Lesson 1: Don't try to buy Vitamin Water at the vending machine at the Greyhound Bus station in New York. First, the cost is $2.75, a huge premium over the regular cost which is less than a dollar if you bought it bulk at Costco. Second, the machine accepts coins but does not register their acceptance, which means it just sawllows them. So after I meticulously put in two dollar notes and 3 quarters to make up the sum, I realised that I had now only $2 worth in the machine. So though I wanted to stay health conscious and drink vitamin water, I ended buying a regular Coke, thanks to the "SUNK COST". Managerial Economics, Term 1, Core.
Lesson 2: Watch the movie Chandni Chowk to China. As much as it sunk without a trace at the Box Office, it certainly taught me something. The chinese dad of Deepika Padukone alias Miaow teaches Akshay Kumar that what matters is not the 10,000 things he has done once in life, but the ONE THING he has done thousands of times in his life. Cut to Arvind Eye Hospital in Madurai (and other parts of Tamil Nadu). Dr V (as the founder of this great institution was affectionately called) must have certainly got a credit line for the flop film and I am surprised he did not. For, through his hospital, he has communicated the exact same lesson this film taught me. Arvind Eye Hosptial focuses on cataract, THE SINGLE LARGEST CAUSE OF blindness in India and performs cataract surgeries at a rate that the rest of the medical world has not even envisioned (pun unintended). An average of 20 mins per surgery and as soon as one surgery is completed the patient is moved out and the next patient, who was being prepared in the last 20 minutes, is now on the operation table, ready for his. And the surgeon goes on and on and on. Late Dr V, is obviously a phenomenon and Arvind Eye Hospital is an Ivy-Leauge Business School case study. Operations Management. Term 2. Core.
Lesson 3: Off late, I have been kicking and screaming within my company. All these lessons I am learning from my MBA have got me excited and I have been eager to show it at my workplace. In a workshop with a client recently, I asked the client some questions which were really not within the scope of the project. The client appreciated it, no doubt, because I gave them a perspective that they had not thought of, but my own peers thought I was just k...... a... So much for the knowledge! Even more recently, I ventured to work on a project that was not only out of my direct responsibility, but also involved visibility to the C-level in the company. Though my ideas were good and my intentions honest, I seem to have inadvertently created a feeling of caution or even insecurity among some of my colleagues. My biggest advice to those who go to B-school with the honorable intention of applying what you learnt in class to the current workplace is, "Do so by all means, but be careful what you are saying to whom. Think through things from the other person's perspective before you do something like that. Everyone is not going to like what you think or say, so even do whatever good you want to do, quietly." When you have a competitive advantage that you think others don't, don't go around sharing that information in public. Make your entry discretely and work diligently to gain customer captivity. Strategy. Term 3. Elective.
I'm learning...
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Cape Comorin!
Kanyakumari - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Located at the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, it is also know by its former name Cape Comorin...
It's 757 PM on 6 Nov 09 and by all measures, I have hit the lowest point in my MBA stint. Today was the first day in the last 10 months that I did not attend school for a whole day.
That I was ill this morning and had no energy to get up and go to school and face a mid-term examination is true, but what is also important is what brought about the illness.
I have been working very hard in the last couple of months. With a mandate to complete the PMP certification this year, I had used the 3 week break between terms 2 and 3 to complete it. And it was like my company and our customers were waiting for me to become a certified PMP, for, in a week's time, I was loaded with six projects to manage, all at the same time. It has been a full two months now and I have been juggling at least 6, sometimes 9 or 10 balls in the air.
No shortage of glamor, alright. I have visited some exotic locales starting with Sarasota, FL to San Antonio, TX and Los Angeles and San Diego in CA. Include Munich and Berlin in the German land I visited on account of my international Seminar and I have been a globe trotter in these 60 days. And I dare say, I am enjoying it all. "What do you mean? I am having a BALL!"
I guess the trap also lies amidst all this glamor. I am enjoying my work so much, that my MBA has taken a back seat. Even when at Munich and Berlin, I used the time difference and worked all evenings, doing just enough to get past the requirements for the seminar itself. And with one course for the term out of the way, I have spent even lesser time on the other 3 and utilized the breaks I have been getting in my schedule during class weekends doing more work. It's been Blackberry Bluetooth all the way! What's worse, I got to a point where I asked myself, I am enjoying my work so much, why do I need this MBA anyway? That's DANGER ZONE, right there.
The "doing enough to get by" approach is paying its dividends. With a missed mid-term examination, and most importantly, my slack on studies, I am clearly facing grades in Term 3 that will the worst yet. Start with 3 of 5 aces in term 1, go to 1 ace in term 2 and facing none in term 3, my grade graph looks exactly like the west coast of India, starting on a high at Mumbai and currently at Cape Comorin. It's ironical that I am also exactly at the half-time mark in my MBA program (10 of 20 months done!).
My MBA thus far has not taught me to predict the future so I will still have to wait and see if my course line will continue to follow India's coast line and start rising on the east side? But Cape Comorin at the half time mark does offer a good opportunity to sit down and think about what I have learnt so far and what want I want to get out of this MBA. My goal is to capture the thoughts as they occur to me and record them here (and I certainly hope to write more here), but for now, "Vivekananda Rock, here I come!"
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
History repeats itself !
If my last lesson from the MBA was about confidence, this one was, "Don't speak too soon."
In the middle of August were our final exams for 4 of the 5 core courses that we took this second term. As is the norm, the exams were consecutive weeks, one each on Friday and Saturday. The first week was nerve-wracking with 2 heavy courses lining up their finals back to back. When that first weekend was done, all of us had some relief, for the worst was over. The next weeks exams both had only 5 or 6 classes worth of content while the first 2 had tested us on the full 12 classes worth. I was justifiably in a good mood on the afternoon of Saturday, 15 Aug 09, as I rode directly to Penn's Landing in Philadelphia for the Indian Independence Day celebrations. Good food, great performances by children et al, I totally loved the afternoon.
The evening was more relaxed, stretched out on the couch after a nice dinner made by my wife. This was Sunday morning in India and it was time for the customary call with my parents. My mom was first on the line and her first question obviously was, "How did your exams go?". Without spending much time on whether it is funny for a 60 year old woman to ask this question of her 36 year old son, I will go on to the importance of this question in this episode and hence my lesson.
"I did very well, ma!", I said, "And this VERY WELL is not like the VERY WELL I told you after my History exam in the Quarterlies of my 8th grade at school. I really did well", I said.
"What is this thing about the History exam in class 8?", asked my attentive wife, who was stretched out in the other direction on the same couch.
"Well", and I took a deep breath. "After my History exam in the Quarterlies of class 8, I came home and told Amma that I would get 71 marks", I said. (I have no clue how I came up with that estimate).
"And how much did you actually get", my wife prodded on. I could see the expectation in her eyes of some embarassment to come for me.
"I got 17", I said with total embarassment. (I obviously had no clue how I came up with that estimate of 71!!!)
"But this time is not like that. I am now 36 and I am far more responsible than that. I have really done well in both courses ma", I re-emphasized to my mother.
"Good job son, I am happy to hear that", she said. The discussion then moved on to other less embarassing topics and the day ended well.
However, all was not well. In less than a week, the results were out for the Corporate Finance course. When the email that announces that the grade is ready came through, we had just a few minutes for the start of the next exam on that next Friday morning. But that did not deter me from quickly logging on to the student portal and checking my grade.
When I saw the grade I was shocked. I had just secured pass grade. The proctor's annoucement about the official start of the Marketing exam kept my mind away from this shock for exactly 2 and a half hours, but at the stroke of 1130 AM, it came right back into my mind.
I thought I had done well, for real. I tried to think of everything that could have gone wrong with the grading, questions not graded, pages of the print outs missing, so on and so forth and even reached out to the professor to see what had gone wrong. Even after the professor had kindly provided me explanations on where I had gone wrong and why my grade was what it was, my mind was not at peace.
It wasn't until after 8 PM that evening that I came to my senses and started working on my next day's exam. The sense prevailed just long enough for me to complete the last exam and this time when my wife asked me how I had done, I restricted myself to, "It is over".
I spent some time thinking about what went wrong. There had been a pattern in the courses I had done well on in my first term and with those I had not. I had judged this exam by the same reference framework in my mind and thought I will score A grade, but I ended with just pass.
The last 4 days have passed well. Exams done and a 3 week break before term 3, I have been stretched out on the couch for most of the time, enjoying my new 32 inch SAMSUNG acquisition. The process of browsing through the channels brought me to the History channel. And brought back a quick memory of History, class 8 and Corporate Finance...
Funny, how history can repeat itself. (I just couldn't resist myself from saying it...)
In the middle of August were our final exams for 4 of the 5 core courses that we took this second term. As is the norm, the exams were consecutive weeks, one each on Friday and Saturday. The first week was nerve-wracking with 2 heavy courses lining up their finals back to back. When that first weekend was done, all of us had some relief, for the worst was over. The next weeks exams both had only 5 or 6 classes worth of content while the first 2 had tested us on the full 12 classes worth. I was justifiably in a good mood on the afternoon of Saturday, 15 Aug 09, as I rode directly to Penn's Landing in Philadelphia for the Indian Independence Day celebrations. Good food, great performances by children et al, I totally loved the afternoon.
The evening was more relaxed, stretched out on the couch after a nice dinner made by my wife. This was Sunday morning in India and it was time for the customary call with my parents. My mom was first on the line and her first question obviously was, "How did your exams go?". Without spending much time on whether it is funny for a 60 year old woman to ask this question of her 36 year old son, I will go on to the importance of this question in this episode and hence my lesson.
"I did very well, ma!", I said, "And this VERY WELL is not like the VERY WELL I told you after my History exam in the Quarterlies of my 8th grade at school. I really did well", I said.
"What is this thing about the History exam in class 8?", asked my attentive wife, who was stretched out in the other direction on the same couch.
"Well", and I took a deep breath. "After my History exam in the Quarterlies of class 8, I came home and told Amma that I would get 71 marks", I said. (I have no clue how I came up with that estimate).
"And how much did you actually get", my wife prodded on. I could see the expectation in her eyes of some embarassment to come for me.
"I got 17", I said with total embarassment. (I obviously had no clue how I came up with that estimate of 71!!!)
"But this time is not like that. I am now 36 and I am far more responsible than that. I have really done well in both courses ma", I re-emphasized to my mother.
"Good job son, I am happy to hear that", she said. The discussion then moved on to other less embarassing topics and the day ended well.
However, all was not well. In less than a week, the results were out for the Corporate Finance course. When the email that announces that the grade is ready came through, we had just a few minutes for the start of the next exam on that next Friday morning. But that did not deter me from quickly logging on to the student portal and checking my grade.
When I saw the grade I was shocked. I had just secured pass grade. The proctor's annoucement about the official start of the Marketing exam kept my mind away from this shock for exactly 2 and a half hours, but at the stroke of 1130 AM, it came right back into my mind.
I thought I had done well, for real. I tried to think of everything that could have gone wrong with the grading, questions not graded, pages of the print outs missing, so on and so forth and even reached out to the professor to see what had gone wrong. Even after the professor had kindly provided me explanations on where I had gone wrong and why my grade was what it was, my mind was not at peace.
It wasn't until after 8 PM that evening that I came to my senses and started working on my next day's exam. The sense prevailed just long enough for me to complete the last exam and this time when my wife asked me how I had done, I restricted myself to, "It is over".
I spent some time thinking about what went wrong. There had been a pattern in the courses I had done well on in my first term and with those I had not. I had judged this exam by the same reference framework in my mind and thought I will score A grade, but I ended with just pass.
The last 4 days have passed well. Exams done and a 3 week break before term 3, I have been stretched out on the couch for most of the time, enjoying my new 32 inch SAMSUNG acquisition. The process of browsing through the channels brought me to the History channel. And brought back a quick memory of History, class 8 and Corporate Finance...
Funny, how history can repeat itself. (I just couldn't resist myself from saying it...)
Friday, July 24, 2009
The Real "NY" Factor!
Of the million things that Columbia Business School says to attract intelligent minds to its various MBA programs, certainly among the Top 3 is the "New York (NY)" factor. "Experts from Wall Street, Captains of the Industry...", the rant rolls on. I agree, and one hundred percent.
New York means many things to many people. The financial capital of the world to some, the costliest real estate in the world to some others. The epitome of fashion to many and the essence of sheer cultural diversity to most. Bright lights and buzzing streets to a city that never sleeps.
All of this granted, today, I learnt the most important lesson about New York city and perhaps the most important lesson in my MBA yet. Today I learnt, what that the Real "NY" factor is. It's CONFIDENCE. Everything in New York city is about confidence.
It is the average New Yorker raising his hand to hail a taxi. It is the women who stroll the streets at midnight, least afraid or worried. It is the proud cassanova, from whose arm hang 3 charming women, all at a time. It is the businessmen of the city, sharp and savvy, all the time.
A lesson I could have never learnt in classrooms or board rooms is what I learnt tonight. Perhaps through the same confidence that drove me to this bench in the middle of Broadway and 94th street. And everything that I have seen in the hour gone by, from the front and center seat.
It's now 1 AM and it's time to sleep. For there are more lessons to be learnt tomorrow. I'm confident.
New York means many things to many people. The financial capital of the world to some, the costliest real estate in the world to some others. The epitome of fashion to many and the essence of sheer cultural diversity to most. Bright lights and buzzing streets to a city that never sleeps.
All of this granted, today, I learnt the most important lesson about New York city and perhaps the most important lesson in my MBA yet. Today I learnt, what that the Real "NY" factor is. It's CONFIDENCE. Everything in New York city is about confidence.
It is the average New Yorker raising his hand to hail a taxi. It is the women who stroll the streets at midnight, least afraid or worried. It is the proud cassanova, from whose arm hang 3 charming women, all at a time. It is the businessmen of the city, sharp and savvy, all the time.
A lesson I could have never learnt in classrooms or board rooms is what I learnt tonight. Perhaps through the same confidence that drove me to this bench in the middle of Broadway and 94th street. And everything that I have seen in the hour gone by, from the front and center seat.
It's now 1 AM and it's time to sleep. For there are more lessons to be learnt tomorrow. I'm confident.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Toughest Month So Far...
It's over. The toughest month in this year and during the course of my MBA ends here. Declared at 750 PM on Saturday, July 11, 2009. I am on the Greyhound bus back to Mt Laurel after a weekend of classes. We are just passing the Newark airport on the NJ Turnpike and United flight xyz has just taken off. And so have my spirits.
For, the last one month, or 29 days to be exact, from June 13 to July 11, 2009 have been downhill all the way. I just learnt about the Business Cycle today in the Operations Management class and I realized how my life seems to go in similar cycles. One of my previous bosses once commented that my emotional state and hence my work capability was like a sine wave. It would go right up once and then it would go all the way down. And today in Operations class, I realized how that was so true.
The six months from Dec 12, 2008 to June 12, 2009 were the upward climb. If you want to know what happened on Dec 12, 2008, go way down on this blog. The sine wave hit peak on June 10, my birthday. It was a day that lasted 36 hours and the euphoria lasted for another 2, until June 12.
I had this crazy, ominous feeling on the morning of Saturday, June 13. I knew something was wrong, but couldn't say what. I just hoped for the best and got through that day at school and the next day at home, but as the new week started and went in to day 1,2 and 3, it was clear. I was going downhill. The sine wave had started descending. The projects I was working on were getting into rough weather and my wife and son were getting ready to go to India in less than 2 weeks. The extra effort into work made sure I did not touch school work that week and come
the weekend I was ready for some rest. (It was a weekend between school weekends, so I could probably afford it.)
Clearly, my son had other plans. He started showing signs of exhaustion on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, his fever was at 103. They were flying to India the following Thursday and the hot topic was the testing that was being done at the Chennai airport for swine flu. The point of contention for me and my wife was whether they should travel as scheduled or not and the visit to the doctor's office on Monday morning made it clear. No way!
Fight the fever, fight the fever it was for the next couple of days and on Wednesday morning, he showed signs of recovering. The sliver lining that day was it was the last day of school and he received several awards including one for Good Citizenship. The awards lifted the spirit a little but the stress was still showing and work wasn't getting any better either.
We had cancelled Thursday's flights and moved the trip to the Sunday coming up, but I had to be back at school on Fri and Sat. Until about 1 am on Friday morning I was not even sure I would go to school but I mustered the strength to pull myself out of home on Friday morning. The ominous signs of Saturday the 13th took effect on Friday the 16th. One of the projects I was handling was now in the middle of a storm and I spent exactly 1.5 hours in class that morning.
The rest of the time, I was in a small discussion room, on the phone for the next 8 or 9 hours,
writing incident responses and answering email. An introduction to Ethiopian cuisine was the highlight of what was the toughest day in the course of the MBA. The tough part about the EMBA program is that one has to make some choices at times, and for me, if I had to choose between work and the MBA, it was clearly work. I thanked God this was not an examination day and prayed this day would never happen again. The stress showed and I slept.
Saturday the 27th was none the better. Even before I left for school, I tried to enthuse myself by doing some of the things I had enjoyed doing so much in the last few months, but once again, it was clear that something was missing. All the same, it was a Saturday morning, I had classes to attend and I decided to go out and do my Karma. Drag, drag, drag and at 510 PM, for the first time in the course of my MBA, I walked out of school, with the Corporate Finance class only half
complete. Clearly, this was the one weekend I was most demotivated.
At least, I would get home early that night. That would help because the India trip for my family was the next night and we had not even considered packing until now. What's more, my wife had now been ill for 2 days. The planning was perfect. Well, almost. Slowly but surely, my wife and I got the luggage to a 95% confidence level at 2 AM on Sunday morning.
7 AM on Sunday morning and I was on my way to the Hindu Temple at Bridgwater, NJ. I obvioulsy wanted to pray for my wife and son to have a safe trip, but more importantly, I was attending the sacred thread ceremony of my cousin's son that morning at the temple's community hall. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, given that my wife and son were getting ready to travel that evening and the trip to Bridgewater and back would be at least 4 or 5 hours, but I was on the way and there was no turning back. Luckily, I was back home for lunch and things were looking normal. No black clouds in the sky.
The next few hours were clockwork. Leave home at 430 PM, check in the luggage and though my family went through their security check and proceeded to the gate, it was time for me to thank the Philadelphia International Airport folks. The international departures area is so wonderfully constructed that I could stay at a certain point from where I could still see my son and wife at their gate and I was on the phone with them for the next couple of hours until it was time for them to board.
I didn't feel it so much when I returned home that night. I think the week's events left me so tired to think of anything and I hit the bed straight. It was the next morning (Monday) that it really hit me. Not only was I unwell, I was now back in the middle of the storm at work that was still looming large and what's more, I was already missing my wife and son.
After managing a bare existence on Monday, on Tuesday, it was time for a long drive. On my way I was to our company's operations in Rochester, NY, which was a 6 hour drive at the least. Things had gotten to a boiling point at work and I decided to be in the middle of the action so I could control whatever was in my control. Of course, the trafiic gods did not smile on me that day and what is usually a 6 hour drive turned out to be 8 hours that night and I reached Rochester
at 1130 PM.
The firefighting continued through the next 3 days into Friday, July 3rd, which was supposed to be a Holiday to make up for July 4 being a Saturday, but there was no respite. Only after I was absolutely sure that everything was all set for the new program launch the following Monday did I leave the office that Friday night.
Now, wait a minute. Isn't this supposed to be a blog about my MBA? Well, yes it is, but do you think I had even a moment to think about school work in the last week?
I decided to make amends on Saturday and made a determined effort to complete some homework assignments and read up some case studies. I was happy at the end of Saturday. I would have continued the same on Sunday, had I not had to take an Indian colleague of mine who was visiting the US for the first time, to the Niagara Falls. Not to say that I did not enjoy the day. My third trip to the Niagara Falls was memorable and I even felt a little relieved that night despite everything that was going on.
The week of July 6 started better. My projects launched without many hiccups, work moved into normal pace and I moved along with life. I was starting to feel better and I suddenly remembered that there was a decision models project that was due the coming Friday at school and that I was way behind on that. I decided to advance my return home by one day and drove back to NJ on Wednesday, but only after I had made sure that everything was under reasonable control at work.
Thursday July 9, was still a rough day and even as I tried to clean up home a little and handle work pressures, I was mindful of the decision models project. Thanks to an hour that Tom (my learning team member and by far the most conscientious in our team) spent with me on the phone walking me through the details of the project, I was able to actually come up with a process flow for the project and even talk through it on Friday, July 10.
Friday, July 10, went really well with a good performance on the Decision Models project presentation and a dinner with another learning team at a Thai restaurant in mid-town Manhattan. Saturday was mixed with highs and lows (like the roller coaster that the operations professor showed to describe the business cycle), but when I walked out of class on Saturday, July 11, I certainly felt better than the last weekend I had left school.
As I was walked across the Columbia Universtiy campus, I thought about the last month and how tough it had been. I have been trying to understand the reason this month was so tough and how I could handle such situations better. I know that such situations could occure again or worse, once I am done with my MBA and if I am any good, I will only assume positions of higher responsibility and that is not going to be any easier.
One thing was clear to me. I have had this tendency in the past to get easily overwhelmed when the going gets tough. I was aware of this and tried really hard this time, but at some point, I guess I fell over the cliff. I have been struggling to find out, exactly what tipped the balance and when and where I fell, but have been unable to understand it. I don't know if it was just the process of thinking through this or the nice breeze of the early evening in New York, but I felt better.
I could have stayed on in New York and done something fun, because there would be no one at home to welcome me, feed me and take care of me and I needed to be in no great hurry to go home, but I found my feet took me straight to the subway station, thereon to the bus station and straight back home. There is no body here with me, not even the TV (it went kaput a few days ago!).
I wish I could talk to someone now, but there is no time for these feelings. It is time to prepare. The next weekend I am in school, I will be writing a final exam in Decision Models and also presenting a project on Marketing. Just one school weekend post that and then it will time for Term 2 finals.
I am definitely at the lowest ebb of the sine wave, but the good news is I can only go up from here. I have 30 days from now until Aug 10 when my family returns to Mt Laurel. I have always dreamt of working efficiently, working 18 hours a day, staying on top of things and getting stuff done. It's not even a chance. I have to do it. And I have 30 days...
If I am worth my salt, I will do it. I will WIN... God be with me.
For, the last one month, or 29 days to be exact, from June 13 to July 11, 2009 have been downhill all the way. I just learnt about the Business Cycle today in the Operations Management class and I realized how my life seems to go in similar cycles. One of my previous bosses once commented that my emotional state and hence my work capability was like a sine wave. It would go right up once and then it would go all the way down. And today in Operations class, I realized how that was so true.
The six months from Dec 12, 2008 to June 12, 2009 were the upward climb. If you want to know what happened on Dec 12, 2008, go way down on this blog. The sine wave hit peak on June 10, my birthday. It was a day that lasted 36 hours and the euphoria lasted for another 2, until June 12.
I had this crazy, ominous feeling on the morning of Saturday, June 13. I knew something was wrong, but couldn't say what. I just hoped for the best and got through that day at school and the next day at home, but as the new week started and went in to day 1,2 and 3, it was clear. I was going downhill. The sine wave had started descending. The projects I was working on were getting into rough weather and my wife and son were getting ready to go to India in less than 2 weeks. The extra effort into work made sure I did not touch school work that week and come
the weekend I was ready for some rest. (It was a weekend between school weekends, so I could probably afford it.)
Clearly, my son had other plans. He started showing signs of exhaustion on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, his fever was at 103. They were flying to India the following Thursday and the hot topic was the testing that was being done at the Chennai airport for swine flu. The point of contention for me and my wife was whether they should travel as scheduled or not and the visit to the doctor's office on Monday morning made it clear. No way!
Fight the fever, fight the fever it was for the next couple of days and on Wednesday morning, he showed signs of recovering. The sliver lining that day was it was the last day of school and he received several awards including one for Good Citizenship. The awards lifted the spirit a little but the stress was still showing and work wasn't getting any better either.
We had cancelled Thursday's flights and moved the trip to the Sunday coming up, but I had to be back at school on Fri and Sat. Until about 1 am on Friday morning I was not even sure I would go to school but I mustered the strength to pull myself out of home on Friday morning. The ominous signs of Saturday the 13th took effect on Friday the 16th. One of the projects I was handling was now in the middle of a storm and I spent exactly 1.5 hours in class that morning.
The rest of the time, I was in a small discussion room, on the phone for the next 8 or 9 hours,
writing incident responses and answering email. An introduction to Ethiopian cuisine was the highlight of what was the toughest day in the course of the MBA. The tough part about the EMBA program is that one has to make some choices at times, and for me, if I had to choose between work and the MBA, it was clearly work. I thanked God this was not an examination day and prayed this day would never happen again. The stress showed and I slept.
Saturday the 27th was none the better. Even before I left for school, I tried to enthuse myself by doing some of the things I had enjoyed doing so much in the last few months, but once again, it was clear that something was missing. All the same, it was a Saturday morning, I had classes to attend and I decided to go out and do my Karma. Drag, drag, drag and at 510 PM, for the first time in the course of my MBA, I walked out of school, with the Corporate Finance class only half
complete. Clearly, this was the one weekend I was most demotivated.
At least, I would get home early that night. That would help because the India trip for my family was the next night and we had not even considered packing until now. What's more, my wife had now been ill for 2 days. The planning was perfect. Well, almost. Slowly but surely, my wife and I got the luggage to a 95% confidence level at 2 AM on Sunday morning.
7 AM on Sunday morning and I was on my way to the Hindu Temple at Bridgwater, NJ. I obvioulsy wanted to pray for my wife and son to have a safe trip, but more importantly, I was attending the sacred thread ceremony of my cousin's son that morning at the temple's community hall. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, given that my wife and son were getting ready to travel that evening and the trip to Bridgewater and back would be at least 4 or 5 hours, but I was on the way and there was no turning back. Luckily, I was back home for lunch and things were looking normal. No black clouds in the sky.
The next few hours were clockwork. Leave home at 430 PM, check in the luggage and though my family went through their security check and proceeded to the gate, it was time for me to thank the Philadelphia International Airport folks. The international departures area is so wonderfully constructed that I could stay at a certain point from where I could still see my son and wife at their gate and I was on the phone with them for the next couple of hours until it was time for them to board.
I didn't feel it so much when I returned home that night. I think the week's events left me so tired to think of anything and I hit the bed straight. It was the next morning (Monday) that it really hit me. Not only was I unwell, I was now back in the middle of the storm at work that was still looming large and what's more, I was already missing my wife and son.
After managing a bare existence on Monday, on Tuesday, it was time for a long drive. On my way I was to our company's operations in Rochester, NY, which was a 6 hour drive at the least. Things had gotten to a boiling point at work and I decided to be in the middle of the action so I could control whatever was in my control. Of course, the trafiic gods did not smile on me that day and what is usually a 6 hour drive turned out to be 8 hours that night and I reached Rochester
at 1130 PM.
The firefighting continued through the next 3 days into Friday, July 3rd, which was supposed to be a Holiday to make up for July 4 being a Saturday, but there was no respite. Only after I was absolutely sure that everything was all set for the new program launch the following Monday did I leave the office that Friday night.
Now, wait a minute. Isn't this supposed to be a blog about my MBA? Well, yes it is, but do you think I had even a moment to think about school work in the last week?
I decided to make amends on Saturday and made a determined effort to complete some homework assignments and read up some case studies. I was happy at the end of Saturday. I would have continued the same on Sunday, had I not had to take an Indian colleague of mine who was visiting the US for the first time, to the Niagara Falls. Not to say that I did not enjoy the day. My third trip to the Niagara Falls was memorable and I even felt a little relieved that night despite everything that was going on.
The week of July 6 started better. My projects launched without many hiccups, work moved into normal pace and I moved along with life. I was starting to feel better and I suddenly remembered that there was a decision models project that was due the coming Friday at school and that I was way behind on that. I decided to advance my return home by one day and drove back to NJ on Wednesday, but only after I had made sure that everything was under reasonable control at work.
Thursday July 9, was still a rough day and even as I tried to clean up home a little and handle work pressures, I was mindful of the decision models project. Thanks to an hour that Tom (my learning team member and by far the most conscientious in our team) spent with me on the phone walking me through the details of the project, I was able to actually come up with a process flow for the project and even talk through it on Friday, July 10.
Friday, July 10, went really well with a good performance on the Decision Models project presentation and a dinner with another learning team at a Thai restaurant in mid-town Manhattan. Saturday was mixed with highs and lows (like the roller coaster that the operations professor showed to describe the business cycle), but when I walked out of class on Saturday, July 11, I certainly felt better than the last weekend I had left school.
As I was walked across the Columbia Universtiy campus, I thought about the last month and how tough it had been. I have been trying to understand the reason this month was so tough and how I could handle such situations better. I know that such situations could occure again or worse, once I am done with my MBA and if I am any good, I will only assume positions of higher responsibility and that is not going to be any easier.
One thing was clear to me. I have had this tendency in the past to get easily overwhelmed when the going gets tough. I was aware of this and tried really hard this time, but at some point, I guess I fell over the cliff. I have been struggling to find out, exactly what tipped the balance and when and where I fell, but have been unable to understand it. I don't know if it was just the process of thinking through this or the nice breeze of the early evening in New York, but I felt better.
I could have stayed on in New York and done something fun, because there would be no one at home to welcome me, feed me and take care of me and I needed to be in no great hurry to go home, but I found my feet took me straight to the subway station, thereon to the bus station and straight back home. There is no body here with me, not even the TV (it went kaput a few days ago!).
I wish I could talk to someone now, but there is no time for these feelings. It is time to prepare. The next weekend I am in school, I will be writing a final exam in Decision Models and also presenting a project on Marketing. Just one school weekend post that and then it will time for Term 2 finals.
I am definitely at the lowest ebb of the sine wave, but the good news is I can only go up from here. I have 30 days from now until Aug 10 when my family returns to Mt Laurel. I have always dreamt of working efficiently, working 18 hours a day, staying on top of things and getting stuff done. It's not even a chance. I have to do it. And I have 30 days...
If I am worth my salt, I will do it. I will WIN... God be with me.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Wednesday May 13, 2009. Palisades, New York.
It is second residence week indeed. And I never believed I would ever be sitting in class at 3 PM and writing a Blog!
Stating the obvious would mean saying that Term 1 is over but my real problem is that I can't get over it. First, I had great fun with all the classes in Term 1 (can't say the same of term 2 so far!). I was excited at the Residence Week, enthused by the Stats Quiz, disappointed by the Statistics mid-term and finally, devastated by the Accounting and Statistics final exams. I have been dying to see my grades on the other 3 classes till today and now that it's all here and I have done well in Leadership, Strategy and Economics, I need to really move on but I am unable to.
There's a million lessons learnt from Term 1. May be more like 2 or 3 but I think discrete lessons learnt that I can put to use are more valuable than worldly knowledge. All credit the Leadership class, which brought to light what my weaknesses are. Its funny that the exact same weaknesses proved to be my downfall in Statistics and Accounting. Want to know what's funnier? Sometime in residence week, I corrected my Statistics professor on a formula he had written in error. And then the next day, I solved a problem he had posed to the class with a lot of ease. My class thought (and still thinks today!) that I am a quant BEAST (a term I have learnt in business school). And the 2 courses that I have my worst grades in are full of numbers!!!
Tell me more. I am in session 7 of Term 2. Its 311 PM. Exactly 12 hours from the time I actually went to bed this morning after spending the whole night drawing gantt charts and trying to solve for operational cycle times, throughputs and utilization. Add to that Corporate Finance, Performance Measurement and Decision Models and this term is full of quantitative stuff. Even Marketing is full of quantitative stuff. Going by the results of Term 1, clearly I am not a quantitative person. And I know (deep inside) that I am not the Strategy or Leadership kind of person.
So what am I? I am an electron. Always agitated, jumping up and down, screaming for attention and trying to break away from my orbit and radiate. Trying hard, not to plummet into the nucleus and perish...
It's 320 PM and this class will be over any minute now. Residence week is half done. I leave this class with this question. Will I get this MBA? Or will this MBA get me?
Stating the obvious would mean saying that Term 1 is over but my real problem is that I can't get over it. First, I had great fun with all the classes in Term 1 (can't say the same of term 2 so far!). I was excited at the Residence Week, enthused by the Stats Quiz, disappointed by the Statistics mid-term and finally, devastated by the Accounting and Statistics final exams. I have been dying to see my grades on the other 3 classes till today and now that it's all here and I have done well in Leadership, Strategy and Economics, I need to really move on but I am unable to.
There's a million lessons learnt from Term 1. May be more like 2 or 3 but I think discrete lessons learnt that I can put to use are more valuable than worldly knowledge. All credit the Leadership class, which brought to light what my weaknesses are. Its funny that the exact same weaknesses proved to be my downfall in Statistics and Accounting. Want to know what's funnier? Sometime in residence week, I corrected my Statistics professor on a formula he had written in error. And then the next day, I solved a problem he had posed to the class with a lot of ease. My class thought (and still thinks today!) that I am a quant BEAST (a term I have learnt in business school). And the 2 courses that I have my worst grades in are full of numbers!!!
Tell me more. I am in session 7 of Term 2. Its 311 PM. Exactly 12 hours from the time I actually went to bed this morning after spending the whole night drawing gantt charts and trying to solve for operational cycle times, throughputs and utilization. Add to that Corporate Finance, Performance Measurement and Decision Models and this term is full of quantitative stuff. Even Marketing is full of quantitative stuff. Going by the results of Term 1, clearly I am not a quantitative person. And I know (deep inside) that I am not the Strategy or Leadership kind of person.
So what am I? I am an electron. Always agitated, jumping up and down, screaming for attention and trying to break away from my orbit and radiate. Trying hard, not to plummet into the nucleus and perish...
It's 320 PM and this class will be over any minute now. Residence week is half done. I leave this class with this question. Will I get this MBA? Or will this MBA get me?
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sun over the City!
Ahh! It's Spring! Or at least, so I feel.
One of the perks of studying at Columbia Business School is the ride up to New York City. My classes usually begin at 845 AM and to get there on time, I usually take a Greyhound bus from the South Jersey town of Mt Laurel at 5.30 AM. The last 4 months have really been winter months and by the time the bus hits the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC, the sun has hardly been up.
But today is a different day! Friday April 17, 2009, 644 AM. With hardly 3 hours of sleep last night, I was trying to get that power nap on the bus when I felt my eyes tingle. I tried to keep my eyes closed and my mind on the song that was in my ears. The tingle only got brighter. I was sure it was the sun. I have always been a Summer person and have been waiting for some golden sunshine for quite a while now, especially with what has been a looooooong winter here in the North East USA.
So feeling the sun through my closed eyes put a smile on my face right away. I tried to keep my eyes closed as long as I could. I kinda like that feeling. Try closing your eyes with the sun staring straight at you. It is a fine, fresh feeling I call invigorating.
And then I could resist it no more. I slowly opened my eyes. And the sight I saw was simply splendid. The sun was rising over New York city. I could see the full skyline, from left to right. From the high rises uptown to the majestic Empire State Building midtown and downtown to the far right. The economic capital of the world must have just been waking up (I hope its a great day for the stock markets!). I wished so bad I had a camera, it was one of the most beautiful sights I had seen in recent times. Welcome Spring...
Nothing could have made my mood better. I am in the Lincoln Tunnel as I write this and it is dark all around. But soon it will be sunshine and I will be in my favourite city on a beautiful spring day.
My business in the city today starts at 9 AM with a 4 hour final examination on Financial Accounting, but that's another story.
Have a splendid day!
One of the perks of studying at Columbia Business School is the ride up to New York City. My classes usually begin at 845 AM and to get there on time, I usually take a Greyhound bus from the South Jersey town of Mt Laurel at 5.30 AM. The last 4 months have really been winter months and by the time the bus hits the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC, the sun has hardly been up.
But today is a different day! Friday April 17, 2009, 644 AM. With hardly 3 hours of sleep last night, I was trying to get that power nap on the bus when I felt my eyes tingle. I tried to keep my eyes closed and my mind on the song that was in my ears. The tingle only got brighter. I was sure it was the sun. I have always been a Summer person and have been waiting for some golden sunshine for quite a while now, especially with what has been a looooooong winter here in the North East USA.
So feeling the sun through my closed eyes put a smile on my face right away. I tried to keep my eyes closed as long as I could. I kinda like that feeling. Try closing your eyes with the sun staring straight at you. It is a fine, fresh feeling I call invigorating.
And then I could resist it no more. I slowly opened my eyes. And the sight I saw was simply splendid. The sun was rising over New York city. I could see the full skyline, from left to right. From the high rises uptown to the majestic Empire State Building midtown and downtown to the far right. The economic capital of the world must have just been waking up (I hope its a great day for the stock markets!). I wished so bad I had a camera, it was one of the most beautiful sights I had seen in recent times. Welcome Spring...
Nothing could have made my mood better. I am in the Lincoln Tunnel as I write this and it is dark all around. But soon it will be sunshine and I will be in my favourite city on a beautiful spring day.
My business in the city today starts at 9 AM with a 4 hour final examination on Financial Accounting, but that's another story.
Have a splendid day!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)