One year of MBA and that too 2900 Km away from home would give you a small preview of what real life is all about. Even though I knew that life is not going to be a bed of roses, didn’t expect it to be this scary.
A friend of mine used to tell me that it’s always better to have worked before doing an MBA. Not that it’s going to make one more knowledgeable, but it gives one an idea about the tricks of the trade. In other words how to manipulate your environment to get what you want. My response to this was “bull shit”. I stand corrected now. I guess he knew better.
Whatever might be the profession, one is in for cutthroat competition. It doesn’t matter if one is your superior, colleague or subordinate, all are out there to get rid of you. Given a task it’s your responsibility to get the job done right, irrespective of what your boss or colleague says. The professional environment is all about getting the maximum out of others and do not be surprised if the same happens to you. Nothing is going to be given to you in a platter. If you want to survive, it’s up to you to ensure that you get everything you need to get the job done even if people who are supposed to support or guide you turn out to be the hurdles. As one the employees in the company I interned put it, “only when you perform you would be valued, else no one would give a damn about you”. If you do not know how to play the game, there is no way that you are winning it.
The scary part is that professional life is not half as scary as ones personal life. As a kid, Stone Cold Steve Austin always made sense to me when he said “don’t trust anyone”. You find a whole new meaning of the phrase when you see friends who can turn into foes within seconds. Oh wait, were they even your friends in the first place. May a time, when you lie down and look at the ceiling; you realize that not many give a rat’s ass about you.
Often reminded by what another friend of mine told me once, “Should have caught them young”. When you look around you realize that what you want you cannot have and what you can have is not what you want. I think the more valid question is, “Am I even worthy of it?” Many a days, this gives me a bad feeling inside.
The good thing about the 1 year is that, unlike previously I do not sit and morn about failures. Each failure hurts my male ego big and makes me want to prove them wrong rather than cry.
