Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Lessons from without the cube – Perspective

Ask my friends what my favorite word is. If they tell you “Perspective”, it is likely they have been subject to my torturous ranting more than once. It is a word that I hold close to my heart and my stint with this class has only brought it closer. So what about perspective?

If you are going into this MBA looking forward to learn business concepts, make friends and go places, good for you. But you know what would make it all worthless: If you go into this program with a closed mind and a chauvinistic attitude.

Over the course of your study, you will come across a myriad of people with very many opinions. Sometimes these opinions will conflict with your own. And how much you learn from this course will depend on how you handle these conflicts. I will talk about conflicts in another post but for now, it would suffice to say that in a bigger frame, conflicts are irrelevant.

Let us now flip this perspective. You will also come across people who will make you feel uncomfortable about beliefs that are close to your heart. Again, the future course of your life will depend on how you handle these encounters. If you spend a lot of time in another country, the peer pressure to conform to their way of things can be great. You are probably there to learn about them and not to become one of them. However, this said, there is nothing wrong if you choose to become one of them. Just remember to make a conscious choice and not succumb to the pressure.

The following quote has been the guiding force for me for quite a long time now. Hope it can help you get where you want to go.

“If you had been born where they were born, if you had been taught what they were taught and if you had been where they were, you would have believed what they believed.”

Aham Brahmasmi

Contributed by Govind Pandey (govind.pndy@live.com), Class of 2010

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