Cebuano multi-sport athlete shares life  lessons from Harvard Business School

CEBU, Philippines —  Decorated Cebuano multi-sport athlete Afshin Ghassemi relishes his transformative experience at the prestigious Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts that taught him so many life lessons he wants to share and radiate in the heart of others most especially to his fellow sportsmen and business leaders.

In a Facebook post, Ghassemi, a highly accomplished triathlete and a certified Ironman who is also an esteemed businessman, recalled that like anyone else, he found himself losing a lot of things that mattered when the Covid pandemic rattled mankind in 2020.

“Business practically closed, sports events were all cancelled and we all found ourselves trapped in confinement,” said Ghassemi.”For a while I was lost but then I realized that the different crises of the past were inflection points in our company history. The 1997 Asian financial crisis gave birth to our currency exchange business and the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis fueled our aggressive expansion.”

“With the world crumbling, I knew I had to get to work. I went on to dissect every opportunity. I invested in real estate and set out to to increase our branch network from 150 to 300. I also knew that I had to sharpen my skills in business by getting to the Harvard Business School (HBS) Owners/President Management Program (OPM),” added the CEO of Core Pacific Money Exchange.

While in Boston, the 40-year-old Ghassemi managed to spare some time to accomplish two important events in the sporting field. He conquered the tough New York City Marathon, his second world Major marathon after Berlin, and then placed first in the 40-49 age group of the Boston River Run, his first time to run below freezing point that was a cold -1 degrees Celcius.

In between those successful runs, Ghassemi takes pride of his purposeful and meaningful journey at Harvard, which is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world.

“Little did I know that the HBS OPM program would not only sharpen my skills but also transform my life,” shared the current chairman of Sacred Heart Ateneo Alumni Basketball Athletic Association (SHAABAA), Cebu’s oldest alumni-based cage league that is now on its 26th year. “Here I learned about the concepts of deep purpose, hope as a strategy, creating value and making a difference for the world to name a few.”

“More importantly, OPM inspired me to have the courage to always ‘take the shot’ when in mattered the most. My HBS journey was long but worthwhile. It was tiring but sweet. Today, me and 161 other OPM classmates embark on what we call Unit 4. We learned concepts and we shared experiences from Units 1 to 3. Unit 4 is applying all that we learned to real life.”

“While there is immense expectations from being a Harvard Business School Alumni, I take this with confidence and humility that indeed I can be a leader that will make a difference in the world,”Ghassemi ended.