If you are an international applicant tackling a cause that is local to your country or the country where you resided before moving to the US, the What Matters Essay is an opportunity to educate the admissions team about the problem, your connection with the cause, and the plan to overcome the problem.
This narrative style works if your post-MBA goals or the Why Stanford MBA essay includes a plan to return to your home country in 3-4 years. Ideally, the problem should have been in the news cycle of international publications.
For the Essay Example, I am covering hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. The applicant narrates the struggle to acquire cash when he was pursuing his undergraduate degree.
The strategy of the essay is to show how the problem is deeply connected to his journey and the zero-sum game of inequity in a hyper-inflated economy.
That one event is the motivation for the applicant to start a cryptocurrency for the market.
With changes in regulation and his partner selling his stake, I have also captured doubt that the applicant felt taking on such a large problem.
Such vulnerability is also essential when you quote the need to partner with GSB to achieve your post-MBA goals.