Embracing the "5:00 am moments"

This past Friday, @TheOiler10, a student run agency class approach I created comprised of 10 top notch business students who work on real life projects with external clients, started their weekly business meeting & work session at 5:00 am.

I had sent a message out earlier in the week to the group that I would be starting at 5:00 am on Friday and I felt that we had a lot of work to do, and needed some time together to really organize & iron out a few things moving forward. These students are some of the best, and I feel it is my job to continually find ways to push, lead, support, and not allow them to become comfortable, while trying to simulate the real world as much as possible.

As the week progressed, the students decided they were going to be there at 5:00 am ready to go, and bought into some culture building bantering back & forth, ultimately providing some excitement for getting out of their comfort zones. They communicate regularly through the groupme app, and it was great to see them reminding each other that even though it’s 5:00 am, our required business casual clothing, agenda setting, and preparation for reports on individual group clients, etc… was still to be upheld. They had taken ownership of the upcoming experience, and I was beyond excited.

While I’m sure they weren’t all excited to set their alarms for 4:30 a.m., when I got up that morning, I could barely contain myself getting ready to see them in action, and be a part of their continual quest at being elite. I knew I had to be ready, so I made it to my office around 4:15 a.m., had to call security to let me in to the exterior door, and told them I had a meeting with my class at 5:00. You should have seen the officer’s face. “College students are really getting up to come work on school stuff at 5:00 am?” I responded with a huge smile and said, “Yep, isn’t it freaking awesome?”