Motivational Techniques to Overcome Challenges

I am starting off this article with a conclusion: that if you follow the techniques discussed, then you can positively overcome any challenging situation you are presently dealing with your life.

I am also attempting a dual approach of techniques + interesting History; combining different life’s challenges with a particular monument of historical significance, so you not only relate well to that challenge but also learn some interesting historical facts along the way!

I have set out to list down various life situations and techniques that will help in programming the mind for Seeing Beyond the Wall. That is my sincere hope, seeing beyond the challenge with the aid of mastering-the-mind techniques, to drive a sense of purpose in the readers.

So now, get ready to feel completely recharged (motivationally as well as historically) as you read on:

Take it in your hand:

Seeing beyond the challenge also means sometimes you have to see before the challenge. Every situation you come in contact with is solely handcrafted by none other than YOU.

If you rewind a bit to draw out a karmic pathway that led to this present situation, you will realize not only the cause-effect relationship of your past actions but also that of holding all the Power to Create what you are currently holding in hand.

If you can create a challenge, then you sure can create a solution as well, because you are POWERFUL! But often we totally overlook this aspect, when we are staring at a formidable challenge right in front of us.

The origin of the historic city of Tughlaqabad and the Tughlaqabad Fort goes to the period of the Delhi Sultanate (AD 1191–1526). The Tughlaqs (AD 1321–1414) who followed the Khiljis (AD1290–1321) were great builders and the city of Tughlaqabad and Tughlaqabad Fort were theirfirst major architectural achievement.

The story behind the foundation of Tughlaqabad is an interesting one. Ghazi Malik, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty, was once a slave of Mubarak Khilji, the last Khilji sultan. One day, while walking by the area where the Tughlaqabad Fort is now located, Ghazi Malik suggested to his master that the rocky prominence would be an ideal site for building a fort. The Khilji sultan laughed at his slave and suggested that the slave build a fort there when he became a sultan.

When Ghazi Malik, as Ghiyas-ud- din Tughlaq, founded the Tughlaq Dynasty in 1321, he did just that—Tughlaqabad is Delhi’s most colossal and awesome fort, even in its ruined state.

The fort of Tughlaqabad was completed rapidly in a short span of four years (1321–25). The fort’s massive battlements and bastions (some as high as 15–30 m, built of enormous blocks of stone and walls 10 m thick in places) do not look as if they are the handiwork of mortals. Within its sky-touching walls, double-storied bastions, and gigantic towers were housed grand palaces, splendid mosques, and audience halls. The city lay on the eastern outskirts of the massive fort.

Tughlaqabad is a formidable reminder of Delhi’s embattled past and the terror and valor associated with that period. It was a period of political unrest and the Delhi Sultanate had to face a number of attacks from hoards of marauding Mongols, who descended on it in waves from the north. Ghiyas-ud- din, in order to counter the Mongol threat, repeatedly routed them and raised pyramids of enemy’s heads and used elephants to crush the captives to death. 

The massive fortifications of Tughlaqabad, with immense circular bastions, were raised by Ghiyas-ud- din.

Rejoice than Retreat:

Obstacles are gifts or breakthroughs in disguise, which most of the times we choose to interpret as trouble and tend to retreat, hardly do we recognize them as blessings and rejoice their occurrences.

A simple technique to make the right choice, that is to rejoice, is to use your “Imagination”. If you just imagine what would be your life made of, if you dissolve this obstacle permanently? You would see a magic unfold in the form of a natural process in which all solutions for that obstacle starts streaming in front of you.

If you could imagine one more thing, how would this one obstacle of yours branches out to many related sub-obstacles, and how by dissolving this one main thing would automatically terminate those many sub things and then how life changes for better with an entire gamut of Obstacles out of your way!?

Isn’t this called entering the state called Ultimate Perception in Life? Nirvana! Rejoicing like Grasshoppers on Summer Days, if such a state occurs in life, then the life changes dramatically for the better.

Qutub Minar is one of India’s historical places, located at 15 km South of New Delhi. Qutub Minar is one of the tallest minaret in India and made of red Sandstone and Marble blocks. It is tallest minaret because of its total height of 73m from ground zero.

One of the Mughal rulers, Qutub-Ud-Din-Aibak, got victory over the Delhi’s last Hindu Kingdom and built Qutub Minar in 1193 in honor of the victory. The Minar has 14.3m diameter at the bottom and only 2.7m on the Top.

Though Qutub-Ud-Din-Aibak started the construction in 1193, the structure was not completed by him. He completed only the base storey of Minar. His successor and Iltutmush created 3 more storeys over the base storey, of the first Mughal ruler Qutub-Ud-Din-Aibak.

In 1368 Firoz Shah Tughlak added last storey of Qutub minar, making it the tallest Minaret that marks the 1^st victory of the Mughal Rule in Delhi Sultanate.

Smaller self to Larger Self:

What are you today, is a culmination of various challenges you survived in the past. Then why aren’t your present problems being given the same treatment? A platform meant for the transformation of a future YOU?

It is a simple technique to follow; every time you notice a new obstacle, actively ask whether the Today’s You is better than Yesterday’s You. It is possible that there is a disagreement initially, as any new exercise would produce results only over time. This is because of you are just beginning to be mindful! And that’s fine, as long as you continue to ask yourself this question because soon you would be noticing a difference as you become more conscious.

Isn’t it a perfect way to come to peace with your today’s fresh challenge? I bet it is because you see that every day is growth for the Self.

The India Gate monument is raised to a height of 42 meters and is formerly known as India Gate. On original basis, the place was also known by the name of All India War Memorial. 

This monument was built under the supervision and control of Duke of Connaught during the year 1921 and the building was dedicated to Lord Viceroy – Lord Irwin, at the time of 1931.

The pillars along with whole monument representing the India Gate were built over a stone platform known as Red Bharatpur stone.

The word INDIA is encrypted in bold letters on either ends of the monument and the signs of XIX along with MCM on the sides. Throughout the walls of India Gate, right from top to bottom, the names of all those soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the World War 1 & Afghan war could be found.

It is because of this reason that the place is very much favored and having a look at it, you also get to acknowledge amongst yourself the feeling of patriotism.

It is for those unknown soldiers that a flame is also seen ignited on India Gate, which is also known as “Amar Jawan Jyoti” and this flame is located at the center beneath the Gate. The flame is burning in honor of these soldiers since the year 1971.

Focus on the Flower, Not the Mud:

If you were a Lotus Flower, then you would surely do this! If a Lotus flower can fully accept the fact that it can blossom into a beautiful flower, only by floating on the mud for a while, then why not you too accept?

To set the right focus; write down your life’s mission or purpose. This shall be a very thoughtful exercise, spending days in solitude to inquire deeply, to extract the real meaning of life.

Extracting True Purpose? While writing down your life’s purpose, you have to be careful enough not to fall prey for Big/Small, Compare/Contrast & Impactful/Feathery. What I mean is you don’t necessarily need a Big purpose for the sake of being big, a smaller one that is closer to heart is the best one to cling onto. Likewise, a lighter impactful goal that is also unique, compared to that of role models whom you admire for their power packed purpose, is what that will resonate with the heart.

So write down only what you truly resonate! Once you “Discover” the True Mission, then no mud can stop or distract you.

One of the most magnificent tombs built in Delhi during the Mughal rule, the Humayun’s Tomb is an excellent example of Persian architecture. The Humayun’s Tomb was commissioned in 1526, nine years after the death of Humayun, by his widow Hamida Banu Begum. 

Constructed out of red sandstone, the Humayun’s Tomb was the first ever garden style tomb to be constructed in India. The Humayun’s Tomb stands in the center of Charbagh style of gardens complete with pools linked by channels. The main entrance if the tomb is from the south side, though there is another entrance from the west side as well. 

The Humayun’s Tomb served as an early example for other Mughal tombs which were built over time, such as the Akbar’s tomb in Sikander, the tomb of Ghiyas-ud-Din-Tugluq at Tugluqabad, the tomb of Sikander Lodi in the Lodi Gardens and the Taj Mahal.

In the Humayun’s Tomb one can see architectural features which over time went on to become important component of Mughal architecture, such as its octagonal shape and its high central arch. 

Apart from Humayun, the tomb is also the final resting place of his wife Hamida Bahu Begum, Shah Jahan’s son Dara Shikoh and other prominent Mughals from the royal family. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Humayun’s tomb is best visited in the late afternoon if you wish to get some beautiful shots of the building.

Stop, Look & Proceed:

You are probably alive today because you stopped at the zebra crossing, checked for traffic movements from both directions and crossed the road at the right moment of no traffic, didn’t you?

If upcoming traffic is an obstacle for crossing the road, we don’t go back home but rather apply our judgement and still get across for reaching the intended destination. Then why not pass Life, by confronting the traffic of challenges, and keep moving ahead?

Yeah, Just Do It! This is more of a hustling technique than being mindful. In other words, it is prescribing to take action regardless of obstructions in the path.

As the Buddhist teaching portrays, Darkness Disappears as the Sun of Action Appears.

Safdarjungs Tomb is located at Intersection of Safdarjung Road and Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi. Safdarjungs Tomb is a garden tomb made in Mughal Empire style, in New Delhi, India.

Safdarjung tomb was built in 1753- 54 as mausoleum of Safdarjung, the viceroy of Awadh under the Mughal Emperor, Mohammed Shah.

It has several smaller pavilions like Jangli Mahal, (Palace in the woods), Moti Mahal (Pearl Palace) and Badshah Pasand (King’s favorite).

The top storey of the edifice houses the Archaeological Survey of India. The facade of the garden is decorated with elaborate plaster carvings.

Rounding up:

Suffering and problems are a fact of life, for you, for me and even for accomplished people. To truly Master the Mind is, to Develop the Strength within and to Develop an all-embracing state. Quoting what Carl Jung said: “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

Daisaku Ikeda - “True happiness is not the absence of suffering; you cannot have day after day of clear skies. True happiness lies in building a self that stands dignified and indomitable like a grand palace – on all days.”

“Nothing can match the strength of those whose lives have been shaped and forged through challenging and overcoming hardships. Our future Self does not exist in some far-off place; it exists in the heart and mind of our present self. That is why we must face and tackle the realities that confront us.”

So don’t let those challenges stop you, as they are trying to push you forward!

If you have any comment or thought or inspiration to share, please go ahead & do it 

All Photo Credits - Ram Kumar.

Techniques to Innovate & Disrupt

Compare: 

Landing pages are microsites, used temporarily for running Digital Campaigns unique to Promotional offers, Brand Surveys, Lead Generation, Micro Blogging, Traffic redirect to the main portal, etc.,

In the case of a Landing page for Lead Gen, upfront/bold highlighting of the USPs is very critical to convincing a user to leave his email address & contact no.

The more competitive the product's market is, the more challenging it gets in defining the USPs. 

One simple way out is to compare few Landing Pages of competitors and identify the USPs used. It then gives a fair idea of striking off commonly used ones and generating some unique company-specific USPs.

The quality of USPs determines the Lead Magnet's success. 

Contradict (Contrast): 

Culinary shows of popular lifestyle channels would usually have an expert Chef tasting out the dishes. One of the key parameters he would be using if you had noticed, is separating out each of the ingredients and identifying how distinctly it contributes to the overall dish's taste.

The distinctive flavor and taste of a dish is an outcome of the right mix of ingredients, as well as reinventing new ingredients in a traditional dish. It then becomes a real speciality dish or Chef's special dish.

Create & Compete:

I used the above ideas of Compare & Contradict to derive a formula for innovation and disrupting the existing landscape. 

Compare & Contrast helps in getting refreshingly new learning outcomes, which otherwise goes unnoticed with a passive attention span. When all key elements of a business are given this grind of Compare & Contrast, it paves the way for fresh ideas & new products, which could emerge as the challengers of the status quo.

Facebook's dull News Feeds & Likes based obsessions are fast fading out, as against the new rage over SnapChat’s less-than-10-Second-lifetime Snaps and Photos & Videos based Story.

Source:

Cricket is a Funny Game

The Grip The Game Has

Two Buckets of Cricket -

With a known late-16th-century Origin, emanating from South-East England and subsequently spreading to other parts of the Globe, inextricably with colonisation, the game of Cricket is often loved and hated by people of the same household. And this holds true for a majority of Households.

A) Cricket is a Funny game, so people who follow it are Fools;

B) Cricket is the best team sport that captures people's raw spirit & imagination, so Cricket haters are Dreary souls.

Let's try for a new perspective on the dichotomy and settle this old divide.

Source: Flickr

IND VS BAN - 2016 ICC T20 WC: 

The last over of the match is an epic drama, and you will slide to the chair's edge whether you love cricket or not.

With 11 runs required in 6 Balls, Mushfiqur Rahim prematurely celebrates after securing consecutive 4s, though eventually BAN falls short by one run and IND wins the match!

What followed next wasn't very pleasant for Mushfiqur, as people made him a butt of all jokes for his false excitement that turned into a flop show.

The Dwayne-Gayle shake-up:

When Bravo or Gayle celebrates, irrespective of premature or not, the 50000 crowd dances with them. The two dance when WI win, when WI lose and when WI is not playing! Dance separately while representing competing teams in IPL!

They provide equal, if not higher, entertainment while celebrating in front of the crowd or while hitting the ball.

The Euphoria-less "MSD":

He is Icy sharp in stumping, but brushes aside even as teammates jump around celebrating his brilliance of ending an opponent's wicket and yet people throng for praising him as "Captain Cool".

Dhoni has adequately demonstrated, what Emotional Intelligence is.

The pertinent question:

Aren't people, who are inconsistent, actually are funny and Cricket is not? People could be erratic in appreciating the game & its players, though the Game of Cricket itself is very consistent in providing one of the best entertainments known to humankind!

Home Loans & Balance Transfer

Why Home Loan Balance Transfer Is a Bad Idea?

Home loan is typically a burden, making us take fatigued decisions based on confusing information on the internet.

Off late, I see an emergence of new breed of companies, promising borrowers options to switch Home Loans from higher to lower interest rate. Saving on an interest rate, the only value proposition of these companies, is not the only point about a Loan. This article tells you why.

In this article, I promise to clear the air around Home Loan Balance transfer as a savings option.

I am making this pledge not based my credentials; An ex-banker for eight years & having managed Home Loan portfolio for an MNC bank, but based on my personal experience in converting an 11.50% Home loan with a Private Indian Bank (synonymous to Home Finance) to 9.45%, without transferring!

Another promise is, the article is a light read and no heavy duty loan jargon, yet offering all insights for becoming a smart borrower!

Base Rate, Margin & BPS:

First things 1st, we need not master these but just develop some perception, just to realize why we falsely accuse banks as “cheaters” for charging existing borrowers higher rate of interest.

Base rate is the minimum rate at which a bank can lend & is often decided basis RBI’s key policy rates (CRR, SLR, Repo, Reverse Repo, etc.,)

The margin is the “Base rate + certain BPS” that banks fix to arrive at Lending rates (PLR/BPLR/etc.,).

BPS is an acronym for Basis Points, e.g., 100 bps = 1% and 25 bps = 0.25%.

Base rate changes from time to time as per RBI’s quarterly monetary policy (did you know? RBI’s Monetary Policy Updates usually come on a Tuesday!). The margin for a particular loan, once fixed, remains so till the loan is fully repaid.

Why existing borrowers end up paying higher RoI than new borrowers?

Banks keep readjusting their portfolio (all live loans) to bridge for defaults, operational cost, the cost of funds, etc., However, to woo a new borrower in a hyper-competitive market, they tend to reduce margins on new loans, creating rate disparity between old & the new.

The main agenda – Why avoid Balance transfer?

This has to be rather seen from two perspectives – of the Bank’s and the Borrower’s.

Bank’s Perspective – 

If you are a borrower with good repayment track record, then answer this simple question: Why would a bank want to lose such a good customer?

The cost of acquiring a new customer is usually @ 1% of the loan amount. Also, in general, banks write-off 2 – 3% of their total portfolio as bad debts.

Given both these burdens & you being a customer (no cost of acquisition) with a clean track record, why would any rational bank let its competitors snatch you away!

Borrower’s Perspective – 

You already underwent the rigour of taking 1 Home Loan, do you want to go through that again?

Also every time you apply for a credit product (loans/credit card), your CIBIL records (Credit Information Bureau) are checked. CIBIL has a clever algorithm that reads such enquiries against you as you being a credit hungry person & hence penalizes you with lower grading!

How I reduced my Home Loan Interest rate by 2.05%, without doing a Balance Transfer:

The magic pill – 

“Repricing”; a one-time fee charged for resetting your loan to prevailing market rates. In my case, I was charged a fee of Rs.1500/- and the rates changed from 11.50 to 9.45%! In the event of a balance transfer, the new lender would charge 1 – 2% processing fee, which could be much greater in value than Rs.1500/-!

Auto Repricing to all customers – 

Remember, banks are in a business and businesses are for profits! If the entire Loan portfolio is repriced, then what happens to the bank’s profitability? So this is never going to happen. Nevertheless, being a responsible borrower, it’s your duty to stay abreast of options you can avail and benefit!

Having reached this stage of the article, you now hold an essential information in your hand. So, simply call your bank’s customer support & get your loan repriced, with no hassle whatsoever.

Balance Transfer still an option – 

If you are super dissatisfied with your bank’s service, repricing is unavailable, post repricing you are still above the prevailing rates, any other pertinent issue.

Last word – 

A long-standing relationship with a bank is not merely about 1 or 2 % lower interest rate; it is a stable financial partnership based road map that you craft for your future! So don’t succumb to unnecessary temptations you find on the internet!

God speed freedom from loan repayment for you!

If you have any comments on my views, I would love to hear them.

What can you learn from Neil Patel

New to the world of blogging and need a helping Master to show vital ropes that are all what is necessary to achieve traction quickly? Then you can't be luckier as you have Neil Patel out there, who is unbelievably willing to help you out even as though it is his only motto in life.

A Master who is ruling the blogging world, based on any metric that would convince you such as his followers, his clientele, the amount of money he has made, the citations & reviews he commands, etc.,

As why I call it unbelievable, he is so willing to offer to help in getting started that too in a simple & structured manner, that it becomes a fast track program to making blogging your full-time career, irrespective of what you are currently!

 The Oyster Bay - This is how I feel like renaming my Gmail account off late! Purely because of the pearls of wisdom that flows into my inbox every day! Hahaha.. That was the level of continuous knowledge building experience you would subject yourself if you subscribe to Neil's email list.

But I am saving the best part for the last, when you visit Neil Patel the first thing that strikes you is the image of Neil with the broadest smile you must have come across. The smile is enough to guarantee you about the heights he has reached in his profession and the willingness he carries to teach you to scale the same heights!

So what are you waiting for? Rather the world of profession blogging is waiting for you instead! So Get Started right away!

All the best and have a great year ahead!

About my new business venture

Forget Watts, think Lumens Live Mint Article

It’s the title of a fantastic article by Mr. Shekhar Bhatia, recently published in Live Mint (WSJ). Guess the timing of the article calibrates well with that of awarding Nobel Prizes for Physics to the inventors of LED Bulbs.

The article goes beyond the subject matter discussed, as to me personally it’s a transition of perspectives at a fundamental level that can have huge transformation effect!

Whether it is to do with winning a Nobel prize, saving millions of dollars on electricity bills, taking a giant leap towards keeping Mother Earth intact, etc., Or the least in getting ourselves stand corrected on right terminology to denote brightness!

I am glad to hitchhike on this catchy title to draw connections to my current venture idea in the Online marketplace space. Residential real estate is a sector that goes beyond pure numbers w.r.t. Contributing 5% to India’s GDP, 60 K projects across all metros, demand growth projections by 2020, blah, blah, blah...., It takes a prominent place @ an all emotional front in how the dream of every Indian to own a home getting realized.

As one might intuitively know, there are plenty of aspects attached to home purchase that goes beyond the realms of layman’s understanding, who is neither a qualified lawyer nor a civil engineer.

One can get trapped deep under layers of legal or technical terms such as FSI, Plinth, Carpet area, Super/Built-up area, UDS, title deeds, etc.,

As Shekhar puts it rightly, we ask for 100 Watts bulb thinking that we buy 100 (whatever equivalent) brightness, while factually Watts is a mere power consumption measure that’s not being asked for in the 1^st place! LUMENS is the correct term for denoting brightness of a light bulb!

Likewise, do we ask (or look) for something that’s totally against our original home needs and in the process feel home buying as a daunting exercise?

Now how about a platform that helps to convert complex/elusive aspects of property's legal/technical into something that aid decision-making in resonance with a buyer's emotional & financial need? At the same time providing the competitive advantage to builders to rightly market their projects by highlighting the real value they offer, differentiating from their competitors?

Residential property market is one space where the above logic can extend beyond simple Legal or technical aspects to areas as diverse as live-ability, neighborhood, investment, sentiments, etc.,

I am very excited about this journey, as a strong feeling about the resultant “transition of perspectives” delivered through the web technology has enormous potential, even if it doesn't qualify for a Nobel Prize in Physics!

Forget Super Built-up, think Space! You can find my venture's Mobile Application (Play Store) - Clinch Deals

How to crack MBA Interview Questions

MBA/Executive MBA 

Management Education is one of the few educational streams that goes with an ultimate aim of creating Future Leaders, who work on to Lead Large Organisations or Functions or Teams, upon completion of the program.

Naturally, so, lots of rigour goes into the selection process, for new candidate intake by the start of every academic cycle.

MBA Interviews 

MBA Interviews are one of the most important aspects of the selection process followed by Business schools. This is a stage at which the school gets to gauge the Leadership quotient of the aspirant directly.

The term "Leadership Quotient" is as vague as it can get, and could be very confusing to know what becomes a right measure of it! If this is also the situation you are in, then you are not unique.

However, in this blog, i am going to give you a robust framework that you can be used to create compelling proposition & establish that you the exact Leader material that B-Schools are wanting to nurture.

The structure is made of simple, actionable points that can be crafted to any of your specific/unique situations, still being able to make a compelling argument supporting your candidature.

How useful is the framework?

I wish to guarantee on the framework's effectiveness basis my personal track record & turning it into a piece of easy to follow steps, which can be of immense value for your application.

I am one of the pioneering students of an Executive program called ILPSIE (ILPSIE 2012 Brochure), INSEAD LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME FOR SENIOR INDIAN EXECUTIVES. The program is for senior executives who are looking to transition to Leadership roles in their respective organizations and hence especially more rigorous on gauging Leadership potential in an already successful professional!

I have also been one of ILPSIE's interviewers, played a significant role in deciding the candidature of future aspirants of the program. I have conducted several interviews for future ILPSIE batches, and my strike rate of candidate feedback has always been held up by INSEAD, in awarding (or not) admit for particular applicant! Yes, that's 100% strike rate in my recommendations, be it positive or negative!

Why MBA?

Remember what I said about what the Business Schools across the world looks for the as important trait in an MBA grad? A future leader running large organizations is one of the primary roles played by MBAs and Leadership by itself is a gray element as it doesn't carry any concrete deliverable you can think of.

Other areas of management such as Marketing or Finance or Operations are pretty straight forward as they are easily measurable between Initial Goal/Plan and Final Deliverable. Leadership, on the other hand, has a larger influence on an Organisation's success, yet not very easily measurable concretely.

Then how do Business schools get to gauge whether an aspirant has it or not? The answer to this question is determined by a secret sauce formula - "Clarity of Thought" about why a particular applicant wants to do an MBA program in the 1st place.

As you are even just about to start a management career, how could anyone possibly gauge your Leadership potential?

Well, there is a defined correlation between Leadership and Clarity of Thought.

If you break down leadership into independent elements, then they possibly would look like this:

1. Leading Yourself
2. Leading Others
3. Leading Organisation

All the above three elements are parts to a whole equation of being a Successful Leader.

And the 1st step to showcase success is being better at Leading Yourself; that is driving "self" with a clarity of thought. And when it comes to giving an interview for MBA admit, clarity of thought is applied to why you want to do an MBA at all?

What is the Framework?:

For answering the question "Why MBA?" with precise clarity, is quite a simple one to derive, contrary to popular notion.

Yes, if you just apply the below parts of my framework, you can come with a very compelling proposition I promised earlier, that any interviewer would associate straight with Leadership quotient.

Part I: The career past - Draw out the responsibilities held, roles played and significant achievements in your previous career.

Last job? Yes, predominant schools, esp the top ones, value MBA aspirants to carry a minimum of 4 - 5 years of work experience in some organization of repute.

If you don't have one, and being an absolute fresher but still want to go for an MBA, I would have then seriously recommending you not to do so. If you can't relate to what you learn in an MBA, then the holistic learning of an MBA goes substantially missing. And the only way to a comprehensive learning is by having a good corporate exposure, which the actual modules of the program will automatically relate to.

Part II: Future career plans - Take a short term horizon of 3 - 5 years, a period marking post MBA and detail out where do you like to see yourself headed.

Part III: How an MBA program can - chart out by connecting the dots of Part I & II for how MBA/(and the particular B-School that you are applying for) can help you bridge Part I & II.

In the interviews that I carried out, I attach 100% marks/weight-age to anyone who can club the above three sections logically! The reason being, doing an MBA program is not a straight forward choice but comprises of several aspects such as,

A) the cost involved - It costs upwardly of $40000 for a one-year MBA program in a good US school.
B) the opportunity cost if the same time is utilized in gaining some other particular skill or exposure, remember that you don't always learn specific things in an MBA but more of holistic/general stuff about management. Probably that why it's most often being referred to as "General Management".
C) the alternatives for doing a full-time MBA or Executive MBA, we are living in the era of MOOCs where you can master anything by just sitting at home and conducting your regular work simultaneously!
D) The global macroeconomic trends, which could wield uncertainties on job markets by the time you complete the program, etc.,

Now the action points

Follow this very simple & systematic process and see for yourself how the magic (clarity of thought) unfolds in front of you.

Part I - Yes, you got to do some drawing/sketching here! Start imagining the course of river drawn in 2 dimensions over a piece of paper. You will most probably depict a sign wave to narrate its path. The same, if made to represent your past career is then called Career River! Yes, the crests of this river form your previous career highs while the trough forms the lows. Define the high & low points with particular incident or event or recognition or milestone.

Part II - Pick your favorite company or industry and the role you would like to play in that. Take the Crest points as is from Part I; make out a fictional incident by scaling them up to 10X. For example, if your Part I's one of the crests is "Successfully Expanded Distribution to new Markets in India". Then the same could be in Part II as "To create new geographies across Asia"). Don't forget to define the incident using a combination of facts + story.

Part III - Write down on a piece of paper all the +s forming your perspectives, about MBA or specific B-School basis all the research that you have done already, in bullet points.

The fact that you do your research about MBA & Schools is a no-brainer, and hence I wish not to stress on that one!

Now with a minimum of 5 and maximum of 12 points derived, try and stretch those points in a way it connects the crests from Part I & II. Voila, you are self-staring at a convincing argument that you would be projecting shortly in an upcoming interview.

Do let me know how this framework helped you and any other specific help that you might require from me by commenting below. I would be more than happy to help you out with whatever resources & exposure that I have gained personally.

Cheers.