Wasted opportunity

I had a GD/ interview last week in a certain B school. After the GD was over I thought that I did exceedingly well. The topic was “freedom of expression, shouldn’t there be limits”. Even now, if you compare my performance with that of the group, I did exceedingly well. Now later when I reached home, I was thinking about how well I had done the GD and the kind of points I brought in. I was telling to myself that I should be getting full marks for the GD. Then suddenly it struck me, the things we said in the GD were utter crap. Even if it was not crap, we had a very narrow view on the topic. All of us were talking about freedom of speech and things related to it. None of us talked about freedom of expression in movies, paintings, cartoons etc. None of us talked about the nude paintings of various goddesses and how certain right wing groups are totally against it, none of us talked about various movies which gets banned or on the content of various movies. We didn’t mention about the Danish cartoonist nor did we mention about writers like Salman Rushdi or Taslima Nasreen. In short we didn’t do any justice to the topic. I started off the discussion and I guess I would be getting maximum blame for the sorry state of our GD. I would be blamed for not taking the group in the right direction. 

Had I brought in all the points I just mentioned here, my selection to the institute would have been more or less certain. Yet again I missed the bus. What’s the point in having all this freaking knowledge if you can’t use it when it matters the most. You will get only one chance and you have the grab the opportunity. That’s what winners do. Getting all these points after the GD is over is immaterial. There is absolutely no use. You will be judged on what you said during the GD and there is no way that the panelist could find out how much knowledge I have. 

It could be said that it’s not just my fault that all these points weren’t discussed. Other people in the group should have brought these points. To a certain extent, the group in which you are matters, a good group can make your performance look even better, more points would come up and the panelist would have a good impression about the group. But in gd’s even though team work matters, individual contributions plays a huge role. Just because others didn’t bring various aspects of the topic doesn’t excuse you from not bring them, even if you had brought a lot of points on your own. 

Performing when it matters the most is a trait of winners, something which I seem to lack. There isn’t much difference between some one great and some one ordinary. Great people grab opportunities with both their hands where as ordinary people lets some slip. I let this particular opportunity slip, now all I can do is to wait and hope that I get in.