The best ROI from Stanford University Graduate School of Business wasn't the network or the frameworks. It was clarity about what actually mattered to me.
Most people find their calling after business school. Mine was already waiting for me. I've been interning at Westlake Realty Group since I was 7. Filing papers, making copies, stamping restaurant coupons, tagging along to properties, etc. There was never a moment I decided to care about this business. I just always did.
Stanford GSB has a famous admissions essay question: "What matters most to you, and why?" I wrote about family.
Looking back, that essay wasn't just an application. It was a compass. The answer I wrote at 24 pointed me straight back to what I'd known since I was 7.
So when I graduated, prestige wasn't the question. The question was: where do I actually want to build something?
My grandfather started this company. My father grew it. By the time I graduated, I understood — at least intellectually — what had been built. But I didn't really understand it until I was in it.
The first thing I learned: a family business isn't a job you inherit. It's a standard you have to earn the right to uphold. Nobody handed me deals. Nobody let me skip the hard parts because of my last name. If anything, the bar was higher.
I watched a lot of those moments growing up without realizing I was being taught. I'm still learning. Every deal, every negotiation, every mistake.
That's the thing about joining a family business — you're not just building a career. You're deciding what chapter you want to write in a story that started before you and will hopefully go on after you.
I'm glad I came back to write mine.
What's the best decision you made that didn't make sense on paper?
Blast Tax (as is customary for all GSB posts): if me in a bowl cut doesn't go viral, I don't know what will...)
