for 72 hours straight.
4. Improper Focus on Lessons Learned. This error goes both ways:
some essays transition way too fast to lessons learned (basically skirting right
past the mistake) and others never make the transition. You must have
proper tone and balance in this essay. Stand on your own two feet rand be
honest about making a mistake, but don't forget to explain how you learned
from it. From the "best friend" example above, that essay has to transition to
"I learned to prioritize people over my schedule and to make decisions with a
long-term view."

If you don't eventually say what the crushing failure taught you, why are
you writing about it? If the growth isn't on display, we can (must?)
assume that it either didn't make an impact (meaning the internal stakes
weren't high enough) or you are still doing the same things (obviously
disastrous).
(Bonus: Lessons Learned is also a great test on whether you are picking a true failure. Take
our decimal point example: what lesson could you even learn? "I learned not to let my boss
make me work 72 straight hours anymore"? "I learned that when I am so tired that I can't
keep my eyes open I need to have someone else do my work for me?" I have no idea how
someone would even "learn" from a story like that. Which means that while it sucks your
company lost $100 million, it's a bad story for an essay.)

5. Poor Structure. As with Item #1, this could really be a flaw with any bad
essay. Structure is so incredibly important in essay writing and yet from
what I see (largely judging from the ding analysis type work I do),
structure is just horrid, across the board. Having good structure makes it
easy for the reader to follow along, it ensures proper balance in what you
write about, and it just generally is the only way to write a good essay.
Put it this way: I've never seen a quality failure essay written as a haiku,
starting with a quote, or consisting of either one or nine paragraphs. A
good failure essay is going to feature four parts, almost every time, and
be either two, three, or four paragraphs - depending on word count. You
must have a thesis and then a statement of what the mistake was (Part
1), typically followed by an explanation of why you made that mistake
(Part II), then how and what you learned from the experience (Part III),
then, finally, how you adopted those lessons (Part IV). There are different
wrinkles to this - some ask you hypotheticals or for evidence of adopting
those lessons or even how you will continue to grow at School X - but
thats the basic flow.

It requires having a plan and sticking to it. Obviously, this is a self-serving
observation (a whole bunch of people reading this will turn to use for help
with doing just this), but it's not somehow less true just because it helps
our business.
Overall, our challenge to the applicant pool is to treat this essay with respect.
Respect the question, respect the reader, and respect yourself. If you are
hedging or trying to use external consequences to prop up something
weak, take the essay and crush it into a ball and throw it away. Go
deeper and be a real person who has had real failings and isn't afraid to
talk about them.

If you are in need of help - and willing to "go there" - we can definitely assist you
in crafting a failure essay that vaults past the submission of your peers.
The one good news is everyone is botching this is that you can shine by
comparison. Obviously, that is where we come in, so email us at
mba@amerasiaconsulting.com.
http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/

5 reasons elite mba applicants fail the failure essay

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5 reasons elite mba applicants fail the failure essay