Going Solo

Recent turmoil in the financial markets has seen many thoughts dwindling, and especially for the students pursing their masters in management across various B-schools. It insists to introspect about the past proclamations that one had made especially for people like me who had no other reason to do an MBA other than making a career shift from IT consulting to finance. Working as a presales associate with TCS was not a bad option either, where I had tremendous opportunities to learn and develop in various capacities. I wanted to chase my dreams and had already made the decision.

Marked by the end of an era of capitalistic buoyancy, living through the worst financial panics in many decades, the tsunami had struck and had turned everything upside down. Well, the situation is going to worsen as the effects of this are yet to be realised. The job markets are in bad shape when most of the corporate are going for layoffs be it investment banks or consulting giants. The hiring process, I hear, already slowed down.

At the outset, this emanates awfully negative vibes, but then MBA is all about management - and that includes your emotional psyche too. But then, there is a veiled opportunity which this uncertainty has brought about. Why do we need to depend upon organisations for the jobs? Why not own one? A very daring statement to make and its easier said than done. But a humble effort towards it can make you sense the smell of success, however short-lived it may be.

The moment I realised this, a plethora of ideas started smoothening into my mind. I had already started envisioning my 'first venture'. I came to know SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre at IIT Kanpur provides a platform to start-ups prospective entrepreneurs and 'intrapreneurs' to convert their innovative ideas into commercially viable products.

Deep down my heart I have always felt, no job would ever satisfy my appetite for accomplishment. Job after an MBA is surely going to be a stop-gap arrangement. The zeal to do something of my own can keep me stirring for days and nights. Well, it is rightly said "Dream is not what you see in sleep. It is which does not let you sleep".

To be successful, it does not take a ground breaking idea. It is the sustenance with which one perceives dreams, works towards it and sees it being realised.

The recognition that I sense is that this slowdown in the job markets is going to augment a new breed of entrepreneurs, which is going to be realised soon enough by the institutes like IITs and IIMs. Well, you gain the most when you have nothing to lose. It was these fat paycheques that had always hindered the entrepreneurship potential to get effectuated in the past. Now, even as we experience these "corrections" in the job markets, surely people are going to gaze for opportunities which had always subsisted but not arrogated specially in diverse markets like that of India. The path ahead may not be florid, but then successful is one who debouches out of all the odds. Rightly said by someone: "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary"

Tarun Bajaj is pursuing his first year MBA from Indian Institute Of Technology, Kanpur