Fortune Favours the Brave

Recently came across this inspiring article on Youstory. Hats off to Srikanth. Really Hope India has many more like you.

In case you are reading this please click the link below and read the article.

http://yourstory.com/2015/12/srikanth-bolla-bollant-industries/

Your Time Shall Come..

Kenya is two hours ahead of Nigeria, but it does not mean that Nigeria is slow, and it does not mean that Kenya is faster than Nigeria. Both countries are working based on their own "Time Zone."

Someone got married as a virgin and 'waited' ten years before having a child, yet there is another who had had series of abortions before marriage, yet had a baby within one year after marriage.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited 5 years before securing a job; and there is another who graduated at the age of 27 and secured employment just after national service.

Someone became CEO at the age of 25 and died at the age of 50 while another became a CEO at the age of 50 and lived to 90 years.

Everyone worked based on their 'Time Zone'..

Some people have everything that work fast for them. Work in your “time zone”.

Colleagues, friends, associates, younger one(s) might "seem" to go ahead of you. Don't envy them, it's their 'Time Zone.'. Yours is coming soon. Hold on, be strong, and stay true to yourself. All things shall work together for your good. You’re not late… you’re on time!

Revenge

Revenge can be bitter sweet,but if you sit back and watch, KARMA can be pure entertainment

A Short Story

Solomon the powerful and wealthy king chooses to test his most loyal and trusted minister, Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, by asking of him an impossible task.

The king asks Benaiah to find for him a ring, knowing full well that the ring does not exist, which has magic powers. “If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy,” he tells him. He expresses his desire to wear the ring for Sukkot, which is six months away.

After months of searching, Benaiah finds himself, the night before Sukkot, walking through the poorest neighborhood of Jerusalem. He happens upon a jeweler, who, when asked if he’s heard of such a ring, produces from his pocket a plain gold ring, to which he adds an engravement. Benaiah returns just in time on the eve of Sukkot to give the king the ring he has requested. When the king looks at the engraving, he reads four words:  “This too shall pass” . At that moment, Solomon realizes that his wisdom, tremendous wealth, and power are fleeting things, for one day he will be nothing but dust.”

I...I...I

As rightly said by someone "It's during the worst time of your life that you will get to see the true colors of people who say they care about you". I also got to experiencing similar thing when i decided to quit my job and look out for something interesting. 

For the past few years i have been trying to change my existing job but, was unable to do so. During this time, i approached many people, including my college seniors, Friends, Extended Friends, relatives etc but all i got was hollow assurances. This made me realize couple of things:

• 80% of people don't actually care about helping others, 10% do lip service and rest 10% do not exist
• One has to find his own path
• 99% of the organization are hypocrites, who proudly display their non discrimination policy on their career sections and still apply various discriminatory criteria in actual recruitment
• Recruitment still happens the old way through referral, so focus on building an effective network

So based on the lessons learnt, i have stopped expecting any help from anyone and embarked on my journey all by myself. Hope i am able to reach my destination. 

God Speed..

Middle Class

For a long time I had been wondering why it so happens that amongst all the classes it always the middle class which gets fucked?

For example, in case of increase in prices of the goods, the lower class is unaffected as anyways they are not able to buy those things and in some cases govt gives them free on the other hand it does matter to the upper class as they already have the resources with them. So ultimately it’s the middle class which suffers.  Let’s take another example to further emphasize the point. A normal child from middle class fights to complete the education (from school till Graduation), gets some good job and then gets married. Even in this case the middle class is the one who is fucked. The upper class already has the resources and means to get admission at good colleges and then most of them join their family businesses. As far as lower class is considered they don’t waste their time in all these trivial things and they directly get down to business to earn money.

Right from the young age, children are taught the importance of obeying the rules and being a good citizen but what’s the net result? When these people grow up, they get used to obeying the rules that they don’t even bother to check whether whatever rules which are imposed on them are just or not? Even in this case the upper class gets away through sheer power of money and connection and as far as lower class is considered, they anyways are not concerned about the consequences and hence it doesn’t matter to them.

It’s a natural Human tendency to look up to someone who is ahead of you in terms of money, power, and stature. This same characteristic is reflected in the behavior of middle class. They always aspire to reach the upper class but given the constraints it’s not possible for them to do so resulting in frustration. But the lower class which has already realized its limitations is successful in avoiding such trap.

Even the risk taking ability is highly diminished in the middle class. Their first instinct is to take path of least resistance. Hence seldom we see successful entrepreneurs from the middle class. In case of upper class they have the financial to venture into uncharted territories if they choose to do so. It is the lower class which has the maximum risk taking ability and someone from them intelligent enough to identify and seize correct opportunities we see the people of likes of Dhirubhai Ambani.         

 

For the above things, one thing can be safely concluded that the society as a whole always tries to maintain the social pyramid so that the equilibrium in the system is maintained. The society will always make sure that middle class confirms to the societal norms. Nobody’s bothered about the lower class as they are too insignificant to make any difference.

Last but not the least have been thinking about for some time and wanted to share the same. God created everybody same, it is the humans who divided themselves and formed different groups in order to differentiate themselves from other. The decision to allow selected people in the group led to a rat race where everybody is competing with each other to enter the group which in turn created a divide between those who are part of the group and the others. When will we realize that it is man himself who creates this divisions and then cries about them.

Just another brick in the wall….

Take 1 Scene 1

This is a story of just another Indian boy. I was born in a small and sleepy town located at the geographical center of India. Being the youngest member in the family I was the center of attraction for the entire family. Life was so simple then, I wish it should have remained that wayJ. As some wise man has rightly said “If wishes were horses, men would ride them”.

As soon I turned 2, I entered the rat race called “Life”, a race which no Indian can avoid (Except the few chosen once). Once part of the race, life began running a full speed. 14 years passed and I reached the 10^th standard, an “Important Milestone” in a student’s life. Still unaware of the “importance” of this milestone, I started looking around to find the “importance”. Finally I realized that I need to prepare for the “IIT JEE”, the holy grail of exams, for me to stand any chance of leading this race. Invested 3 years of my life in “JEE” but could not get through, was a big disappointment for my parents. For the first time in life, felt terribly bad, when I saw my mom crying, that too because of me. As the destiny would have it, I landed into one of the “NIT”, supposed the best after IIT’s. Still there was some fire in the belly to redeem my lost honor. I started preparing for the JEE in the first year as a result I ignored the life in first year, the most happening year in an engineer’s life. In the hindsight I realize, how naïve I was, to think that I can beat the snake without breaking the stick. Net result could not reach either of the destinations. 

Take 1 Scene 2

Realizing my mistake, decided to concentrate on studies and my efforts paid off as I was amongst the top 5 in my stream. So far so good, then but a tragedy called “MBA” struck. I got to know about certain institutes called “IIM” which are equivalent of IIT’s in the field of management education. With the memories of failure in JEE still fresh in my mind; I decided to make no mistake this time. I started early this time, enrolled for class room coaching in Career Launcher, along with couple of my friends. Initially the classes were fun but as the test series started, I began floundering in my scores and then started mugging up the study material, as this was the only I was taught to prepare for the exams. Till now nobody highlighted the importance of focusing on the concept, instead we were told the sections which we needed to mug up for the final exams. With such a flawed technique the results were expected to be disastrous. When I look back on my JEE preparation, I laugh how foolish I was to think I can clear the exam by just mugging up the prep books.

Take 1 Scene 3

Reached the final year and placement season was fast approaching. Being in the not so glamorous stream, the pressure on getting placed was tremendous. With nobody to guide, I approached the seniors for advice. It was like asking the blind man to guide you, finally got on the wrong road. Applied for the first company on campus and after fighting a daylong battle got placed. It was like winning world war 3. With the job in hand, MBA went out of focus for some time. I sometimes feel that I should I utilized my background and created a distinct identity for myself. Instead I chose to go with the flow and be a part of the million droplets in the stream, each looking the same. Finally the joining came and it was a completely new experience for me: First job, first salary. The honeymoon lasted for few months, but soon realized that this is not place where I want to be. So now efforts were on to find a way out. Again “MBA” came for my rescue. Efforts started on war footing to somehow get out of the shit I was in. TIME, CL, IMS etal. Tried every tricks of the trade to get out of the mess but could not somehow clear it. Professionally life hit the nadir; finally destiny came to my rescue and got admit from some tier 2 b school. At that point in time, I was in such a bad shape that even if I had got admit from any XYZ school of business, I would have taken it.

Take 1 Scene 4

Being a long time member of pagalguy, I had read many articles about life in B School. How B School grads slough it all night completing some “Strategy” assignments. With such a rosy picture in my mind I entered my new home. But soon, I realized that whatever is shown the glossy brochures of these so called “Top ranked” B Schools is not 100% true. When I was working in my previous organization, I had always fancied the role of Human Resource manager, and I always wanted to be one myself. So with that in mind decided to focus on all different profiles except IT for my summer internship. This was probably first time when I was so sure in my life. I finally landed up at the HR division of one of the most reputed PC maker in the country. Summer internship was a great learning experience but real trouble started when I had to choose my electives for second year. During the internship, I realized that although important, HR is a support function and the final authority still lies with the business. Being an introvert I realized that I cannot take up the sales job, hence marketing was ruled out. The only options were finance and operations. And I chose finance as I felt that is one thing which I would like to study.

Take 1 Scene 5

With the effect of recession still in play, everybody including the seniors advised us to not waste the IT experience and take some IT electives, as it may help in interviews with IT companies. During this whole thing, I was exposed to this new thing called “consulting”. From whatever research I did, I realized that management consultants some high flying people, working with top executives in shaping the strategies of the companies.  The whole description of job was pretty impressive and attractive. I quickly made my target list, containing the Mckinsey’s and the BCG’s of world with the aim of getting a job into one of these. But soon my dream came crashing when I realized that only a privileged few (read ABC) get a chance to interview for these companies. Now the search began to find companies which doing something which is remotely connected with consulting. Finally, I stumbled upon my current company. During my background research I found that my current company was engaged in the field of business consulting. Although competed with the infy’s and TCS’s of the world they preferred to name Accenture, McKinsey as their peers. Some wise man said “All that Glitters is not gold”. So true. One thing I learnt the hard way, never go by anything on its face value. Dig deep to uncover the truth, trust the facts. Fell prey to the marketing propaganda of the organization and also the hoopla created by my peers about the cutting edge work done by this firm. I guess this is what happens when students do have faith in their Alma Mater’s brand power. They tend to take whatever is thrown in front of us. I guess this is what differentiates IITians and IIMians (not everybody is included in this) from the rest.

Take 1 Scene 6

After I joined my XYZ consulting, I was allotted the retail and Consumer goods vertical. Initially as consultant my work mostly involved preforming benchmarking, preparing presentations, frameworks and pitch documents etc. Soon I realized, the real strategy work which XYZ showcased during the placement presentation was formed 1% of the total work done by the organization, which only the privileged few would get to do. The rest of us would need to do the donkey work. With this realization, efforts started on war footing to somehow get out of the shit I was in, I got a sense of déjà vu about this whole thing. But this time I had decided to give it my 200% and began actively scouting for new opportunities. The search is still on and I hope find something soon.

With MBA done and age catching up, the pressure to get married is soon building up. My parents have been very supportive till now and I know they will be in future, but with peer, societal pressure building up, I know they will buckle soon. I only hope that I get my things in order before they give in.

In the hindsight I really wish I could change some of the things if get a second chance.

• The whole system till now have taught me to recognize what I don’t want but never taught me to recognize what I actually want.
• Indian education system is such that it conditions people to play safe thus making them risk averse. I believe this is what is causing the rat race. We need to give a chance to the students to decide what they actually want to do.
• There is not rocket science for performing any job unless, it requires some specific knowledge.
• The companies also need to be more open in accepting applications from people for diverse background. Same MNC accept people from different backgrounds in US and EU but when it comes to India they need IIM, IIT etc.
• Don’t be afraid to fail, If Edison had abandoned his fight after first effort we would have never seen light today (read electricity).

Finally I really thank god for giving me such loving and caring parents. Without their unflinching support I would have never made it so far on my own.

A round of thanks to all my friends for teaching me so many things.

(Disclaimer: I, by no means intend to criticize any of the organizations mentioned in this article.)