So…I addressed a graduating class of b-school students in May 2022. Had then scribbled some points which I had used for the address. Have now cobbled some English around those points to make this a blog piece…

“Hi friends and fellow MBAs…this is the first time after 100 years, that an MBA batch is stepping out after a 3-year Pandemic. The 1922 batch of MBAs from Wharton and Harvard soon walked into the Roaring ‘20s, a decade of economic boom. Three years of Spanish Flu saw and now three years of Pandemic is seeing a post-Pandemic resurgence. Since I come from real estate, I should tell you that as a sector, people have bought 100,000 new homes in Jan-March 2022 in the top 10 cities of India, a ten-year high for a quarter, quarterly average being 55,000 homes for the past 10 years. Tourism and travel are at a 20-year high. Everyone and his dog is in Maldives or Sikkim or Goa or Mahabaleshwar. Demand for cars and two-wheelers is high. Stock markets of course, have been hit by the Ukraine war and the Tech stocks global meltdown. But if you don’t like the stock markets currently, go for a walk and come back. It may have improved by that time! 😊

The 1920s decade saw the economic boom on the back of mass proliferation of the car, telephone, electrical appliances, film, radio. The current decade is building on top of the Internet + Smartphone combination of 2005-2020 and now going into AI/ML, Blockchain, Crypto, Web 3. That decade was post-WW1. This decade might see the post-Ukraine War resurgence in global economy.

If ever there was a VUCA world – you know this term – Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic, Ambiguous – with a paradoxically thick silver lining, this is the time. You are like Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, each born with a special magical power, waiting for the right circumstance, the right job, the right nudge, the right boss to bring out this magical power in you.

DO NOT let anyone tell you that times are bad and to keep your heads low. In fact, at the risk of looking foolhardy and Don Quixotic, I would beseech you to puff your chests, walk with a swagger. A 100-year History is behind you…you cannot go wrong…

HAVING SAID THIS, I shall move on to the second and final part of my Talk. While I see a great macro-environment for all of you to succeed, Success apne aap darwaaze ya khidki se ander nahin aata hai. You will have to meet it more than half-way. For that, I am going to share with you my 7 Mantras or Values, that I have collated over my past 27 years of post-MBA working 😊. I shall share anecdotes from my corporate life for a few of them.

Mantras / Values :

1. Respect and be kind to people…superiors, fellow colleagues, team members…receptionist, office boys, security guards…have empathy, compassion.
2. Be humble…but with a fierce resolve…Jack Welch/Steve Jobs days are gone…VUCA world because of Internet, Smartphone, Web 3, and Geo-political changes…hence, need co-operation and support of everyone to succeed. . Anecdote : Manoj Kohli and his success in Airtel and now in Softbank
3. Be authentic…WYSIWYG…Gandhiji – actions, words, thoughts aligned and consistent, then you are authentic. Anecdote : Sunil Mittal, and how his communication to his JT MDs, Airtel CEO, City Heads and frontline sales used to be consistent
4. No substitute for hard work…the 6am club. Anecdote : Anuj Puri, 55 yrs old, for last 20 years, been working from 9am-8pm, six days a week. Hustle, Grind, Shows up, Meets clients, Knows Top 200 clients by name, top 300 employees by name. Corporate life is much easier than student life. In most jobs, you have to find the square root of 64…10 times…rather than finding the cube-root of 1728 one time. Mix of IQ, EQ and Hard Work…
5. Strive for excellence…Like Rancho tells in 3 Idiots – Success ke peechhe mat bhago, excellence ke peechhe bhaago. Success khud ba khud aa jaayegi. So what does Excellence mean ? It means Lifting your bar, raising the quality of your performance, bringing your A game to the table. Revisit, revise, review, refine…your work. Anecdote : Usain Bolt, Practised 10 hours a day for 6 days a week for 10 years to run for 10 seconds…sorry 9.58 seconds. Bolt is a perfect example of hard pre-work leading to the big day. The big day could be a job interview, could be a big client meeting, could be a presentation to superiors, could be a pitch to a Venture Capitalist.
6. Be courageous, be brave be bold, take risks…at least for the next 8-10 years, after which you may have two outcomes. Either you would have made money in your startup and you can start your next innings of taking bolder risks. Or you may have reached a middle management in corporate life. Re-establish your financial goals then, build corpus for retirement and children education. Then take fresh guard at 40 years and try to start up again 😊. Failed entrepreneurs are a revered segment now – very high value in job market. Darna mana hai! Elon Musk – Tesla in 2018 and SpaceX in late 2021 have faced bankruptcies…but Musk is imagining life on Mars…
7. Personality and Life lessons :
   1. Read one fiction book and one non-fiction book a month. In non-fiction, try to cover variety of causes (environment, globalisation, economy, vegetarianism, Liberalism) and history of 10-15 countries.
   1. Start working out 3 times a week, or cycling or running or swimming
   1. Marry well; Just like you hire for great attitude, marry for caring nature…and then love and trust unconditionally.

So, my dear Midnight’s Children of the post-Pandemic boom, go out and build your brand, establish your presence! Be brave, work hard, strive for excellence, work out and take care of your health. But at the same time, remember to be kind, be humble, be authentic, read a lot, marry well.

The world is waiting to be conquered!”