Atlas Died

I want you both..-2

2009-01-12T12:08:00.009-05:00

This is the second part of the previous post I want you both..-1

August 2004

He tried to be calm but as with anyone else he could not. Finally, the results were announced. And he could not make it through the prelims. "Tough luck" he thought. May be he is destined not to be a public servant.

Life is too practical to keep regretting and so he moves on. He takes a job in a Chemical manufacturing company as a Sales manager. Surprisingly, the job was more interesting than he thought it would be. He got a chance to go to Europe to meet his counterparts and learn about the clients in Europe. He slowly picked up the pieces of his life and now it looks to be in a good shape.

January 2005

On the way back from his Europe trip, he came across a girl who got admitted to INSEAD (September intake). She has been working as an archaeologist for the last two years and a member of the Indian Archaeological Society His intellectual curiosity was at its high and they had a very good time talking about chemical manufacturing to archaeology. She lived in Mumbai and he lived in Delhi. He sent an sms to the girl after the flight in January "Reached Safely?"

May 2005

Life would have been easier if humans does not have emotions. . Their phone conversation with he listening to how much she enjoys watching movies though he hardly watched movies as he perceives them ( impractical, irrational and logically challenging scenes and dialogues). She was well off economically than he was due to the fact that he did not have a job for sometime and she hails from a above average wealthy family.

On the other hand, The prelims are not off his mind and he had been preparing for it over the year. May be he was luck this time or may he was not under pressure as he has a job at hand..

August 2005

He mad it through the prelims. Both of them were happy. By now, they thought they agreed to the unsaid. They were going to be a family once he gets through this and she through her MBA.

September 2005

He flew to Mumbai to see her for the last time before she left for INSEAD. Probably this was the 14th visit he made. They went to Kerala and spent three days after which she returned to Mumbai.

October 2005

After all, his confidence was at its high. The mains did not seem too hard. He gave his best shot and the exams were over before he knew. He thought she should have been there to support him for the next step.

January 2006

The beauty of life is that it unfolds on its own even with no inputs from us. They have been talking whenever they could get sometime although it looked very hard due to her tight schedule as well as the time difference. They did their best she told him how she enjoyed the last winter break when she went on a small Europe tour with other Indian friends at INSEAD. She told him how Abhilash takes care of her and how much they enjoy fontainebleau.

March 2006

The results for mains have been announced and this time he made it through. It seemed suprising as it was not his best shot but the luckiest shot. He was excited. He was just one step away from it.

April 2006

She supported him through out the preparation and he attended the interview as confident and as prepared he could. The interviewers were curious about why he would like to get into public services after his stint in business and experience in Europe. He thought he gave a compelling response to that and sealed the deal.

May 2006

The results are here. He got an all India rank of 18. He is on his way to Mussorie and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He conveyed this to her. She seemed excited but not to the extent he thought she would be.

June 2006

Her course at INSEAD is going to end in a month. They have been talking about how both of their dream are going to come true when she told that she likes Abilash a lot and may be more than she loves him. The earth came shattering before his eyes.
She said: I could not leave Abhilash. They parted. He left her to be with Abhilash.

April 2007

Life sometimes comes a full circle. She sent an email to him asking if she could talk to him for once. She got a job as a treasurer with one of the Airlines in Europe. He called her once he saw her email. She explained to him how much she loved him but at the same time she loved Abhilash too. She said that it is hard to convince her parents to marry as they are from different religions.
He said he would support her in her endeavor to marry Abhilash even if her parents don't. She could not do that. She said "I think the only one I really like is you. But Abhilash took care of me so much that I could not be away. Even now, he arranges whatever I want. I want you both".

Atlas Died..

2008-12-03T23:01:00.005-05:00

He asked her : What shall I do? This job is no more interesting
She said: Don't think about anything else and do your duty
How can I do that? I could not concentrate on my job.
Then quit and join a new job.
I am not confident that I could get a new job. I have to study now again.
Then do that. Prepare for sometime and give your best shot.
I don't get to study as the work takes most of my time.

What do you think of this. Most of the people (I am not an exception) give excuses for many things. Their statements defy logic. They know that. But they can not control and talk about it again and again.

How about the girl(guy) who could not do anything but listen to the guy(girl) who could not control himself and depends on her(him) for the decisions of his life. No one can live for anyone else. The emotional suffering the girl goes through can never ever be understood by the guy. He thinks that she is not understanding his situation and giving suggestions that are not possible.

Here comes the difference. People view life differently. Some of us jump at anything and chase and even kill for whatever we want. On the other hand, some of us just take whatever comes by and enjoy that. There is nothing wrong with both of these types. The problem arises when you can't chase but want something that you could not get. You depend on someone to get what you can never get and in the meantime make their life miserable.

Time is the best possible investment anyone can make. It's not that you will invent a tool to solve the problems of the world with that time. You may just spend it to read a novel, sleep or just be lost in thoughts. When someone else wants you to invest that time to solve their problems which they can not solve and which you think are not problems at all and when you can not get these people away not because you love them but you just pity them, you suffer and feel sick. That's when Atlas Died.

This line of thinking is not my own. I learned it from Atlas Shrugged three years ago.

I want you both..-1

2008-12-02T20:27:00.007-05:00

May 2001

He graduated from Delhi School of Economics and joined a Indian MNC in Mumbai. The next two years were rewarding and he climbed the career ladder very fast. But, the job did not look interesting anymore though he tried to improve the processes he faced a lot of resistance.

July 2003

Civil services had been his dream for a long time and the current situation at the company brought that dream back into limelight. One day he called his mom and said he is quitting the job. Though his family has got considerable wealth, his salary had been a constant source of income for the family. He did not offer a lot of explanation and just said that he could not work there any more and would take up UPSC exam. She did not offer a lot of resistance.

August 2003

Finally he did quit three years into his job and moved to Bangalore to see his family. The family was happy to see him but his mother was worried about his 'future'. He did not say anything and moved to Delhi after 15 days. He was fortunate to have a close friend of him in Delhi and joined his friend who offered him free accomodation. For the next 8 months his job was just to eat, read and sleep.

May 2004

The prelims exam arrived much quicker than anticipated and he thought he did well. The next three months had been the worst time he had had in a while. And the day of results has arrived.

(to be continued)

When a billion $ is not big enough

2008-12-01T20:39:00.002-05:00

I was just wondering. Is one billion dollars a big amount? After taking so many finance classes and analyzing so many cases (really?), I am just wondering what a billion $ is worth?

In business school, many of the cases we use in all those Strategy/Finance/Marketing classes are based on companies ranging from P&Gs of the world to MSFTs. When I sit in a class for Venture Capital or Entrepreneurship, the numbers in million dollars look so small that I don't get very excited about the case. I just feel that the stakes are not as big. Is there a fallacy here? May be.

This argument leads to another conclusion: Entrepreneurship does not appeal so much to the business school graduates because of the small dollars involved. Many of us boast to work for the Googles and McKinseys and Goldmans (even now?) not just because they pay you big, but you can boast that you belong to them. Of course, it's a good feeling. But if all of us stick to those, who will create the next Googles or McKinseys?

America thrived not because of the Coca-Colas or GMs or GEs, it thrived because of the Small businesses, which employ around 50% of the workforce even now.
Source: http://www.america.gov/st/econ-english/2008/July/20080814223926XJyrreP0.615597.html

I am not sure if India skipped this phase of small businesses or I missed the time frame by taking birth in 1980s. With my little experience as I hail from a rural place in India, I did not see a lot of small businesses in my district, which reflects the over reliance on agriculture.

Hopefully, the hype of people returning to India after their stints abroad will be realized soon and there will be small business growth in India.