“First, do no harm. This is most important because the awful truth is that these open HBS essays more often do damage, by being annoying, pedantic, braggy, odd or humor fails than they do good.
go into some robo essay about your greatest accomplishments and why, DO NOT OVERTLY talk about leadership and teamwork, although other essay experts might disagree, and do not do some jive about how x and y of the HBS program can help you.
“You can talk about your goals, in some natural way, that talk grows out of something else, or your goals are helpful in understanding your non-trad resume. Do not, for the most part, list courses, profs, treks, and etc that you want to take.
“OK, so what should you do. First, figure out if there is anything the adcom really needs to know. Very often the answer to that is NO THERE IS NOT. I would say that is the case in over 70 percent of the applications. Things they need to know are why MBA if you are from a very non-trad background, what oddball job or company X was, and why you are applying if really old, really young, etc.
“A low GMAT/GRE should be addressed and what to say is a topic for another essay. But the golden rule is, if first GMAT was low, you really should show good faith and take it again.