1992
The Year That I Forgot
In the Fall of 1991 I joined the Class of 1993 at Harvard Business School (HBS) to pursue an MBA. Like every other member of the entering class, I was committed to earning the highest possible academic honors. The first step I took to increase my chances was to enter a complete media and entertainment blackout. No music. No TV. No video games. These had all been favorite pastimes of mine, but they had no place at HBS.
My goals were clear, but my confidence was not. I was not sure how ready I was for a world-class education. My undergraduate degree was a blue-collar affair, funded by working full time from the start of my sophomore year of college. Grit was not a recognized superpower in the early 1990s. I was mostly just disadvantaged and maybe scrappy.
I did not include movies on the blackout list, which is why I clearly remember watching Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington in a Cambridge theater in November 1992. Even HBS took a back seat to Brother Malcolm (”don’t you ever in your life, say anything against my mother”).
I did not achieve high honors. I did not achieve honors. At HBS I was average on exams. Relative to my peers, I was not a great writer, and my quantitative skills were below average. But I consider the blackout itself a total success. Years later I realized I knew almost nothing about what happened between September 1991 and at least the summer of 1992. No matter the subject, no matter the topic, if it was not an HBS case, I was unaware of it. Avoiding pop culture, in particular, was wonderful.
I have to confess one thing. In the spring of 1992, with my first year almost over and an internship in New York City secured, I started sneaking one TV show a week. Can you guess which one?
Every Thursday at 10pm EST I would slide over to the lounge area of Chase Hall, where I lived during my first year, (see photo above) and turn on the TV. I remember really liking Corbin Bernsen and Blair Underwood’s characters. A classmate of mine named John joined me on those Thursday nights. We never really talked about the show. I don’t know if it was his cheat activity too.
As young people increasingly pull back from social media to reclaim their mental health, I can highly recommend the full media and entertainment blackout. It helped me focus on what really mattered: HBS, Brother Malcolm, and one classic 90s TV show.