Private Equity & Ellis's Irrational Thoughts

Today was D-day of sorts. I helped a Principal pitch our service offering to PE firm. Can't give you too many details for confidentiality sake, but suffice it to say I was on pins and needles of a different sort. My audience was an MD and a Principal from the PE firm, both with immaculate pedigrees and years of PE/Consulting experience. I stuttered a few times trying to 'add value' to the conversation.....made me kick myself later.

I did learn some useful jargon. From now on I'm going to use sentences like, "This service offering is certainly within our box. While it is not in our sweet spot, its definitely down our power alley. Let me scope the landscape and get back to you on whether we have the bandwidth to do this."

Albert Ellis, in his Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) identified eleven dysfunctional beliefs that people often hold. To all you fellow B-school applicants out there suffering feelings of rejection I offer three of Ellis's Irrational Belief's:

1. It is a dire necessity for adult humans to be loved or approved by virtually every significant other person (or B-school) in their community.

2. One absolutely must be competent, adequate and achieving in all important respects or else one is an inadequate, worthless person (who shouldn't have applied to any B-school in the first place).

3. It is awful and terrible when things are not the way one would very much like them to be (and you don't get an interview call within a week of submiting your app).