Business to the Buddha

Tag: Mistakes

  • Learn Non Stop, continued…







    In continuation of my earlier blog on the mistakes I made in my MBA and what I learnt, I received responses from my friends specially would want to mention two here – Sanjan and Prof Subba Iyer. Thank you both for taking time and responding to me. I talked to Sanjan and here is what he wrote to me (I liked it and asked if I can post that on my blog?), so here is what he write – …I have always believed that every mistake you make in your life is like a beacon which guides you constantly on to the right path; the only condition being you got to interpret that beacon in a correct way and bingo! There comes into play your prudence and judiciousness.

    Thank you Sanjan for the kind words. So here are next few mistakes and what I learnt from them.

    7. In management nothing is black and white (especially in marketing, the engineering mind with numbers always thinks in binary); learn to differentiate between gray and grayer (Prof Lopez, had a tough time teaching me – an engineer – this thing)

    8. Try to do the most challenging thing. I always thought since I didn’t watch TV for many years now, I cannot help making good advertisements. In the class of Prof Sohan Shah (Marketing Communication) making advertisement concept used to be a challenge and I used to shirk by doing other team assignments. The very next week of the end of Marketing Communication course our team (Ankit Jain, Kaushik Deb, Sandeep Shukla and I) was adjudged second-runner in Ad Mad competition.

    The reason I believe is, there was just one thought in our mind, we have to do this no matter what. We saw other teams making far better videos and we knew our team does not stand a chance in terms of videos, yet there was only one thought in our mind – we will stand there and present what we have in our mind. Thanks to the Branding Club (Swyl Saksena, Sahil Lihala and Neha Saini) you helped me imbibe a lesson.

    9. Consistency, this was the reason for being judged as the second runners in the event. Consistency matters in day-to-day life too. It does not mean that one has to be consistent wherever he/she is, consistency means improving consistently

    10. However small is the idea, stay with it, nurture it and try to explore possibilities. Our team (Neha Om, Murtaza Bakir, Shafaat, Tarun Kushwaha and I) worked on a business plan which prima-facie was “hum!”, “ok”, “yes we can think of this” at last won best business plan in an open competition

    11. Whenever something goes wrong; review, review and review what went wrong? Mistakes are the best tools to learn.

  • Journey itself is the destination, so learn non-stop…







    As a ritual which every B-school aspirant has to perform, I also wrote B-school essays before joining my MBA program. I remember one of the phrases of one essay the most – “…making mistakes that will cost nothing in a classroom environment…”. I knew I will learn from the mistakes as well. I feel, a failure teaches long lasting lesson then a success. I have learnt a lot from the mistakes during last couple of months. I am sure, I am going to live with and implement these learning in coming time.

    With a lot of disappointment I started writing this blog after my exam of Pricing Strategy. Then I realized thank god I did not commit the mistake in business; one incorrect pricing and revenues and profits take a beating. I started writing my mistakes and learning, so that I can revisit what I should not do and what I learnt. This would remind me that the Journey itself is the destination, so learn non-stop. Here are few of the lessons –

    1. Never believe in the forecasts, forecasts are correct hardly 15-20% of the times. I bet Murtaza and Avanii would agree with me 100% on this.

    2. Start early (in B-School simulation too), starting early and keeping the momentum going; it helps

    3. Always have a “to do list” and prioritize work – for this I wrote funny statement which only a few could understand “Tomorrow is your exam (sense of urgency), day after tomorrow you will die (prioritize your work, before dying what would you do?)”. I used to do this but here in my MBA this has been reinforced to an even greater extent

    4. Failing to score well in exams is alright, but failing to learn a concept and missing to use concept is a punishable offence – “a crime”. I learnt pricing strategies concept, explained the same to my friends and yet in the exam forgot to apply that. There is no ifs and buts for this crime

    5. I always write my blog on one concept ‘collaboration’, I observed this in outside world, I used it a lot in my MBA and that is the way for the future of businesses

    6. Ask questions, better to be stupid for some time. I have been stupid in some classes (recently, in class of Prof Lopez and Prof Ram Kumar) but that is better than assuming something incorrect

    To be continued in next blog…