Interaction with Chicago Booth Admission Committee

Today I went to attend the Chicago Booth interaction session at Taj Hotel.

Interaction with the associate dean of admission was satisfactory. One fruitful thing about the entire session was that I got some clues about one question of Tuck Business School. The schools are looking for diversity, how a certain people from a very diverse culture will fit into there class and how will he be able to put across his view in the class. How much effective he is while he is putting up his case in the class. The class and community contribution is an important factor and should be brought out clearly in your essays.

Another alumni gave a very thoughtful observation : There is no need to repay your loan as soon as possible. In fact where in the world will you get a loan at 8% without any co-signer and pressure to repay. He went on to say that international educational loan should be paid last, settle your other loans at priority.

I also happen to met an old friend and a fellow applicant after almost 3 years. It was fun to talk to him and remember old days when we used to go to same coaching classes. And lastly we had some good snacks and juices. Overall a good experience.

On a side note, nothing has changed on Mathura Road in last one and a half year except the fact that today I was riding pillion.

Tiffs with my manager

I have been working under my new manager since June this year and it is not a pleasant experience by any means. The project schedule is cramped up a lot and on top of it he does a lot of micro-managing which is very irritating.

Had few unwanted incidents and took up some fights during these 3 months. Most famous being the one where he tried his best for 6-7 weeks in a row, creating unnecessary work on Fridays so that I have to work over the weekend and me never showing up.

Other being his quotes like "Are you on a half day?" when I was about to leave for the day at 7 P.M or offering me more work if I was in a jovial mood in office. It is like a cold war.

Up till now only I was the one who had the courage to openly say "no", but in the last meeting I felt the murmurs of dissent among the other team member. I heard the phrase "सर आप टाइम नहीं देते हो " around 5-6 times and felt that I was not at fault. I had worked in previous projects and no lead has ever said to me, "तुम हर बार यही कहते हो की टाइम नहीं है ". I don't like wasting time in office. And I believe that all my previous leads will readily vouch for it.

Whatever may be the case, this project experience is not a good memory.

Outliers

I have been amazed by the analysis done on Malcolm Gladwell in his book "Outliers - The story of success" on the successful personalities the world has seen. From the software giants to New York Lawyers to the ice hockey players of Canada.

I have been particularly impressed by the way the author has proven by statistics his point that people born just after the cut-off dates have an added advantage as they compete with younger people in their category. Different games, settings and environment have same result. The world is not a level playing field and some people do gets added advantages. Apart from being a born genius, the other factor play an equally important role to make a person an outlier. Bill Gates or Bill Joy were successful because they got the opportunity at the right time. Bill Gates got free computing times because his school got the donation to set up computer lab and Bill Joy joined University of Michigan at the time when new Computer Center started there.

People born in 1830's were successful because at the time of industrial revolution in 1860's they were of the appropriate age. So was the case with New York immigrant Jew lawyers.

I liked the way the author has linked all these examples in a very subtle and intriguing manner with the exceptions where a genius has gone wrong like Chris Lagan who had an IQ of 195 or the Termites (subjects of Termans field project on geniuses).

I would recommend this as a must read book for the budding entrepreneurs and leaders.

Sawal 56 hazaar crores ka...

While going back to office on two months back from Ghaziabad a figure stuck into my head... 56000 crores. Probably this was due to the trailers from 'Kidnap' where Sanjay Dutt is shown as a billionaire with property worth $51.2 billion. But in my mind the figure stuck was 56000 crores.

During my journey for an hour I was thinking about this figure with no clue what to do with and than came a brilliant idea in my mind. In next twenty years I will be worth 56000 crores. I shared this thought with my colleagues and we all had a good laugh. But I believe that I can make it happen. Next twenty years will unfold what is in store for me....