Reflections

As the dawn of my professional career approached closer, I had started to be poised about the importance of management and which led to my decision of doing an MBA in my life. Before this revelation, MBA was just a means of earning good money and trying to get a greater pie of what is known as success. They were 2 events that changed the way I used to think.

Initially I used to be the geek believing what society said was good, following the hard way by doing really good quantity of labor and was pretty successful in my ordeals of getting the maximum marks in exams and that used to be my only goal. Socially dead, culturally morbid I had become the guy who knew hard work but didn't knew how to do it intelligently. Working for more hours with less output, I used to enjoy keeping the book in front whilst thinking something else and effectively working much less. This technique I had developed on my own as a child, coming from modest background with not so highly educated parents, although I have my deepest regards for them, but they were also righteously of the view that a child should learn on his own. So my father never and even today doesn't share the nuances of his work and has always asked me to make my own ways without an ounce of guiding. How I came into science is also a long story I'll share some other day, which reveals how much less career advice I used to get from him. And so I had to carve out my own ways which in the beginning were in true sense rigid and based on the only goal of becoming self sufficient, getting a job and making a living. As the cream of the class went into science, I also came here with no real clue as to what I want or may become. And since I was that geeky hard working guy, it worked in my favour and I got into a decent Engineering college which was one of the turning point of my life. I was going to leave Delhi and live in a hostel, the first inadvertent step towards self sufficiency and independence. Here I learn to manage my finances, make good relations and observe closely the positives these can reap into which I could never do in the closed rooms of my home I used for studying. Adjusting with the room mate was another virtue I learned of. But the mindset didn't change and I used to work the same way and was pretty successful in my university exams. 

With time I realised that I have become too lonely and solitary, and to be really successful, one needs to be successful in life as a whole, and financial success follows suit. The importance of academics on one hand can never be contested, I saw people reaching the zenith becoming by just maintaining interpersonal relations. I begun to change. 

The first event that led to this was the event I was part of as a major member, the hostel night of Hostel J. Here I learnt how to work efficiently as a group and make a large scale event a success. Everything was pre planned and it went smoothly. This was the point management came into picture. Even with all other resources remaining same, other hostels could not organise an event satisfying the students, teachers and faculty. It was either their management's error in planning or execution but it was management. Today n number of civil engineering projects are jammed due to gross mismanagement of one of the parties. So this was a life learning experience and was a stepping stone in my decision to do an MBA as I now believe, not only is it needed for career growth, but for personal growth as well, management is of utmost importance. 

Another event was when I was part of final year organising a three day path in gurdwaras which also was successful and I have started to play the role of taking the call in these events. By repeatedly doing these events, one learns where one can go wrong from past experience and that I believe not only in management, but in life about practice making a man perfect. 

So I am ready for my journey towards an MBA which I don't consider as a destination but a starting point to start with in life.