With every passing day, as dreams get bigger and the heart more courageous, the realisation sinks in that my year of transformation has just begun.
Like every other MBA aspirant I also probably entered the programme at the Indian School of Business with the hope that some magic will happen in a year, and I will emerge as a more mature professional, with the capability to lead big organizations, authority to make important decisions and with an idea to change this world.
Many reckon that a high CGPA from a world-class school should be sufficient. However, four months into the programme and everything else but academics made me sense the transformation in me. Learning from the best professors from across the globe, listening to powerful and influential speakers on a daily basis, and interacting with supremely talented peers has helped me broaden my horizon. The pressure of academics notwithstanding B-schools are brilliant at making one realise that 24 hours are enough to make something really big out of it.
The subject knowledge of the world-class faculty in addition to the world class student experience gathered over the years, the stories from some of the most influential personalities in the business world today and the in-person conversations with our alumni makes us realise the pettiness of the number game we had been focusing on till date.
It is not the numerous case studies that we read everyday but the class contribution (with stories from different industries, different geographies and different situations), the lunch-table conversations and coffee chats with people having diverse experiences broaden our perspective. While a batch-mate had managed a class of 70 kids from an MCD school for two straight years, another one was up for 36 hours without proper food supplies to keep a project on a rig running, saving potential losses in millions of rupees to a company. There are some who get their mental strength from hours on the football field, some who tap their toes to salsa a day before the final exams and yet other who would wake up to do yoga or meditation when a party would just be ending next door. Whatever our stress relief mechanism be, we wake up everyday to stronger mutual admiration that pushes us to think bigger and better – at times riskier – that is all worth the rigour in the end.
– Saloni Arora, PGP Co2017