Being part of
elite institutions like IIM has a lot of perks on one side, but on the flip
side, it has way too many challenges. When you become part of the institute,
you have an ocean of opportunities to excel at, but it's your choice that helps
you to carve out your niche. It would be a myth when we claim that nation's
brightest mind joins such elite platforms, I would rather say the nation's top
talents do so. The life here is vibrant, but the pressure is intense if you
wish to compete, and that's what I choose to do, to build my character, mental
toughness and improve my decision-making power. But along with that, hold my
own vibrancy.
The academic
schedules are very hectic, and it is expected to be so because you prove that
you are strong enough to sail through. However, apart from that, the culture of
the MBA itself promotes personality development if you are ready to go that
extra mile. You have clubs, events, national level completions, corporate
competitions, sports, and cultural competitions. Missing out on any of these is
a sin I would say. These things help you build a unique persona that can stand
out because you start excelling as a person rather than just in a restricted
field. When I learned about various models in my lectures, I wished to apply and
make sense out of them. I choose corporate competitions to do that, reaching national level finals twice that gave me a more real and more evident
perspective of my learnings in the class. I could understand the implications
of everything around the corporate structure. When I wanted to do experiments
with the ideas and framing new models, I went out and won the national level
competition. It was a way of competing against the best minds, and it's
definitely a matter of pride for the institution but a point of validation of
your learnings. You feel more confident about the logic that you developed,
and it will show its impact in the real world out there, which is more insane
then your MBA competition. But can we solely survive by knowledge of models and
ideas? No, Definitely not! You need to understand building trust, relations,
team, planning, execution. At this point, sports competitions come to rescue.
Winning a
medal in inter IIM was my pride moment as it was first for our institute. But
it helped me understand the whole dynamics of how to exist as part of a team,
trust and win it together. The one-man army is a dreamy concept, in reality,
you can be a face no doubt, but you do need a team to succeed. Understanding
the concepts of human nature and psychology is essential if you wish to succeed
as a leader, and so I switch to dramatics for that. When I won the dramatics
competition, it gave me a sense of fulfillment that I was able to empathize with
the characters. It gave me a knack of stepping in the shoes of others and think
from their perspective making me less judgemental and more accommodating, an
essential exercise to work as a team in MBA assignments as well as in the
corporate projects. The most crucial ingredient of success is creativity which demands
a unique perspective. And college never disappoints in any way, when my
perspective helped me win the photography competition, I knew I was not turning
like any other person and had my unique way of seeing things.
But that's
not where it ends, to build that unique persona you need to live your hobbies
and don't live in a shadow of yourself. You need to push yourself and learn new
things continually. I tried my hands on painting ( a long lost hobby), and
dancing that helps me take care of stage fears. Being awarded a runner-up as part
of a fantastic team of talented people was an eye-opener. It thought me that
though you might not be the best if you coexist as a team and just do your
part honestly, you are bound to succeed even against the best. And there are
other things that I did which made people wonder, how do I do it? That was the
target all along, having my unique persona that comes with no secret at all.
All I had to do was be attentive in class and get good marks. I discarded the
rat race from my life and entered the world of learning in real sense. It
sometimes takes a toll on you. But if you just let go that extra 4-5% that
might give you a Directors Merit List, you might be able to learn and explore
way more than you can think with certainty. But is my story unique? No,
everyone's MBA journey is unique with even more inspiring journies; mine is
just about competing to learn and winning followed so far in my first year. I
would like to end with a famous dialogue from 3 Idiots:
"कामयाबी के पीछे मत भागो, काबिल बनो,
कामयाबी तुम्हारे पीछे झक मार कर आएगी।
"
About the Author
Darshan Shukla (IIM Visakhapatnam, PGP 2019-21)
