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When Dreams come true

I always believed in setting goals and going after them.  My philosophy is, whether they are short term or long term goals; just jot them down in a notebook. In my own experience, I found that by simply writing my goals down, it made me think clearly about what I want to achieve.  It is a simple yet a powerful habit and here is why I believe this!

After I completed my bachelor’s degree in engineering, my next goal was to get a job and eventually get into a superior MBA program.  This was my dream.  I came from a house full of engineers and many of us went to the US in search of recognition and made money and thrived in a Mature Market (U.S.) without really needing to graduate from a business school.  Of course, it needed hard work to get there.

My experience in the US taught me many important lessons in life, including what it takes to be a successful individual. With that, my itch to go back to school and that too a B-school revived. In the U.S. it would have been difficult to manage my work, two kids and my nuclear family, and still pursue a business degree. So, I parked my idea of going back to school for a very long time.

Then the opportunity knocked at my door. My husband said he wanted to move to India to follow his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. That was the turning point, sort of like a midlife crisis realization. We started laying out a five year plan of what we should do while we are in India, how to find top schools for the kids and then…. I started recalling my sweet dreams… dreams of going to B-school.  We had heard about the Indian School of Business way back in 2001 when we were working in Silicon Valley, and from then on, the name of this school lingered in my mind.   

When we reached India and settled down in Hyderabad at our residence in Hill Ridge Springs, well guess what? We could see ISB right from our dining room window and oh Lord!  You can only imagine the excitement and the thrill that I experienced for months to come.  Not a day went by that we didn’t talk about how wonderful it would be for me, if I got into ISB.
I then began to apply to the school. The essays were the toughest; however, these essays taught me how to answer tough questions such as, “Why ISB? Why MBA?” At times, I had to literally relive my past in order to dig deep and answer these questions. Writing essays and answering such tough questions is one of the most rewarding experiences of filling up applications, as it allows you to get to know more about yourself and what you want to do before, during and after the program. However, whether you get there or not is secondary.
Time went by and I learned that I had to move to Bangalore to take up a new job.  But that did not stop me from pursuing the PGPMAX program at ISB.  When I finally got admitted, it was unbelievable- a proud moment for me and my family.

And then came May 2011. When I met my classmates at the orientation, I realized that like me, there are sixty five others pursuing the same goal for different reasons.  So, I am writing away my next big goal in my journal again.

What an elite group of people I got to know since orientation!   Everybody has a unique talent and like myself, everyone was out of touch with the concept of going back to school. My feelings of anxiety disappeared once I realized that we would all be in the same boat and going through this together.  We came here from all walks of life but we bonded like we had known each other for a long time.

The real fun moments are ironically inside the classroom. We have learned how to sit for eight hours in the classroom with very short breaks between sessions. Sitting in the class for such long hours and experiencing information overload was the hardest thing to do and it is particularly true during the first few terms.  Then, once we got accustomed to the course rigor, we improved.

There is so much learning that happens outside the class as well. Interactions with classmates by meeting them at the coffee shop or during a walk or even over drinks near EH lobby. We are confident that our interactions and learnings will continue even after our course ends and as for me - I will continue to write my goals and all these fond memories with my classmates to cherish forever.

- Usha Hari, PGPMAX Co12