a dream is not what comes to u while sleeping but it is what doesnt let you sleep...

Imagination takes us to the world where we fly, birds dance, flowers speak and where offices are perfect, people mingle easily with each other, bosses give unbiased reviews, everybody talk to each other with good intentions (without being selfish), ideas free flow (better say there is space for ideas), you learn new things (not doing the same thing over and over) and you get intellectual people there. But not all the dreams come true, not all the imaginations bring fruits.

It was my first exposure to the corporate world when I entered there for my summer internship project, with a reputed company. I had my own assumptions regarding the corporate life, none of which came true when I joined. Birds were not supposed to dance in the world of practicality, flowers were not supposed to talk. Only thing where this experience has helped me is in building in me a strong desire to become an entrepreneur. I have given a good amount of thinking about my personality, what makes me happy, what is my turning on points etc. Once I had an eccentric discussion with my MBA Prep coaching classes’ Director on the day after my final selection call for SIBM, about the futility of MBA. “Throughout your MBA course it will look useless to you, but if it makes you realize your dream and what you want to be in life, you will understand value of MBA. In fact this is only thing in MBA worth looking forwards to – attitude, which you acquire there is with you for a life time. You will need nothing else in life once you get the right attitude and your choice. Everything, then, will fall in place” said he. Today I realize, although to only some extent, how true it is.

I am devoting most of my energy for last few days (not to mention sleepless nights that i am going through) towards cherishing my dream- to contribute towards education industry (more about it in any of the next blog entries). At the same time I am also working with a friend of mine on the business plan which we had presented in Innovation Challege 2008 and won the first prize. Currently I am working as the HR Consultant for the company. The level of freedom of taking decisions and challenges is enormous and gives a diferent kind of feeling altogether. Now i am planning about going in full terms as an entrepreneur. If everything goes as per planning sibm will get one more entrepreneur from its soil. In reality, I will never be able to forget sibm for making me realize where my true flair lies. At the end of the day what matters is whether we are satisfied or not, whether or not are you following a distant dream? A dream is not something which comes to you while sleeping, it is what does not let you sleep.....let me work upon my dream once and see what comes out of it. Two main things which are driving me towards education sector are- all my passions will be fulfilled there and freedom of work while staying in your own state, with your family, friends, people whom you know, who know you. Hopefully I will be able to make a positive difference (education system needs a lot of them) in a better way in an area where my interest lies.

I am looking forward for a partner, enthusiastic about a career in education sector, to make our journey together.
- sunil Rao

A system avoiding failure or a system for FAILURES......?

Why does it happen so many times that people who top an engineering College or MBA College or any other teaching institute are not the most successful people in life also? Why do we see people like Bill Gates or Ambani there? Why do we see that CEO’s of most of the companies are never the toppers of their school or college days? If life is one factor which gives us the most important lessons of living then why do we need an education system? Is it for those failures or dumb people who can’t learn from life? May be no but may be yes also.

Education as a system itself corrupts our mind in the sense that it provides us with the limitations, it teaches us a few notions which we carry throughout our life without even thinking how true they are. It gives us a conformity criteria in which we try to fit ourselves. Isn’t it possible to allow everyone to explore things on his/her own? No boundaries, no formalities, no compulsion to be the same like everyone else is. But with this freedom we run a big time risk of failure also. Whether failure prepares you for a better day next time is a separate line of discussion. But this fear of failure is one of those things which are the base or oxygen of education system.

Do you think our system needs only brilliant, innovative, idea generating, strategically thinking brains? Never the case. If all people are genius then who will do the mundane, routine tasks (without thinking much) which provide us basic necessities in terms of production or services? For example shop floor activities or even engineering stuff like coding, testing etc for that matter.

This is the base of education system- it prevents you from absolute failure because it will make you the way system needs you. Therefore toppers may not be the most successful people but they are almost never a failure in life also.

MBA - Is the juice worth squeeze?

One of the most obvious and most asked questions in MBA is – Is it worth anything what we are reading? Does it have any practical application at all? Or most of the time we are mugging up theories only?
We, as human being, are what our teaching, life experiences, people around us have made us. Our environment and learning in life put a deep impact on our way of thinking and applying the thoughts into practical life. But is it possible to cut that learning into pieces and say that this part of my behavior or learning can be attributed to my learning at the age of 15, this can be attributed to my learning from std 8th and like that? The way you behave or solve a problem in particular situation depends on the learning and experiences applied cumulatively. In the same manner it will be difficult for us to say whether a particular part of our MBA will be useful for us in long run or not. It is never that you take your decision exactly as per some theory taught to you in class but these theories definitely have an impact in shaping processes of mind and molding it to think in an intended direction. MBA is all about building the right attitude – about work environment, about colleagues, about the problems that you face and about the LIFE.

And the most important of all; an MBA degree can take you to the boss' position...read further:
When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said: "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the boss just sat and passed out the shit!
Q: What can we learn from this?
A: You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.