The Introspection Begins....
2006 has as I already mentioned been by far the best year of my life so far. Best because of serveral reasons:
1. I have spent a month or more in five countries
2. I have visited a total of 10 countries just this year
3. I successfully graduated from INSEAD (the one thing about the year I was certain about)
4. I found three jobs that I actually felt like doing
5. I spent quality time with Family and Fiancee despite the uncertainities 2006 held.
6. I have read about 7-8 books and have left a few unfinished (even if its short of my 'book a month' target)
7. I started exploring a journey least explored in my life till date: Entrepreneurship
But there is more to this year than the seven "bullets" above suggest. I for the first time feel like there is no pressure to climb to the top of a hill. Its like a year where I have reached atop a small hill-lock and can afford to enjoy the view before I move on. I think the impact of the decisions I made this year is to come for several years to follow. The industry, location and role choice I made had some surprising elements to myself as much as to people who knew me well. I made my trade-off decisions rather quickly. I was quite decisive and did not follow the crowd. I did discover my strengths in a pattern of qualitiative subjects like Organizational Behavior and managing my emotional intelligence.
And about the definition of achievement has been redefined. For over 5 years now, the one thing I wanted to do most was an MBA. When I think about it now, it feels like I have "crossed the river" and "crossing the river" itself cannot be a goal. So I am starting 2007 with a great degree of excitement about the year that got over. My priorities for 2007 are likely to be very different from what they were all these years. I have never thought beyond jobs (career occassionally) and travelling to far off exotic countries. 2005 and 2006 were two completely different years. When I started 2005, I knew exactly how life would look until mid 2006. The uncertainity was beyond 2006 June (INSEAD graduation). I was right on that, but the stress started around March 2006 and I am proud of the way I handled the year. I did make a couple of blunders on personal finance (right after some intensive finance training) but it was well worth it considering the family and relationship priorities that got handled because of the shift in priorities. I start 2007 knowing well a race has begun. A race in life where the peers are very different from the peers I had 2 years back. It is my MBA classmates. It is the guy who was a pilot that is doing investment banking today. The ex-nike employee who will run a football club starting this year. The steel company employee who switched to consulting and the guy who returned home to run his Father's business. 2011 is not far away. When I am quite jealous of some of those who have a head start in the race, I am glad I am not starting where some others are. But the question that bothers me most is not where we are starting the race but should I choose to run it. I am opening 2007 with an open mind about the race. I am undecided. However, knowing myself - running the race and not winning it will break my heart.
Running the race on my own terms (pretty much the way I handled INSEAD) will ensure both 'victory' and personal gratification. So I started brainstorming some ideas on what can possibly be my personal priorities over the years.
(1) Family
I think this one time, I am letting this take precedence over my "Professional life". This is not because I think professional life is unimportant but it is important to have a few cheerleaders for what i do. I also think, thanks to my exposure to things over the last few years, I am in a position of "power" within the family. I can infact leverage the newly created power to ensure that things remain happy in the family and the priorities are right. Of course the new addition to the family will be an asset (a wife) and integrating her in mine and integrating as well as I can within hers is going to be a key focus for the year to come.
(2) Finances
As unfashionable as this sounds, I think money management (although I have none now) is a key part of the way I look at 2007 and beyond. I need to start on a portfolio of investments (sigh b-school did get this into my head) including the entire spectrum of risk. It should consist atleast the following
(a) Emergency funds - Able to buy me expensive airtickets for "immediate travel home" and take care of home expenses atleast for 2 months without a job.
(b) Essential Investments Planning - A house (or more) and a dog and what it takes to keep them fed.
(c) Pension Allocation - Systematic investment plans with an annuity return after retirement. I hope also to allocate a large part of this to "Risky assets" atleast until I hit 40 after which I would move a large chunk to non-risk class.
(d) The Entrepreneurship Fund - Need to start allocating funds for possible investments in start-ups and any idea that is worth exploring. Who knows, maybe this will help me turn an angel one day.
Apart from this I want to make atleast a small "investment" in society. I want to set aside some money to help community organizations that I believe in. This indeed will give some meaning to life and will truly define "Running the race in my own terms".
(3) Active Professional Relationships
I think this is more important than ever. I seem to have more clarity on likes and dislikes than ever before and I am starting to get inspired by some thoughts of "never eat alone". Although I don't think I can ever be a super extrovert in every party I think I need to start building a network to which I can give and take. This is a weakness for me currently because I don't seem to "Plan" relationships or put in as much time as it deserves. Although I do end up with a reasonable number of friends and accomplices, I think I need to get a little more organized about it and the theme here is going to come from "Never eat alone".
(4) Self- Development
I think this is something I am good at and sustain. I have improved dramatically with the INSEAD exposure. I need to continue this aggressively. The key areas I need to continue are
(a) Credibility Building - Build credibility through research and rigor. Although I do research, my impatience does not allow rigor. This is a key area to improve over the year.
(b) Listen more - You can never listen "enough" and I seem to be missing this occassionally.
(c) Speak less - When you speak, you are not listening. So these are related :)
(d) Be Decisive - This is something I have heard from colleagues (Thank you 360 degree survey) that surprised me - I have portrayed myself as terribly indecisive. I need to start changing this. Let us see how this turns out.
1. I have spent a month or more in five countries
2. I have visited a total of 10 countries just this year
3. I successfully graduated from INSEAD (the one thing about the year I was certain about)
4. I found three jobs that I actually felt like doing
5. I spent quality time with Family and Fiancee despite the uncertainities 2006 held.
6. I have read about 7-8 books and have left a few unfinished (even if its short of my 'book a month' target)
7. I started exploring a journey least explored in my life till date: Entrepreneurship
But there is more to this year than the seven "bullets" above suggest. I for the first time feel like there is no pressure to climb to the top of a hill. Its like a year where I have reached atop a small hill-lock and can afford to enjoy the view before I move on. I think the impact of the decisions I made this year is to come for several years to follow. The industry, location and role choice I made had some surprising elements to myself as much as to people who knew me well. I made my trade-off decisions rather quickly. I was quite decisive and did not follow the crowd. I did discover my strengths in a pattern of qualitiative subjects like Organizational Behavior and managing my emotional intelligence.
And about the definition of achievement has been redefined. For over 5 years now, the one thing I wanted to do most was an MBA. When I think about it now, it feels like I have "crossed the river" and "crossing the river" itself cannot be a goal. So I am starting 2007 with a great degree of excitement about the year that got over. My priorities for 2007 are likely to be very different from what they were all these years. I have never thought beyond jobs (career occassionally) and travelling to far off exotic countries. 2005 and 2006 were two completely different years. When I started 2005, I knew exactly how life would look until mid 2006. The uncertainity was beyond 2006 June (INSEAD graduation). I was right on that, but the stress started around March 2006 and I am proud of the way I handled the year. I did make a couple of blunders on personal finance (right after some intensive finance training) but it was well worth it considering the family and relationship priorities that got handled because of the shift in priorities. I start 2007 knowing well a race has begun. A race in life where the peers are very different from the peers I had 2 years back. It is my MBA classmates. It is the guy who was a pilot that is doing investment banking today. The ex-nike employee who will run a football club starting this year. The steel company employee who switched to consulting and the guy who returned home to run his Father's business. 2011 is not far away. When I am quite jealous of some of those who have a head start in the race, I am glad I am not starting where some others are. But the question that bothers me most is not where we are starting the race but should I choose to run it. I am opening 2007 with an open mind about the race. I am undecided. However, knowing myself - running the race and not winning it will break my heart.
Running the race on my own terms (pretty much the way I handled INSEAD) will ensure both 'victory' and personal gratification. So I started brainstorming some ideas on what can possibly be my personal priorities over the years.
(1) Family
I think this one time, I am letting this take precedence over my "Professional life". This is not because I think professional life is unimportant but it is important to have a few cheerleaders for what i do. I also think, thanks to my exposure to things over the last few years, I am in a position of "power" within the family. I can infact leverage the newly created power to ensure that things remain happy in the family and the priorities are right. Of course the new addition to the family will be an asset (a wife) and integrating her in mine and integrating as well as I can within hers is going to be a key focus for the year to come.
(2) Finances
As unfashionable as this sounds, I think money management (although I have none now) is a key part of the way I look at 2007 and beyond. I need to start on a portfolio of investments (sigh b-school did get this into my head) including the entire spectrum of risk. It should consist atleast the following
(a) Emergency funds - Able to buy me expensive airtickets for "immediate travel home" and take care of home expenses atleast for 2 months without a job.
(b) Essential Investments Planning - A house (or more) and a dog and what it takes to keep them fed.
(c) Pension Allocation - Systematic investment plans with an annuity return after retirement. I hope also to allocate a large part of this to "Risky assets" atleast until I hit 40 after which I would move a large chunk to non-risk class.
(d) The Entrepreneurship Fund - Need to start allocating funds for possible investments in start-ups and any idea that is worth exploring. Who knows, maybe this will help me turn an angel one day.
Apart from this I want to make atleast a small "investment" in society. I want to set aside some money to help community organizations that I believe in. This indeed will give some meaning to life and will truly define "Running the race in my own terms".
(3) Active Professional Relationships
I think this is more important than ever. I seem to have more clarity on likes and dislikes than ever before and I am starting to get inspired by some thoughts of "never eat alone". Although I don't think I can ever be a super extrovert in every party I think I need to start building a network to which I can give and take. This is a weakness for me currently because I don't seem to "Plan" relationships or put in as much time as it deserves. Although I do end up with a reasonable number of friends and accomplices, I think I need to get a little more organized about it and the theme here is going to come from "Never eat alone".
(4) Self- Development
I think this is something I am good at and sustain. I have improved dramatically with the INSEAD exposure. I need to continue this aggressively. The key areas I need to continue are
(a) Credibility Building - Build credibility through research and rigor. Although I do research, my impatience does not allow rigor. This is a key area to improve over the year.
(b) Listen more - You can never listen "enough" and I seem to be missing this occassionally.
(c) Speak less - When you speak, you are not listening. So these are related :)
(d) Be Decisive - This is something I have heard from colleagues (Thank you 360 degree survey) that surprised me - I have portrayed myself as terribly indecisive. I need to start changing this. Let us see how this turns out.
posted by Death Spiral at
2:04 PM
1 Comments:
ds
need some help if you can help out :)
I'm thinking of applying to RSM Erasmus (not Insead because I don't make the cut). Do you know anybody who studied at RSM? Do you know anything about RSM's reputation etc? There's bits and pieces of information floating around about RSM, but I can't get a very clear picture.
And I want an non-ad com view about the career opportunities that come along, other than the "McKinsey and Goldman recruits from us" line. I want to know whether it would be worth it to apply to RSM.
Let me know if you can help me out here.
Thanks man
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Anonymous, at 6:07 AM
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