Life & Living:  After 35 years, a Reunion of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program’s 106 class.

Yesterday we had a virtual zoom reunion of my classmates from the 106^th Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Harvard Business School.  AMP is kind of a mini-MBA, 13 weeks full-time on campus.  It was the best educational experience of my life thanks to the expert and wonderfully engaging faculty and my classmates.

There were about 160 in the class.  As best I remember, there were about 60 of us from the U.S. and 100 from all over the world. 

You live in groups of 8, which are referred to as “cans” because in the good old days 8 people shared a bathroom.  By the time I attended, we had our own bathrooms but shared a common living room and mini kitchen.  I was in Can 8.  My can-mates were from Canada, Germany, Japan, New York, South Korea, Tampa, and the UK.

We worked like dogs, 6 days a week.  Discussion groups in the morning, classes, preparing ourselves for the next day’s cases long into the night.

And we had some fun too:  Red Sox games, dinners, excursions around Boston.  My South Korean can-mate was CFO at Seagram in Singapore.  Soon after we arrived, a truck from the Boston Seagram distributor pulled up and delivered more, much more, than a 13-week supply of Seagram’s best for Can 8.  We did our best to deal with the over-supply.

Unfortunately, 37 of our classmates have passed and only 15 were able to attend the virtual reunion.  We were from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and all over the US.  Everyone reported on incredibly varied and successful careers … and lives.  Nuclear power, consumer electronics, financial services, construction, airlines, etc., etc.  Some are fully retired, some still doing business, some volunteering. 

There are a lot of paths to happiness and fulfillment.