Well, it's been a bit again – and that's totally fine by the way. The last few weeks have been a freakin' whirlwind.
I finished out the first module of my MBA with an A in both my Financial Accounting and Quantitative Analysis classes. Let me rephrase that: I earned those two As considering I was studying 30-40 hours a week in addition to my work and family responsibilities. The graduate work I'd done back in 2005-06 was an absolute cakewalk compared to what I went through these last eight weeks. We've already started our second module for the semester, and I'm taking classes in Financial Management and Leadership. Soon enough I'll start sharing what I'm learning in those classes, but considering how little time I have at the moment, I'll just leave you with a couple quotes I've already read for my leadership class:
"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." - William James
"When you say everything is a high priority, then nothing is a high priority. It really indicates that you're unwilling or unable to make a decision, which means you won't get anything done." - John Maxwell
During the tail end of finals week I was over in Amsterdam meeting with and interviewing the incredibly kind people behind Royal Posthumus. I'd mentioned it in an earlier post, but their story plays a large roll in my rubber stamp documentary. I'd been wanting to connect with them in person for what feels like forever at this point and I'm stoked it finally happened. I'll save the storyline details for the film, but I'm actually hoping to share some of the logistical experiences I went through in making that nonsense happen and what I learned.
While I've travelled alone internationally before, I've always met up with American crews on site and had producers and directors who were the "adults in the room." I'd not had to hire out and pay foreign crew in local currencies, deal with the whole Carnet thing, plus a notebook full of other things. Beyond that, there's the whole thing of me being up way too late studying and taking one of my MBA finals in a European hotel room and having to figure out how to keep my computer charged using my rental car's USB-c port because I'd accidentally left my charger at home.
There's also those other shoots I could talk about since my last post – Life.Church and Habitat for Humanity shoots here in Oklahoma City and that last minute job out in Kansas City, MO – but you'll just have to trust me and a few iPhone photos without context to prove I've been working my tail off lately.
