Golf Pro Swinging Into Business Success

Mexico City native, Pablo Esteves is a golf pro turned business pro. The transition took place at IE business school in Madrid.

Pablo Esteves on stage receiving his MBA

Pablo Esteves studied a Bachelor in Business Administration at Universidad Iberoamericana, worked his way up to COO at a media start-up, successfully pursued a career in pro golfing all before completing an MBA. And he is still only 28.

Pablo’s passion for business is nothing new, “I grew up reading BusinessWeek and The Economist, my father gave me Time Magazine issues when I was 6… I would read these stories about MBA’s earning six-figure numbers, and mouth opening signing bonuses even before finishing their programs.”

But Pablo followed his dreams on to the golf course where he remained for three years. Until one day after a tournament he realized it wouldn’t provide the kind of living he was looking for, “so I had to “kick-start” my career and the MBA provided that opportunity.”

That spark ignited by his early taste for The Economist resurfaced, and within an hour of finishing his last tournament he had his mind set on studying an MBA.

Pablo looked only at IE and LBS, his heart was set on Spain but considered LBS and his brother lives in London. “The first one to say yes was IE Business School, and that meant a lot for me.”

Fundación Carolina is a unique institution that works for the development and co-operation between the Iberoamerican Community of Nations. Pablo heard about the IE MBA through their website and then began his own research; looking at rankings from BusinessWeek and the Financial Times and closely studying the school’s own website.

The reasons behind Pablo choosing IE are “its location, ranking and the duration of the program. Ultimately studying in Europe is quite different to studying in the US, and the international variety of IE students also is important.”

Pablo says he started business school without wanting to improve a particular skill set and this turned out to be a huge plus as it meant he enhanced a lot of them. “I was looking more for an experience that would reinsert me in the job market, helped me decide a new path, and made up for those golfing years.”

Here at BusinessBecause we frequently hear how students are impressed by the cultural diversity of the MBA and Pablo is no different, IE has introduced him to “some of the best people in the world. Amazing students and faculty, really inspiring leaders and great true friends from Spain, Austria, Singapore, USA, Kenya, Colombia, Italy, Brazil, Slovakia, Germany, Venezuala, Jordan, Uruguay, Egypt… it is amazing!”

The highlight of Pablo’s MBA was the Emzingo Internship which was “life changing” a program which the school should leverage more as a strength of the IE MBA as it is quite unique and should be huge. For the Emzingo internship Pablo alongside two other IE students, was asked to implement a branding strategy and start an organizational shift within an NGO in Johannesburg.

Pablo says that although the MBA experience is brilliant you have to be passionate from day one. “Many students can finish an MBA without learning a thing, sad but true I’ve seen it; true leaders take advantage of this opportunity by learning all they can, but more importantly they are humble enough to learn from their peers, and brave enough to share their own knowledge. Those are the best MBA students.”

As far as ideal candidates go Pablo reckons that IE really suits entrepreneurs and “there’s a shift towards much needed ‘soft skills’ and I think IE is applying a great deal of effort here. People should understand the ethic part of the business, the human side of it, thinking outside the box; it’s not about being a cut throat shark.”

Pablo is passionate about start-ups, innovation, disruption and technology and “to be part of it you have to be in the right place: London, San Francisco, Berlin and New York are all hot right now. But there are smaller hotspots and Madrid is one of them.” Pablo will stay in Madrid for a few years and wants to be part of the generation of reinvention, helping companies and organisations adapt and cope with the new rules of the 21st century. “Services and products have to change, the size of market has changed, rules are now global, and mobility and accessibility are redefining the way we interact,”

Since graduating Pablo has been recruited by Emzingo Group as their Head of Marketing and Partnerships. You can read more about the Emzingo Group and their work in South Africa on BusinessBecause.

Pablo sees his future in social entrepreneurship, “we are living in exciting times and the chances of success for social ventures will only get better with time. Helping people with innovative ideas is exhilarating.”

Comments

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Wednesday 2nd November 2011, 12.15 (UTC)

Charlotte Davies

That is so great that the highlight of your MBA was the Emzingo internship and now you are working for Emzingo, it is a lesson to take every opportunity you are given!

Thursday 3rd November 2011, 12.55 (UTC)

James Spencer

wow.... man i would have stuck with playing golf....but impressed by all your other acheivements.

Thursday 3rd November 2011, 17.08 (UTC)

Faye

Pablo stars in this video too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLwA3nYlHZ4

Thursday 3rd November 2011, 18.40 (UTC)

Pablo Esteves

Firstly, many thanks to Harriet for this piece. Having said that, Faye thanks for your link to the video. I don't know why the link is "broken" but I just copied and pasted it. (Let's see if it works this time around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLwA3nYlHZ4 )

James, as much as I liked the lifestyle, and trust me I'm very passionate about golf and the challenges inherent to it, I hit a plateau during that tournament. From my point of view I had three options, devote another couple of years hoping to break from the plateau with all that implies such sacrifice (athletes just hit a ceiling sometimes); switch into a golf coaching/teaching career; or opt out. So far, I think I made the right choice.

Charlotte, what can I say. My MBA at IE was a life changing experience (and not only for the career change) but it provided something totally unexpected. Little did I know that one year after deciding to go to Madrid I would end up in South Africa in a consulting Internship helping loads of people with my previous experiences and skills. Yes! Take every opportunity you are given! and make the most out of it.

Wednesday 9th November 2011, 23.38 (UTC)

Mike Reason

Congratulations ! I hope, thoug, that Pablo will stick around golf and sometimes take in his hands a kind of cheap golf clubs, just to have fun on a golf course.