Emil Allan Capili remembers the sweaty palms. The cold hands. The hyperventilation.  

Here was a man who had spent 30 years in the restaurant business, managing everything from supply chains to construction projects. A seasoned professional being groomed for chief executive officer (CEO). And he was terrified to raise his hand in class.  

“Public speaking was also my fear since high school, so I get nervous (sweaty, cold palms and hyperventilation) whenever I talk in front of a lot of people,” he admits. 

At 43, after 15 years away from school, the doubts were relentless. “Can I study again? At age 43, my memory has not been as sharp as 15 years ago.”  

If this sounds familiar — the nagging feeling that you should go back to school but fear that you’re too old, too busy, too far removed from student life — you’re not alone. And according to executives who’ve made the leap, that fear is exactly what’s holding you back from the next level of your career.  

When the job you’ve mastered isn’t enough  

Capili’s story starts where many mid-career professionals find themselves: successful, but stuck. He was already a key leader at Biggs, a beloved restaurant institution in Bicol. He knew operations inside and out — literally everything from restaurant operations and supply chain management to procurement, branding, marketing and franchising.  

But here’s the thing about being really good at your job: you can run the day-to-day brilliantly and still have no idea how to lead the future.   

“The CEO on the other hand, varies from the COO (chief operating officer) as the former is the ‘visionary’ of the company,” Capili explains. “The CEO lives in the future, and it is his responsibility to chart the future course of the company.”  

That’s the gap graduate education fills — not teaching you how to do your current job better, but preparing you for the job you don’t have yet.  

The hidden gift 

of going back to school  

What Capili didn’t expect was that his biggest breakthrough wouldn’t come from a business strategy course. It came from Self-Mastery, a first-term class that forced him to confront an uncomfortable truth.   

“I realized that there were times in my career wherein I was not happy and was on the brink of quitting because of the friction between work and personal life (missed family gatherings because of work, neglecting my family because of tight work schedule, etc). I found out that the two should be aligned and not in friction against the other,” he shares.   

This is what no one tells you about going back to school at this stage. Yes, you’ll learn frameworks and strategies, but you’ll also figure out why you’ve been running so hard and whether you’re even running in the right direction. In his back-to-school journey, he not only discovered exceptional frameworks that allowed him to skip the costly “trial and error” stage of running a business, but he also discovered his personal purpose.  

When your industry won’t wait for you to catch up  

Frankie Cortez’ motivation was different but equally urgent. As chief of operations at the Office of Civil Defense-Cordillera, he wasn’t just managing a business — he was trying to save lives in an era of escalating climate disasters.   

“With the present world tremors on climate change and disasters, the timing was a bull’s eye,” he says about enrolling in the Executive Master in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management.  

The reality check for leaders in any industry is that the world isn’t slowing down to let you figure things out. Super typhoons are getting stronger. Technology is evolving faster. Consumer behavior is shifting overnight. You can either scramble to keep up or you can get strategic about filling your knowledge gaps.   

Like Capili, some of Cortez’ biggest growth came from understanding leadership differently. “Leadership is not simply having the authority to lead: leadership is not a given title,” he learned. “You earn it by establishing your credibility, your authenticity and getting the trust of people.”  

His approach transformed “from soloing the job to co-creating results with the team.”  

The real return on investment  

If you’re expecting this to be about salary bumps and promotions, you’re missing the point. Both Capili and Cortez talk about ROI differently.  

“Mental models or business frameworks are hacks or shortcuts in life. It allows you to see patterns that other people do not automatically see.” Capili explains. “Through rigorous framework teachings, it’s like I suddenly have the best 30-seconder brain that I can quickly and effortlessly spot solutions to business problems just by applying the appropriate framework to the problem.”  

Cortez measures his ROI in partnerships built, lives potentially saved, communities better protected and his ability to serve his country more effectively. “It has always been my passion to serve the country… I believe I can now better deliver my oath as a public servant.”  

For everyone who’s hesitating  

If you’re reading this and thinking “maybe someday,” here’s what they’d like to leave you with.   

“He, who hesitates, loses,” Cortez shares, quoting a proverb from a high school classmate. “We cannot know it all, but at least let us try to embrace learning to become better leaders. At the end of the day, we cannot give what we do not have. Learning is an investment for oneself, and for the future,” he added.   

Capili gets even more direct, “Enrolling in a masters program will give you two things: knowledge and network. As they say, ‘Chickens walk with chickens, eagles fly with eagles’… when you hang out with these people, chances are you will tend to assimilate how they think, how they analyze things, how they attack and solve problems... You cannot actually make one million pesos hanging around people with a 20-peso mindset.”  

A new year isn’t magical, and let’s be honest, going back to school while working full-time is brutal to say the least. But it is a natural point to ask yourself, “Am I learning fast enough to stay relevant? Am I building the skills for the role I want, not just the one I have? Can I afford to wait another year?”

These two stories prove that the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn’t about age or memory or how long you’ve been out of school. It’s about deciding that staying comfortable is riskier than pushing yourself to grow. And sometimes, the bravest thing a successful professional can do is admit they still have a lot to learn.