Thursday, 21st June 2012 at NITIE, Mumbai. It was the first lecture on Principles of Management and it was being taught to us by none other than the famous Prof Mandi. So the expectations were high from the very outset.. But the actual experience in the class just surpassed all expectations. It was time to learn and time to introspect into my life and get some answers! A simple and yet a very powerful question posed by the Prof Mandi - "Can you earn what you spend in a day, everyday" started it all. At the surface, it seems to be a pretty simple and straightforward question, but go deeper, and you ll find that the answer to this simple question entails you to find the answer to several complex questions. And I was facing the same questions too.. How much do I spend in a day?(had never even thought of quantifying it before) ; Is it possible to earn as much as I spend in a day everyday as a student? Why didn't I think of this before? What can I do now? There were questions gallore all around me. And the answers seemed quite complex, but slowly the answers started unravelling themselves..
The central question around which the question revolves is finding how much do I spend in a day.. Again just a superficial analysis and I thought around 200-300 odd rupees, but then this is management and superficial analysis is just not good enough as I realised in this case.. I have to take all my possessions into account and then the answer changed and I realised that I am spending around Rs 1000 per day without even realising it!! I realised that I am spending 1000 rupees per day without earning any of it and the expenses are being borne by someone else! This fact came like a slap on my face and I realised how ignorant I was all this time. Now came the tough part, how do I earn Rs 1000 everyday in a college but a class so interactive and a professor so good, you are bound to get the answers to all your questions. And the answer was as in Prof Mandi's language "Socho, becho ; becho, seekho ; seekho socho" or "Think Sell ; Sell, learn; learn think". No prizes for guessing, yes indeed, he was talking about an entrepreneurship venture and the quote above is the "gayatri mantra" to learn and be successful at that. I realised that if I work on a venture of my own, learn through it, go with it's ups and downs, that would be a truly great managerial experience and I would also end up earning all that I spend in a day!! This would be the best learning that I would be able to get at a B-school and the feeling of being self-reliant would be most satisfying.
After that we had a discussion on excellence and goal setting. And I realised that being good in something is not good enough, it's about being the best, being excellent at what you do and being admired by one and all for what you do. The goals set should be realistic but not too low.. Setting lower goals to be safe is an inefficient way of handling things. There was a very interesting activity which we had in the class just to make us realize how we set our goals and how grossly inaccurate we are!! A person had to pile small cubes one above the other with his odd hand. And we were supposed to predict how many cubes would he be able to stack before the structure collapses. His own estimate - 10 ; I am a bit more optimistic and my estimate was 12 ; And actual cubes he piled - an astonishing 18!!! Kudos to my optimism and goal setting!! What I learnt through this is that I underestimated the ability of the other person by a long way, almost 33% (ya, I am a management grad :) ) and that its not the way to set goals ; a figure of 20 would have been far better even if the actual result would have been the same! I learnt that once the goal set is low, there is a sense of satisfaction at achieving that goal and we never really try to maximise our potential. The class got over with this and so it's time to end my blog too but would just like to say, that this class was a truly life changing experience and would look for more and keep posting.. Would also like to thank Dr. Prasad (Prof Mandi) for his contribution. For now, bye and see you in the next blog.
The central question around which the question revolves is finding how much do I spend in a day.. Again just a superficial analysis and I thought around 200-300 odd rupees, but then this is management and superficial analysis is just not good enough as I realised in this case.. I have to take all my possessions into account and then the answer changed and I realised that I am spending around Rs 1000 per day without even realising it!! I realised that I am spending 1000 rupees per day without earning any of it and the expenses are being borne by someone else! This fact came like a slap on my face and I realised how ignorant I was all this time. Now came the tough part, how do I earn Rs 1000 everyday in a college but a class so interactive and a professor so good, you are bound to get the answers to all your questions. And the answer was as in Prof Mandi's language "Socho, becho ; becho, seekho ; seekho socho" or "Think Sell ; Sell, learn; learn think". No prizes for guessing, yes indeed, he was talking about an entrepreneurship venture and the quote above is the "gayatri mantra" to learn and be successful at that. I realised that if I work on a venture of my own, learn through it, go with it's ups and downs, that would be a truly great managerial experience and I would also end up earning all that I spend in a day!! This would be the best learning that I would be able to get at a B-school and the feeling of being self-reliant would be most satisfying.
After that we had a discussion on excellence and goal setting. And I realised that being good in something is not good enough, it's about being the best, being excellent at what you do and being admired by one and all for what you do. The goals set should be realistic but not too low.. Setting lower goals to be safe is an inefficient way of handling things. There was a very interesting activity which we had in the class just to make us realize how we set our goals and how grossly inaccurate we are!! A person had to pile small cubes one above the other with his odd hand. And we were supposed to predict how many cubes would he be able to stack before the structure collapses. His own estimate - 10 ; I am a bit more optimistic and my estimate was 12 ; And actual cubes he piled - an astonishing 18!!! Kudos to my optimism and goal setting!! What I learnt through this is that I underestimated the ability of the other person by a long way, almost 33% (ya, I am a management grad :) ) and that its not the way to set goals ; a figure of 20 would have been far better even if the actual result would have been the same! I learnt that once the goal set is low, there is a sense of satisfaction at achieving that goal and we never really try to maximise our potential. The class got over with this and so it's time to end my blog too but would just like to say, that this class was a truly life changing experience and would look for more and keep posting.. Would also like to thank Dr. Prasad (Prof Mandi) for his contribution. For now, bye and see you in the next blog.
Good write for your confessions... and realizations. I wish you work on those things. love.
ReplyDeletedr mandi