No struggle, no progress.

The name of this post is actually a book title -- but I thought it fit MAB really well. Especially considering the fact we're rounding the first corner, taking exams and wrapping up courses from the first session of the graduate program.

It's been a hectic two and a half months, but very educational and even a bit humorous at times. Online classes work well, usually. Kansas State's agriculture economics department maintains a pretty nifty set of computer tools that we utilize to learn at a distance. There's been some bumps in the road, but we've managed to learn and adapt. From weekend mornings spent learning finance to late evenings sharing thoughts and opinions on quality supply chain management, the computer has become our best friend, and at times, our arch-nemesis.

The initial session has consisted of a finance course, a logistics course and a computer course. It amounts to 7 units of graduate credit and I doubt anyone of my peers would argue that it's been less than ambitious to compete the course work from early January to mid-March. But we have. And we're no doubt the better for it.

There's been papers to write, homework assignments to complete, spreadsheets to build and industry analysis' to research. Groups have spent nights working together on these projects, burning the midnight oil to wrap up the work needed to complete courses. Some of this could be done ahead of the campus session, via the virtual learning tools. Much of the final progress though, is made during our week back together in Manhattan.

Last night I was working with a group of classmates to wrap up a financial analysis project. It's similar to another assignment we had during the first session back in January. We pulled out our old presentation just to take a look -- and oh, the progress we've made! You don't realize how much you can learn in a short period of time until you make yourself do it.

It's pretty true. No struggle. No progress. But we're finding that MAB is designed to make that equation as functional, practical and tolerable as possible.