My formal studies lasted for 19 years. During these years there
was a lot of ups and downs. I think I learned a lot, but far more
important was that I enjoyed the process, at least when I look back
upon it.
My first 9 years in school was supposed to have been the easiest,
but for me it was the only time in which I did worse than the
average from an academic point of view. At one point my teachers
wanted to send me to a special school for kids with learning disabilities
because I am dyslectic, which made it difficult for me to learn
to read and write well. Fortunately I was good at other subjects
and had good support from my parents so I managed to get through
the fist 9 years of my schooling in my hometown of Raufoss.
After the 9 years of mandatory education I waned to get a job
as a seaman. Unfortunately I could not get such a job and I therefore
had no choice but to apply for high school. As I did not know
if I wanted to complete the 3 years of high school, I applied
for the business classes (Handel og kontor) in which I would receive
a diploma after one year. After the completion of the first year
of High School at ¡°Raufoss Videregående Skole¡± I applied to become
an exchange student. I was accepted in the Rotary exchange program
and went to Chesley in Ontario, Canada. High school in Canada
was great fun, but it was also a different experience than anything
I had done so far in my life.
When I returned from Canada I was much more inspired to get back
to school and completing my High School was therefore a natural
choice. I chose to continue with the business classes and did
so at ¡°Lena Videregående Skole¡±. This is where I first got a taste
of an academic passion, which in my case was towards Marketing
Management, which I though was a great business philosophy and
an interesting subject. During these two years, I was on the board
of the Student council, which was an interesting experience. In
this role I was partly responsible for pushing the school so hard
on some issues, that the school was forced to fire the principal.
I don¡¯t know if this has ever been done before, but it left me
with a bad taste in my mouth as I think I might have pushed the
issues too far.
After high school graduation I spent a compulsory year in the
army, followed by a year backpacking around in North, Central
and South America.
When I got back to Norway again it was time to go to college.
As I had a passion for Marketing Management and because I did
not know how long I would like to study, I choose the Norwegian
School of Management (BI). I ended up spending two years at this
college in Gjøvik before I decided that I needed a break. I then
worked as a high school teacher for a year before I went back
to the Norwegian School of Management to complete my bachelor
degree. This time I attended the branch in Oslo. After graduation
I had a year in which I did some traveling and some working. I
was not really sure where I wanted to go with my life, but my
passion for Marketing Management had just grown stronger as I
learned more about it. This led me to take another year at the
Norwegian School of Marketing (Norges Markedshøyskole). As I had
grown more interesting in international affairs and international
business I decided to apply for an internationally focused MBA
program.
I took my Master of Business Administration degree at Monterey
Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey, California.
This was a two-year program and it provided me with the best time
of my life. While I attended my MBA program I also took a couple
of courses at Monterey Community College at night. I then studied
Japanese, and as well at taking a course in learning how to give
massage. The massage course is probably the course that has been
the most useful to me, and provided me with the greatest pleasure,
as I have been able to give good massage to girls friends, which
has been very rewarding to me.
When I left Monterey, I had completed 19 years of formal schooling
and had achieved the MBA degree. I had thereby a paper that made
employees believe that I was capable of learning a new job, which
enabled me to get access to a new and challenging chapter in my
life. To find out more about that chapter, you have to click on
the link to My Work Experience. |
