To change the way you look, change the way you cook!

It’s a line borrowed from an advertising campaign for LG Microwave Ovens released some years ago. I don’t know what the copywriter had in mind when he penned it down, but to me it reveals a lot more than the benefits of microwave cooking. How you might ask. Read on.

Every year a lot of youngsters leave the comfort of their homes, the warmth of their mother’s cooking, the laughter and fights of their siblings, the daily chat with their friends, the confidence of their father’s presence and possibly the laid back lifestyles of their small towns and villages. Leaving all this and much more behind, they travel to distant places with the hope and determination of making and shaping their careers.

A lot of them come to B-schools.

Suddenly, life is no longer a bed of roses. To know what I am talking about, catch the sudden change in the status updates on Facebook, Twitter, and the content on personal blogs. This gives you a fair idea of what happens in the first term of a half decent B-school.

“How do I meet deadlines? Am I here to slog like a slave through the night? No matter how much I study the grades seem to conspire against all my efforts? Or is the faculty conspiring to bring out the worst in me? Why does everything that I do make me realize how inadequate I am? Coping with bad hostel or canteen food is okay but how do I manage the multiple assignments, quizzes, projects that seem to come as if there is no tomorrow? On top of everything, my communication skills simply leave me speechless.”

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! And this is just a small sample of problems that seem determined to never go out of fashion. Ouch again!

Simply put something called change enters everyone’s life and turns everything upside down, inside out. There’s nothing left of what was right and there’s nothing right about what is left. Right?

I had heard this nice line somewhere, “If you don’t change your direction, you will end up where you are headed”. I am sure quite a few of us must have observed flies or birds that keep on hitting at the same glass window pane again and again, in the hope of getting out of the room. But we know they aren’t going to get out till they change their direction. No rocket science here!

The same applies to us whenever we find ourselves in a new, strange or tricky situation or environment.

Often, we turn to all the tricks and ways we know of handling problems. Yet success seems like a dim and distant dream. Hmm!

Let’s start by understanding why do people go to a B-school or any other area of higher professional learning. Sure there are degrees, diplomas, grades and placements involved but of what good are they, if you have not been suitably trained to work.

Work involves being on the job for long hours, gathering information, working on projects, solving problems, conducting research, grappling with data, preparing reports, making presentations and of course attending meetings.

This, in short, is very different from whatever one considered as work in school, college or university.

Till now most of us read to memorize, wrote answer sheets that were a test of our memory and solving some very basic text-book problems.

Now we must read to understand and apply. In simple terms, you are now dealing with information that comes in the form of textbooks, cases, reference articles. Some of it won’t make great sense because very few of us may have ever steeped in a company or an organization. But what’s life without challenges?

A classroom is the closest thing that resembles a meeting. The very word meeting implies that one must be prepared to participate in a meeting, whether you are meeting your boss, a client or an unhappy customer. Lack of preparation is disaster guaranteed.

Of course, attending most meetings or coming to your office regularly keeps you updated about what’s going on, unless you are brain dead. That in short is the importance of attendance.

Again, while working, one has to manage multiple tasks, often at multiple locations, a boss’s anger or tantrums, stiff deadlines besides one’s personal life which could be filled with demanding personal commitments or just friends waiting for you at the pub. The smart ones do it with some good time management and sometimes with great negotiations. Does that tell you anything about prioritizing and concentrating on the task at hand instead of worrying or wishing about what life could be?

I believe failure is no more a bad word, unless you get some Fs & Ds. Here again a lot of us spend a lot of energy in finding out ways to avoid an F rather than probing and finding the root cause. I am sure a bit of backward tracing of steps and an honest introspection reveals our core weak areas, traits and habits. Knowing your weakness is a major strength and a good start for your journey to betterment or to use the cliché “Success”.

Lastly, it’s prudent to know the good old saying “Knowledge is power”. It may not necessarily win you arguments or business deals but it gives you the confidence to participate in any forum. So read, read, and read as long as you live. And keep a dictionary handy. It’s a sure way of enhancing your word power and understanding.

I believe now you have some recipes to become a master chef of your own life and turn it into one delectable affair.

So, go ahead. Embrace change. Wrestle with its challenges, flirt with its various dimensions and fall in love with its problems and learn to rule it. If you are able do that, don’t forget to wear a pair of designer sunglasses because your future will look extra bright. Have a great year and a greater life ahead.

Prof. Navneet Kapoor,
Faculty – Marketing Area
navneet.kapoor@iwsb.in