What an MBA can do to you

Looking back at my illustrious past, the 18 long years of education is projected in my mind's eye in black-and-white. There were days when home-work was heavy and there were days when nothing in the class made an iota of sense. There were days when I skipped lunch to read for an exam and there were days when crows took a dump in my lunch box.

All of those days seem like sweet (or gross) memories of the past, but nothing compared to the feelings that went through my mind when I looked at the "blackboard" today. Profs have uploaded the course-outlines that describe what to expect from a class-room session. The course-outlines give a taste of how much work goes into each session. Every 2 hour class-room session seems to ask for about 10 hours of effort outside the class-room. There's tons of pre-read, assignments and projects attached to every class. I was expecting a lot of work, but nothing to this magnitude.

I then talked to a couple of people about what they think of the course, and I heard some interesting perspectives. I seem to like what they said and I pen it down here. I would like to visit this post after a year to see where I stand. Here's the jist of what I heard today.

"Attending class is probably one of the least labor-intensive aspects of the learning here. It is what I do before and after the class that really matters. I understand that I need neither an MBA degree nor association with a premium b-school to understand the basic concepts of business. I also understand that I do not earn recognition as an MBA student if I can spit out business jargon. What I get here is an opportunity to open up my mind, take a step back, and get a new perspective of life and the people that make up my society. This course will not teach me how to be successful as an individual. It will instead teach me how I can steer a team or a society to success in what they do, and that, in turn, will make me successful. I came here with a perspective of my own. I might end up unlearning all the concepts that the society has driven into my head. I emerge out of the crowd only when I can think ahead of them and the society. That's what thought-leadership is all about, and that's what I get to learn at ISB."

I will sleep over these thoughts tonight and see how I feel tomorrow. I wish all my classmates the very best for their first core-term.