Business School Personal Statement Example 1

My father was born in Tehran, Iran. He and his side of the family migrated to America as political refugees. My grandfather worked for the government at the time of the revolution, and when the political situation in the country changed, my father was added to a list of dissidents. My father understood what this meant for the safety of his family, so he made provisions to leave. He, my mother, and my grandparents first went to Britain to live with my mother’s cousin before moving to Chicago in the late eighties. After starting and failing multiple businesses, they started the Mohar Corporation in 1994. Over the last 10 years, I have helped grow this family business from a startup to a global company specializing in creative solutions for companies engaged in B2B sales. I have held many positions within the company, from sales associate to director of sales, and I am looking to further my education in the hopes that I will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to not only take my business acumen to the next level but to positively impact the world at large. I believe that Shuman University is the best place for me to do this given Jefferson School of Business and Management’s focus on producing visionary, values-centered leaders to solve global problems.

Business is a part of who I am. My first business was selling iced Iranian tea that my grandmother helped me prepare when I was 10 years old. I wanted to use the money to buy a Gameboy, but my father had always emphasized the importance of saving and planning for the future, so I was required to put the money in a CD (because I cooperated, he bought me the Gameboy anyway). As time progressed, my business interests evolved, and I started many businesses (mostly involving product sales) and experienced many failures. These experiences were critical to shaping my views on business and leadership, and they helped me understand that business isn’t all about the end-goal, outcome, or finished product but that the process itself is equally important and that how you arrive at the finish line informs your mission, vision, and values moving forward. Through these early business ventures, I also learned the importance of business ethics, customer service and satisfaction, strategy, and quality. These are values that inform my business philosophy today. Now when I’m working as a part of the company’s leadership team, I feel profound fulfillment in the face of both perceived setbacks and failures as well as the successes. There is no better feeling than changing the way we do business to promote success, leading a team that accomplishes something great, or watching a simple project grow and become a game changer for the entire company.

At Jefferson School of Business, I’m confident that I’ll learn strategies and philosophies that I can use to further improve upon my management style and overall understanding of strategy. Throughout history, the most successful business are those that have embraced evolution and responded to the changing needs of society and the world. History also offers us plenty of examples of organizations that failed (Kodak) or whose growth was stunted (Radio Shack) because of an inability or outright refusal to adapt. These organizations did not answer the call to innovation, to become disrupters of their respective industries, and suffered as a result. Embracing failure as an opportunity to learn—failing forward—is, often, what breeds process improvement and innovation.

At every level that I’ve worked at within the company, there have been challenges that, at the time, seemed insurmountable. One of the biggest challenges came while I was working in my current role as director of sales. When I took over this portion of the business, things weren’t going well. We were facing an almost 20% decline, and profit loss had exceeded 35k a month. The senior leadership wanted to close this portion of the business because of the losses, but I was confident in our product and believed that this area could generate a new line of revenue for us and allow us to penetrate a new, underserved market. The greatest challenge I had was not turning around the business but convincing the team that shouldering additional losses in the short term for the reward of greater returns in the long run was worth the risk. I was instructed by leadership to shut down five times, and my position was even threatened once due to my refusal, but I held on and decided to take full responsibility for my decision. Today, this business is stable and showing growth and profits as we enter new markets.

Shuman University will help me continue to evolve as an individual, which will help me move the culture of my organization—and, by extension, my industry—forward the same way my father’s family did years ago. Since I have always been a member of a family owned and operated organization, family and business have always gone hand in hand for me. I will bring a unique perspective to the institution and program due to my history and experiences. Furthermore, I look forward to the opportunity to join a legacy of alumni of the institution that are deployed throughout the world, moving innovation forward, contributing to the growth of world economies, and, ultimately, helping to make the world a better place.

The world will continue to change. Globalization means different things and has different implications for business than it did even 7 years ago. Shuman has been at the fore of innovation when it comes to creating leaders who are culturally responsive and in-tune with global changes. I am also a classically trained cellist. I love music and spending my free time practicing and teaching music courses to students. Shuman has always stood out to me due to its focus on the practical application of business theory, collaboration, engagement; and student-to-faculty ratio; and stellar campus environment and resources. One of my mentors is a Shuman MBA alum. I credit so much of my success to her, and to attend an institution that produces graduates of her caliber would be a dream come true. I am confident that I can contribute to the Jefferson legacy as a student and alum and serve as a living example of the school’s focus on entrepreneurship, hands-on experience, collaboration, and global impact.