Attacking MBA Applications Kung-Fu Panda Style

My Aplogies guys but I have been terribly busy with some work. As promised earlier, here goes the post of looking this admission season in kung-fu panda style.

If a giant panda can become a mighty kung fu warrior – so could you. Not kung fu warrior, but whatever — ballet dancer, arctic explorer or investment banker.I can already hear you say, “Hey, that happens only in the movies.” Well, yes and no.

Here are some definite takeaways from Kung Fu Panda for all those of you struggling with questions of what, where and how to steer your career.

Lesson # 1: If you want something badly enough, you get it somehow.

Po the panda wanted to be a kung fu warrior really really badly. He followed every kung fu teacher, every battle, every hero there ever was. The chap was a walking Kung Fu Encyclopedia!

And of course, he dreamt about kung fu too. Ask yourself — do you care about something in your life that strongly? If you do, it will be yours one day. So, if you want to be in a B-School, you will definitely get an admit. Don’t stop believing in yourself irrespective of your performance in GMAT.

Lesson # 2: It could take a while but you’ll get there.

If you believe Lesson # 1, the next question is ‘how’? Now sometimes you may get there the straight and easy way. The way to be a kung fu warrior is to train under a great Master, right?

Well, Po got the job another way. He bumbled and tumbled up the mountain and finally literally ‘dropped in from the sky’. Master Oogway then pronounced: “He is the one, the great Dragon Warrior”. To everybody’s surprise!

In real life there aren’t enough Oogways who can see a diamond in the coal; a kung fu champion in a blubbering mass of fat. But how many of you have struggled like the panda to even get to that mountain top where there may be a Master waiting for you? S, did you take the pain to do whatever to make your admit to your dream b-school true? This situation will make more sense to the case of re-applicants.

Lesson # 3: ‘A peach tree will blossom into a peach tree. It can’t become an apple tree…’ -- Master Oogway

Why many of us come to grief is we don’t know ‘who we are’. Are we a peach tree, or a jasmine tree or a cactus? Every one of those is beautiful and useful in its own way. No one is ‘superior’ to the other.

Yet, in life, many of us believe that we must all be peach trees, ie MBAs and engineers. The aroma of the jasmine is lost to the world and all we have is peach, peach and more peach (fruity burp!). The point here is if you work hard to plant right seeds of aspirations and dreams and your tree will definitelt be that dream. Talk to alumni, students and connect with b-schools in whatever way possible and the results could be an admit to your dream b-school.

Lesson # 4: ‘There are no accidents in life…’ – Master Shifu

Yup, the fact that you did not make it to the HBS or Wharton or had luck dating that cute chick on the second floor – this is the way it was meant to be.

Think about Steve Jobs being forced to exit his own company in 1985. He went through hell but was forced to think of new ideas, new directions. It led to the creation of Pixar and a whole new kind of animation. And ultimately, he went back to Apple with iTunes and iPod.

Could he have done all this had he never left Apple? I don’t know. But I think greatness is born more out of adversity than in nice hot bathtubs.

Hold on to your dreams. Everything in life is destined. Believe in your dreams and trust your destiny.

Lesson # 5: There is no secret ingredient in the secret ingredient soup.

And this is especially relevant at a time when we are all on the quest for the Holy Grail. We believe that joining the right college, the right course or the right company is the secret ingredient that will spice up our soup — our careers, our lives.

The truth is, it’s all about what you believe. The moment you join HBS or Stanford you start believing,”Hey, I am really, really good”. You get the confidence to take on the world, the chutzpah to say,”The world is my oyster”.

Clearing those super tough exams is like running a lawnmower through your own mental garden. It crushes the weeds of self doubt and self pity which we’ve allowed to grow. Exam or no exam, you can choose to yank out those weeds. Then look the guys who think they know better in the eye and declare,”My soup is as kick-ass as yours.”

The same applies to your application. Research yourself. Find your fit to your dream b-school. Connect the bridge with your passion and aspirations. I am not an expert but I, strongly, believe there is no secret other than this approach to attack your essays.

Putting it in practice
Okay, try practicing and I wish all of you a very best of Luck in your applications.

PS: Do wish me luck back too!!! I may sound selfish but an admit is equally important for me as it is to you.

Haas Dean Interview and more

Hi Folks, how are your preparations? Do write back. Well, from my side, I have few updates:

1.  GMAT: Yes, I am closing down to the final round with mocks as much as possible now. I was planning to take the test sometime towards end of this month but had to postpone. My father got transferred to another city and I had to fly back to home to help him with his shift. In fact, I am writing this post from a new place. I will be back in Bangalore by this weekend. The plan is to concentrate on mocks and try to get accustomed to the time format of GMAT and once 2-3 consistent good scores and I will book my date. I am confident this time.

2. Dean Interview: Recently, Richard Lyons, Dean, Haas Business School, University of Berkeley, gave an interview at GMAC. I feel the interview transcript is a worth read for anyone planning to apply to Haas. Some of the prominent insights are:

• managers and leaders increasingly need to influence without authority or beyond authority
• One has to look at the broader social context and understand that society is not that happy with us as business schools. So a major challenge is to respond intelligently to the fact that we are part of a system that performed very poorly over the last three years. Are we to blame? Obviously not exclusively, but we are part of that system
• One of the big opportunities is for schools to redifferentiate, to find the heartbeat of your school and try to use it as a true north
• The archetype of the Innovative Leader is deeply anchored in the distinctive culture at Berkeley, and [inherently] is tightly woven into the curriculum
• What type of leader do you then produce? Why does the future demand this kind of leader? Call it “competitive advantage” or any other name, the big brass ring out there is organizational capacity to produce differentness. Every business school has to think hard about innovation, but what I think is different [with the Haas model] is the focus and coherence around the idea that this is the capacity-building leader we really need.

I feel that Dean Lyons is very visionary and insightful in his interview. The competition among b-schools to differentiate and innovate is as intense as we strive to do the same while applying to our choice of b-schools. Moreover, I completely agree with Dean Lyons when he mentioned that manager or a leader influence not limited to authority alone. Sometimes, we see people in our vicinity who force their decisions just because one is a manager, MD or CEO. Such people forget that if one can gain the respect and build the reputation of trust among their colleagues and subordinates, then the same decisions will have their long term valuable impact and this would be a REAL CHANGE.

Source: GMAC Dean’s Digest

3. Stanford GSB Graduation Commencement: Yes, GSB guys graduated this weekend. Congratulations to all. Entrepreneur, Jeff Skoll, advised the class “Define your dream and chase it with as much rigor and authenticity as you can muster“.

I feel that is a very strong message and has all the right messages of life imprinted in one sentence.

Dean, Professor Garth Saloner summarized by saying “In summary, please indulge me just one last time when I say I hope you will lead a life of impact and meaning, and that you will ‘change lives, change organizations, change the world.”

I feel that GSB aspirants should mark this statement of Dean Saloner. Talk to any alumni, browse through the curriculum of GSB or read through the experiences of any Stanford GSB student/graduate and I am sure you will feel the deeper essence of Dean Saloner’s statement. Let me see if I can quickly get a respond of my friend, Marquis, on the statement of Dean Saloner too. All I can say this is a feeling which you will get strongly if you research GSB from the bottom of your interest with utmost sincerity.

Source: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/2010commencement.html

For those, who missed the live commencement of the graduation, I am embedding the commencement video here below.

Lastly, wish me luck on my final round to GMAT.

Drafting your essays, watch this

Watch this video if you are thinking of starting to draft your application essays. The message is very clear and it is applicable when we tell our story to or B-School. For me, it is like lying to your parents to take their advantage. But in the due process, we miss the essence: if they find out, we may lose them forever even when they will be alive. If one feels deeply about his dream B-School, then for me it is like my family and I will be honest with my feelings and dreams and I believe, with that even though late but then I will be become their inevitable part forever.

Prioritizing Life

One of my dear friend, classmate, ex-colleague and ex-roommate forwarded me an email, which clearly depicted the truth of life. The short story was in the language of “Hindi and I used Google Translator to convert it to English. after which I had to do few changes (Of course, Software are always dumber than us!). So , here it is:

When we want to do a lot of things quickly at the same time, when we desire to get everything rapidly, and we feel that twenty four hours a day is also a very less, we recollect this, ” A glass Jar and two cups of tea”. A professor of philosophy walks into a classroom to teach an important lesson of Life today. He places the glass jar on the table along with table tennis balls. He, then, begins to put a ball on by one as long as there’s no place left in the jar. He asks the students – Is the entire Jar full? The students say – “Yes”.

The Professor then starts filling the jar with small – small gravels slowly. He moves the Jar so that he can fill all the empty space possible. The professor asks again – “Is now the jar full?”.  The students once again say – “yes”.

Now, the Professor gets his sand bag and start filling the jar with sand till the extent possible. Now the students sensed their immaturity. The professor asks again, It is now full, I guess, right? All said in one voice – “Yes, now it is completely full”. The professor then grabs two cups of tea from under the table and tries to fill into the jar. The tea slowly slips into jar slowly.

With a pause and serious voice, the professor says, “Students, you consider your life like this jar”. The most important part of your life are the table tennis balls namely God, family, children, friends, health and hobbies; the small gravel mean your job, car, house etc.; and the meaning of the sand and small – little things like useless, bad fight and quarrels. Now if we would have filled the jar with sand first, then there would not have been any place for the table tennis balls. In case we would have filled the jar with gravels, then probably sand could have find some place but there would not have been any place for table tennis balls, for sure.”

The Professor continues, “The same logic applies to life also. If we spend all our time and energy in small and unimportant things, it would destroy the important ones and we would not have any time for the most important people in our life. For the happiness of mind, it is important that you decide what to do. Play with your children play, water the garden, go for morning walk with your wife, throw useless stuff from home, do regular medical check – ups. Arrange your table tennis balls first, worry about them, they are the most important. First decide what is important, The rest is sand.”

The students listened carefully the professor. Suddenly one of them asks, “Professor, but ” What are those two cups of tea? The professor replies smilingly, “I was thinking why anyone did not ask this question?” and answered, ” No matter how much we feel that our life is full and satisfied, but here should be always be time to sit and drink two cups of tea with your special friends.”

You guys, might wonder why such a story here. The reason is: we are all MBA aspirants and some of us are MBAs, coming from various parts of the world. Some of us consider such an esteemed graduate degree to a high earning job, become a CEO and so on. Perfectly fine. But unless we try to prioritize our life properly, we can’t expect to put the course of a company or an organization on a responsible and caring road, where the community and the company grows hand in hand. Spread Love and try to create lives and not destroy. I, also, take this opportunity to pray for the troubled Indian students in Australia, who are reported to racist attacks recently and request everyone to maintain peace and love.

AWA 30

When someone achieves greatness in any field – such as the arts, science, politics, or business – that person’s achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

I completely agree that one’s achievements are more important than his or her personal faults especially when he or she achieves greatness in some field. A lot of people are born and then they die after spending a span of time on earth. But there are very few people who leave their everlasting marks on the sands of time, which pushes the life of the other people on this earth forward. It is this capability of those few people’s achievements that gives us the courage to face the realities of life every day. I believe that such people’s achievements are definitely more important than their failures due to the following reasons.

Firstly, there is no doubt that when someone achieves something great in any field, it shows a new path to the whole world. Sometimes, these paths are so strong that they change the course of the current world. For example, let us consider Abraham Lincoln. He changed the course of American history with the abolition of the slavery. It is his greatness that people in America are better people than anyone in this world today. Similarly, Mahatma Gandhi changed the course of Indian history with his beliefs on truth and non-violence. It is due to his sheer will that made the whole country run for the struggle of Independence unanimously. People like Dhirubhai Ambani led the Indian business to a new level by bringing Economic Liberalization in the country in early 1990′s. Narayan Murthy has led the country into a new blend of truth and ethics while creating one of the most successful IT services companies of thew world – Infosys. People like Thomas Elva Edison gave a new direction to the lives of people and science with his invention of Electric bulb.

Secondly, it is the achievements of the successful people that gives inspiration and motivation to the younger generation for more new innovations. One cannot ignore the fact that it is the failures that make the ordinary lives of great people extraordinary. But it is their achievements that draw people to look into their lives do closely to draw inspirations from. For example, even though Edison was thrown out of his class citing poor intellectuals, he went on to become a great scientist. Similarly, Abaraham Linclon failed miserably in his business and other ventures before going on to become one of the greatest leaders of the world and most influential President in American history. The point here is that we know the past of these successful persons only because they rose to become successful person and leaders in this world at some point of their lives. It is their achievements that took us to go into their past.

Due to the above said reason, I agree with the opinion stated earlier that a person’s achievements are more important than his or her personal faults.

AWA 20

There is only one definition of success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this definition of success? Support your position by using reasons and examples from your reading, your own experience, or your observation of others.

People define success in various terms. Some associate it with wealth, some with life, work, social status, recognition, fame and many more. In my view, the way one leads his life defines whether he/she is successful. I believe in it due to the following reasons.

Firstly, defining success on materialistic terms is the most foolish and absurd thing. A person, who is richer today, may not be rich tomorrow. History has shown enough examples in this respect from time to time. For example, when multi-billion companies like Lehman Brothers of 150 odd year’s history collapsed in the current financial global meltdown, it brought enough of high earning executives and billionaire investors to their knees. Similarly, it was shocking to know when a top fashion model of India died on the streets of Delhi last year or top-Bollywood actress of 1980’s, Parveen Babi, died in her closed apartment, the news of her death going unnoticed in her flat for 2 days.

Secondly, more than getting recognition and fame, the real success is holding onto it and it can be done only with sheer hard work and sincerity. And these two generally come when people do what they love to do. They should enjoy each moment of their life. If one cannot love what he/she is doing in his daily life, then it would be very difficult for him to drag on and sustain that life at all, eventually either giving up or succumbing to its pressure, resulting in a dull, unsuccessful, terrible life not only for him but also for her family.

Last but not the least, it is the way that an individual tries to live his life that defines him in his true self. Successful people like Mahatma Gandhi, Edison, and Abraham Lincoln led their lives in their own terms that made them great, successful and immortal forever.

Due to the above said reasons, I strongly believe that success is all about living a life in own terms and the way we want to live it, rather not that the circumstances force onto us.

AWA 7

The former secretary general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold wrote, “Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step: only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.”

While such a philosophy may be appropriate for the leader of the United Nations, it may not be an acceptable practice for ordinary individuals to follow as they go about their daily lives. What is your opinion? Support your position with illustrations from your observation, study, reading, or personal experience.

I believe that Dag Hammarskjold’s philosophy is true in all circumstances for all the people in their lives for the following three reasons.

Firstly, every people have certain dreams but very few actually dare to go to fulfill them. The people who follow their dreams change not only their life but also people around them significantly in future though they may have to face obstacles in the short-term. For example, Dhirubhai Ambani went through all the his initial painful years sacrificing a lot of conventional life to build the largest private company of India, employing 60000 people today and benefiting the economy of the country.

Secondly, ordinary people have certain aspirations. For example, children might get the right education in future if he could be able to save a few dollars of his income sacrificing his present.

Last but not the least, though ordinary person cannot ignore his daily struggle of life but at the same time he cannot ignore the importance of what he wants for himself and his family in future. He needs to act responsibly ignoring the present circumstances to lead a comfortable life later on. For example, our current prosperity is due to the abolition of the evil laws like bonded labor, inequality, etc in the past. I still remember our current Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, brought liberalization policy in 1992, as then Finance Minister despite all criticisms, only to see the today’s healthy growing economy.

Therefore for the above said reasons, I strongly oppose the author’s believe that fulfilling long-term goals with risks in present, is only the characteristics of high profile people and not ordinary people.

AWA 6

Adlai Steveson once commented, “It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.”

Based on your reading, observation, or experience to what extent do you agree or disagree with Stevenson’s words? Please give examples that support your point of view.

I completely agree with Adlai Steveson’s statement that living a life for principles is much tougher than fighting for them due to the following three reasons.

Firstly, living a life with certain principles requires strength and courage to do so, especially during tough and rough weather. It requires people to believe in them and their beliefs more than their surroundings and environment. On the other hand, fighting always gives the flexibility of changing sides according to the circumstances. For example, it is much easier to protest some wrong doing of a senior manager in one’s organization and then fight for it but when the job comes at stake, the fighter can switch the side while the person with a living on principles may have to quit and go through the strenuous and harshness of jobless life.

Secondly, living a life on principles can make a person feel isolated and alienated from the  society with lot of other aspects of life like peace, happiness at stake. Consider a normal married person who loses his job due to protesting to some unethical practices of the management of his organization. He may have to go through the mental trauma of losing his beloved wife, children, relatives and friends.

Thirdly, people who live their life on values never compromising on the circumstances are the ones who change the course of the world and people who just fight and change their stands like a Chameleon with the change in the circumstances could never do so. All great people like Mahtma Gandhi have always lead the world with their principles and set examples for others to follow.

For the above said reasons, I strongly feel that a true-principled man lives his whole life for his values because he finds solace and heaven in them and achieves satisfaction from it, which is much tougher than just fighting for it because facing the consequnces of a certain action tests the real strength.

Essay 16

The most important information does not come from books.

Time changes as the world grows. There were times when books were considered to be the best companions of the students and people. Books, magazines, novels, newspapers, libraries, etc. were considered to be the best sources of information. Today Internet techonolgy revolution has taken over it. Google is busy scanning old newspapers now to create the biggest archive of the newspapers after successfully doing so for Google Books.

But still one source of learning remains constant, the mother of all learnings-The Life. Books make us aware of the external world and prepares us to face it confidently. Life throws challenges that makes us think and act in real practical sense. Most successful persons are thos people who understand that LIFE is the real challenge of all and the biggest ever school that can have vaious subjects in a single book itself. For example, Thomas Edison was thrown out of his school after haviing being said that he had poor IQ, worse than the normal. The same poor IQ guy later went on to create a never-forgettabe history by his invention. People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer were all school-drop-outs but all went on to pursue their dreams despite all odds to become sucessful in their own areas.

Scientific challenges are better known with the experiments rather than than the books. Similarly, geography can have long lasting impact when we go around places understanding its environment, culture and traditions. Therefore, all subjects come to its true color when we understand it from the books to apply them practically and intelligently to solve the real life problems. This is where the information is learnt rather than just mugging up just the books.

Essay 14

You have received a full scholarship to a good university in your country. You have also been offered a full scholarship to a top university in another country. Which of these two scholarships would you accept?

I would prefer to study in the university of my country rather than going to any another country, if I qualify to get full scholarship at both the universities.

Inida has come up as a strong economic pwerhouse in the past two decades after economic liberalization. It is now considered to be one of the fastest growing and emerging economies. With the future looking good and prosperous for the country, I would prefer to study and work here rather than going abroad to study.

Moreover, top universities like Indian School of Business, Indian Institutes of Managements, Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Information Technology has become global brands with their alumni having established as graduates at par with any other good universities of the world and has been now constantly been ranked at the world level.

Additionally, being in the country helps to be within the reach of my relatives and friends in mutual needs. And I strongly believe that joy of success will be in its true color if we share that joy with our loved near and dear ones.

As I am keenly interested to take my country tot he nect level of its development and see the dream of our past President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam of India becoming a developed country by 2020, I would like to help it from here be lending a hand in its course in every possible way.