The right decision !

I have always wondered, is there anything such as a “right decision”. At different points in life, a person will have to make various choices. I often hear people saying, “that was the right move by him”, “it was a wrong decision”. Can anyone with complete confidence make such statements?

At various stages of life you will be forced to make tough decisions. You have to pick one way from several ways as the way forward. The way I see it, one should do what they believe is right. No one should feel any regret after doing what they thought was right at that point of time no matter what the outcome is. When I say choices, I do not mean to kill a person or not to kill a person. It’s more in the lines of which stream to choose after 10^th or which company to join or whether to ask a girl out or not. The reason why I believe that one should never regret a decision taken after listening to your hear and brain is because, we will never know what would have happened if we had gone for the second or third option. We might have ended up in a even worse situation had we gone for some other option. There is no sure shot way of telling if a decision was right or wrong. We certainly can not build a time machine, go back to the future, erase our memory so that we don’t remember anything that happened after we took the decision and then opt for the second option. There are far too many variables at stake. Even if a move you made turned out to be good initially, no one knows what will happen a year down. Never let any one tell you what is a good decision or what is a bad decision. One should definitely listen to what people have to tell, use your knowledge, weigh in the options and take the decisions in your best interest.

Once you take a decision you should stick to it. Good times and bad times will come and go. Life is full of ups and downs. We should always keep in mind that the main thing is to win the war not the battle. Tough time make a man strong. It gives us experience and confidence to come out of any situation. It will make you a stronger and better person. Do not regret a decision just because the going gets tough. Have faith in yourself and move forward. If the going gets tough, instead of mopping and regretting your moves, you should ensure that you do what ever it takes so that things work out in your favor. I would like to end by partially quoting one of my favorite sayings

If there is a problem and there is no solution for the problem, what’s the point worrying about it? If there is a problem and there is a solution for the problem, stop worrying and work towards the solution. 

Am I doing the right thing ?

Even though I had promised myself that I won’t be writing any personal blogs, after getting loads of advice and opinions from concerned well wishers and bystanders, I thought that I should contemplate my decision here.

I just finished my final year of engineering and hopefully I wont have to write anymore exams under Kerala University. Last year I attempted CAT and after the exam was over I knew i got screwed or i screwed it up big time. The answer I gave when people asked me how did it go was that, I got gang raped over and over and over again for 2 hours 30 minutes. When the results came, I felt that to say that I was gang raped was an understatement. I was expecting the worst and what came was worse than the worst. It was like getting AIDS, herpes, gonorrhea, and various other STD's after getting gang raped and then finding that I would be the first male to give birth to a child. In the various other exams i fared decently. Not good enough to get into a good B school but was quite ok.

Now I had 3 options after passing out, join a software company or repeat my MBA exams or do both. Joining a software company and just settling down was not an option for me. Almost all my seniors who joined companies have told me 2 things. One that they are fed up of their lives, second that "MBA its now or never". Even if I ignore the second statement the fact that most of them hate their jobs and me being in that position was not something that I was looking forward to. To work and prepare for my exams seems quite impossible. It’s like trying to be good at two completely different and complicated things at the same time. I would reach home by 6 then be all tired and you know the rest. So I logically came to the conclusion that I got to repeat my MBA without going for any job.

Now is my decision right or wrong? People have been telling me, its a huge risk. if you do not get this time what are you going to do? You did not perform well last time what makes you think you can do well this time out? If you have work experience you will have an edge during the interviews. My parents were worried at first and I think they still are but are not showing it out.

The fact that I want to do an MBA shows that I got brains in my head. I know what i am doing is a huge risk. I know that there is absolutely no guarantee that I would get into a good B school this time out. Going for a job would be the easiest thing to do right now. You don’t have to study anything, you get paid for the work you do. You can party, do all kinds of stuff. I decided I did not want the easy way out. The fact that I am in touch with studies at the present moment and I would be more or less totally blank 2 years from now kind of went in favor of me repeating. The whole situation is filled with if's. If I go for a job I might grow roots there and would never do an MBA or 2 years down the road I might quit my job and prepare for MBA. Either way what I am doing now seems far less risky than the other options that I have. If you are wondering what all the fuss is about MBA to just clear the air, for having any kind of success in the corporate world you need an MBA, unless of course you are an exceptional person, which I might be but am not willing to bank on that.

Now I have taken a decision and there is no going back. Is my decision right? I do not know and do not think that any one can tell that. No one can ever know what would have happened if i had gone for the job. I might have become a millioner in a year or I might have quit and went for sanyas in the Himalayas. I have taken a decision and I got to stick by it. I may or may not get into a good B school. What i have got to do is give it my all. After that things are not in my hand. I do not want to be in a situation in which I would say to my self, if only I had done that.

So in general I would like to say. Take your own decisions, be responsible for it. Never regret any of the decision you have made for your on interest (by this I do not mean that if you think killing a man is good for you, you should do that). Do not worry too much about failures, better have them now than 20 years from now (you got to learn from them though :P). As they say failure is the stepping stone to success. Individual failures will be insignificant when you look at the larger scheme of things.