In a not - so - usual pensive mood today..Some random thoughts sparked by a few incidents arbitrarily put under different headings..
Idealism
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Its easy to advocate idealism... but not at all easy when you are at the receiving end..Being ideal might bring you nothing much but frustruation..And especially tempting when the alternate path to to idealism might be something thats not much of a compromise...Its easy to ask 'why ?' ..But its easy to ask back 'why not ?'
System
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To reform a system, you have to be a part of the system..But at times, why bother reforming it ? ...or if you can find a better system why not be a part of it rather than this ?
Pragmatism
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When to be pragmatic ...when to fight ? Being a B-school student, I'm tempted to give an answer in terms of NPV :-) .. But this decision is something thats very judgemental..And it cannot be brought down to numbers.. This is an art actually ..An art that might affect the aspirations of many people... I wish I could perfect that.
People & processes
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In my life I've mostly performed well in situations where you can drive the purpose through a personal rapport.. Or rather even in professional aspects, I've many times achieved good results by working on a personal rapport basis..Back during my work life, I wondered why dont companies invest in people much? Corporates try to make their business more and more independent of people..Or rater replaceability is something that they usually strive for... Now i think I realize the importance of that..For, there is nothing wrong in investing in some people..But whatever happens, the show must go on..thats most important ... Or the paradigms / processes /ground rules of the game or whatever you call it should be consistent... Damn! it took this incident ( can't quote which one :) )to realize the true importance of setting up true frameworks..
The question of image.
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There is something that life in NITC taught me -- If you keep worrying about what others would think about your actions , you wont be able to do much..Or rather you would end up with lot of regrets & frustruations.. At-least in personal matters, I rarely think about what others would think about my actions.. And some of my actions might seem to be really stupid..But really, I dont bother much..For, regret is something that I dont want.
But actually this equation goes the opposite way when you look at professional / organizational matters.. Your image,credibility,ethics ....all matter a lot... And the catch is that its often very difficult to keep professional & personal life as totally separate... To illustrate this, I've met some extremely brilliant individuals in my life..But I haven't really liked some of their personal traits... Few years down the lane, if I come across a situation in which I have to make a decision on hiring one among these for a job, I would be heavily biased against hiring that individual because of his undesirable personal traits..Because , professionally you can't succeed just by analytic skills..your personal aspectswill be a great factor in your assimilation into a team.. But ultimately, its a very subjective call.
Ah!...Enough !.. Time is 2 AM..I've some 4 assignments/projects to submit in coming week :-(.....But letme see a movie from LAN first :-) ...Sleep ? Forget that in B-school :-)