Why Curiosity Is An Important Quality For Top Students

Why Curiosity Is An Important Quality For Top Students Why Curiosity Is An Important Quality For Top Students By Corbin B AC/DC claimed it was a long way to the top if you want to rock ‘n’ roll, but I’ve found that to be true of any highly ambitious goal. In 2017, I graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with my MBA with a finance concentration. I’d like to say that completing the MBA program provided everything I needed to reach the next level of my career. That it was a “silver bullet”. However, this wasn’t the case. Instead, I owe a great deal to my curiosity about subjects and topics outside the normal MBA curriculum. During my MBA program I was encouraged to consider topics beyond the normal economic theory, financial ratios, and valuation techniques that would be common for a finance curriculum. Rather than focusing on only traditional topics, I began to study other fields with the intention of understanding the world a bit better than I previously did. This experience undoubtedly provided me with the biggest benefit of my higher education experience. At the time, I was exploring various topics that didn’t seem to fit with my future career plans. It was an odd strategy that I wasn’t sure would ever pay off. Today, I’m happy to say that the return on my curiosity is more than I could have ever imagined. In my current profession, I’m required to understand a variety of industries. I am in a finance career, but clients are in industries from oil gas to ecommerce and commercial real estate. The ability to open a browser, or even pick up a book, and start to learn about an entirely new industry is exciting and truly rewarding. I credit a good part of my ability to fully engage myself in new material to an entrepreneurial course I completed during my MBA. The professor of this course was exciting and eccentric, and the class only had one assignment: to come up with a new product or service and figure out how to take it to market. Until that point, I had always thought I was a creative person, but now I had to go outside of my comfort zone and try to think up something new and exciting. Naturally, this required becoming familiar with topics that I had not previously been exposed to. Learning to soak up knowledge about topics beyond my normal remit was an invaluable lesson and I continue to be amazed every time I’m able to use a seemingly random piece of information to solve a business problem. This is why I’d advise students to consume information on anything and everything, even if it doesn’t make sense at the time. In and of itself, the MBA degree was not a silver bullet that provided me with all my hopes and dreams, but learning how important it is to be curious about the wider world and soak up knowledge like a sponge has been key to helping me achieve my goals.