I reached well in time.
Something inside me said, it was going to
be embarrassing. It was not what I set out for. But well, however cheesy it may
sound I do take note of certain dialogs from bollywood movies and one which got
me over this was from a relatively new flick on life of a salesman and his
ambition to go beyond the sculpted way.”Every man has two qualities in him. One
which take him up and the other which brings him down and the quality which
ultimately wins, the man would live his life accordingly.
It was one of that moment where I thought
of walking away without testing the metal of my enthusiasm and passion for what
I wanted to. Simply, because the setting was not what I thought would be.
There are two problems the way B-school
graduates are taught in one of the best B-schools in this country.
Firstly, the only businesses and only
problems which we are taught to get into and deal with are the ones which are
BIG.
Second point, majorly emerges from the
first. Since we are taught to deal with big, we are habituated towards a
particular setting where we have to exercise our so call managerial charm.
I am no exception to have fallen for these
two myths of B-school learning experience. What leads to this, is a story I
must take separately, but for now I try to flounder across my way out of this
twin illusionistic way of b-school erudition towards a tatty building with no
sign of welcome which we are conjured about and a bare minimum audience who
frankly, does not care where you are from and what you plan to do. Quite a letdown,
you see!
Well, I was very liberal about the audience
strength in last paragraph. Actually, there was no one to listen to me there
when I reached.
I called up my friend who set this up for
me and he was kind enough to suggest that I was free to leave if I wanted to.
All the brain-cells engaged in forging out plans of making my first workshop on
personality development a grand success changed their course in trying to
convince me on how this is a recipe for disaster and how quickly I must find my
way out of the historic building.
Something stopped me from being a puppet to
these few cells which might have already started celebrating when I started my
bike with an idea of pulling up my stakes there.
So all of this for nothing? And who said it
was going to be easy? It is all about experiences and nothing is going to be as
fruitful as an on-field experience of being jeered upon field than being
clapped on by friends about a brilliant idea discussed in classroom.
I will deal with it - was the last time I
spoke to myself before the workshop started.
I spoke with the in-charge of this workshop
and his optimism came as a positive surprise to me about the expected
attendance. Encouragingly, a group of young kids came right up to the building,
wished me (!) and went inside the room just to discuss how this will turn out.
In less than 30 minutes the room was full
with audience. Well, it was a small room and e had the total audience of around
30 but it was good enough for me to start.
I wanted to have a 2 hour session for these
kids but they never stopped surprising me with their energy levels, enthusiasm
and creativity which was exemplary while we did exercises and group activities.
1 student left the group, I later found her
in deep discussion with another guy(behind a tree!) and the discussion did look
too serious to be avoided for a workshop. 5 new students joined who were called
upon by their friends during the session. What I realized at the end of the
session was that the session had run for three and a half hours, without a
single break. Nobody went out for water or washroom.
There was sense of curiosity on their
faces. They were jubilant and hungry for more. I learned multiple lessons that
day. About me, about how important was what I was trying to do, What is the
state of these kids lost in ‘India shining’ stories, and most importantly – I
was so wrong about the set-up theory!
We will never have the perfect setting to
do good work. We will have to own the setting and do good work.
My first workshop on personality
development was an experience to cherish, which I will preserve as long as my
grey cells allow me to.
Cheers
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