Motivation essay

MOTIVATION ESSAY #2: Describe the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why.
In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others?
Comment on what you learned (maximum 400 words).

My proudest achievement occurred in 20xx, working on the acquisition of a Ruritanian company by my employer, Widgets.com. The target company operated in the widget design niche, and the deal was worth $230 million. The deal team consisted of a partner and myself, and I was responsible for the day-by-day deal execution, including team coordination, advising the company’s management on the business plan and, in part, negotiating the purchase agreement. Fortunately, the partner was very senior and gave me a lot of client-facing exposure, a different approach than my previous employer, WidgetsRUs, where partners tended to micro-manage. At the beginning, I worried that I wasn’t ready to take full responsibility, but as the weeks went by, I realized that through hard work, attention to detail, and some direction, I was up to the task, and my team and I succeeded. I learned how to manage an international assignment with many moving parts, while at the same time building relationships of mutual trust with the management of our target company.

A situation where I failed was in my first full-time assignment at WidgetsRUs. I was assigned to a complex project, with tight deadlines and pre-existing tension with our client. My senior teammates were extremely demanding, and the deal was all-consuming. Although I had I excelled during my internship at Widgets.com and had been offered a full-time position, the reality of the first deal where I had a significant responsibility was harsh. I worked late nights and weekends for five weeks straight to keep on top of the workload, but I still felt that I wasn’t doing my best work; moreover, I failed to build collegial relationships with my colleagues. According to my first-year performance assessment, I was right that my soft skills weren’t good enough. We completed the deal successfully, and over the following months I thought about how I could handle the next stressful situation better. When I was assigned to a project with the same team the following year, relationships were much more congenial. I felt more self-confident, and paid close attention to my day-to-day interactions with my colleagues. That year my performance review reflected the improvement I’d felt, and I was promoted to Associate, with the support of my Director and Managing Director. This experience helped me appreciate that even when external stress adds tension to the workplace, there is a lot I can learn from senior colleagues.