I had a similar experience, which was more concise and, for me personally, more transformative. My career as an architect had reached a point where I knew it w

I had a similar experience, which was more concise and, for me personally, more transformative. My career as an architect had reached a point where I knew it wasn't going to satisfy my life goals. I needed to understand more about finance, innovation theory, management, etc. I needed an MBA -- not a bullshit one for the title, but to actually learn things. I decided I'd go to Oxford. This was going to be challenging: I had neither the funds to pay for it nor the shiniest academic record. Good GMAT scores, but not much else. The admissions essay had to be a knock-out. So I wrote something I thought was amazing, and was preparing to submit it, when I realised: wait a second, I need some more eyeballs on this. I looked around the coffeehouse where I sat. There was a guy there -- I wasn't sure of his name, but he was a regular. A philosophy student (part time? dropout?) of uncertain provenance. We'd had a few conversations occasionally, and he seemed bright. So I asked him, somewhat rhetorically, whether he had the time to read 4 pages and give me his feedback. He happily agreed... ...and he hated it. Tore into almost every part of it. Didn't remotely grok the point I was trying to make. Made it clear that the essay failed on pretty much every level. That was unpleasant to hear, but he was right. What mattered wasn't _my_ impression of what I'd done -- it was how it impressed other people. So I rewrote the essay from the ground up, keeping his criticism at the forefront of my mind. Oxford ended up giving me the largest scholarship they had. Afterwards I stayed in the UK and built a life there. Don't even know that guy's name, but damn am I glad he was that asshole.