I, The Absolute

To be skilful is a must. So when random factors come together to capitalise on our skill, we would be ready. Attributing success to skill more than we ought to is the centre of new age thinking leading to people questioning their skills, beliefs and ability.

Trump was cancelled on Twitter. One random factor may end up getting Trump back on Twitter which may eventually lead to his coming back as the Potus. Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter could make it a lot less censored leading to Trump’s coming back. Trump or his own skills have nothing to do with this. But this event if it were to happen will certainly influence Trump’s success.

Life is a lot less like Chess but a lot more like Poker. I have stopped beating myself up for outcomes I cannot fully control. My response is the only factor I can control.

To Randomness!

It is uncanny that we have this ability to not relate to our own selves from past or in future, particularly so in future. We deselect our memory to distance ourselves from what we didn’t like about us from past; what we remember, we rationalise. We procrastinate and take sub-optimal decisions which more than say we don’t love our future selves.

One could argue we ought live for the present. That there is hardly any argument to love past or future over our present if it meant a compromise in the present. We however are a continuum with past influencing our present, and present impacting our future. So the present is but a moment in this continuum should make us relate to our past and more to our future.

What’s with this philosophical mishmash – as I write today after long with good part of life having gone by in between, I don’t wonder why I never took the effort to write frequently which could have made this domain a record of how my thoughts evolved. How I could have monetized this domain.

PS: Oh this generalisation! There are millions who have done / do a better job of managing this continuum. Even basic savings which billions do every month disprove my argument that people don’t love their future selves. But savings are easier than gymming or eating well. Or writing!

The censoring of blogspot did not do me too good as it put a brake on what was supposedly my liberation from writer’s block.

Why writer’s block?

I am more creative than structured (the word creative is, of course, euphemism for being sloppy in thinking). Now the last thing one can afford in consulting is not to be structured, in almost everything that one does. In the process of picking up the new lessons, I seem to have left my mind confused and my heart constrained.

In addition, in the consulting world, my style of writing qualifies for being bad or lacking in flow and logic. What is needed is business like writing by keeping always in mind the lessons William Strunk, Jr. taught in his legendary, the Elements of Style. In the process of picking up business English, I seem to have lost the touch with my style.

As I get more and more into the consulting world, I will, I hope, discover a new style of thinking and writing, which will let me blog continually and peacefully.

Bw, I really cannot over-emphasize the importance of proficiency in structured thinking & business writing, because in consulting powerpoint and write-ups, which depend heavily on the above two skills, are some of the most important outputs for which one gets appraised.

It has been many moons.

Many things happened. I got a little away from being a banker and a little closer to being a consultant. I have tamed powerpoint enough to get things done. My tryst with excel is still sometime away. Mumbai has become worse. I have seen more bollywood people. And hey, I got my first paycheck in 15 months…

If someone is reading this hoping for some gyan on what it will be for career shifters – those who come from line management to consulting, I have a few words, not many.

Consulting is a different planet. It will take anywhere from 1 month to 6 months unlearn the methods one has picked up in line management. The content that one gets from previous job is useful. But the methods will be taught / learnt. The methods involve more of rigor, attention to detail, being structured, and simply organized. Thats actually more than I thought I had to say.

Meanwhile, I will continue my efforts to build my identity as a consultant.

PS: For those who have clicked on the URL in the last few days and found nothing new, my apologies. I really did not have bandwidth enough to write as I would have liked to. Not that this post has anything to offer. But then, no better way to shoo away writers block than to write….

Some perks that I am enjoying….

1. Office (temporary) in a five star hotel
2. My desk is next to the Frech Window which overlooks the Arabian Sea and of course the (in)famous bandstand. While the sea waves keep hitting the rocks quite monotonously, there is quite a variety behind the rocks themselves.
3. Go home for lunch
4. Get to see Bollywood celebrities, at least one a day
5. Free-to-use gym (yet to use)

Travel will be limited till we hit the projects (some of us who joined are already on projects). As we are a start up, working mostly on business development -Researching (trying to pull out relevant and credible info), learning to make PPTs (quite tough), and writing proposals are somethings which I am working on good part of my time. Patience, not abundant with me, is a quintessential attribute needed to do all of the above things. Getting there………..

Being good with a tool that can help analyze data, and being good at making PPT slides are two qualities which a consultant cannot afford not to have. But these two are just tools. These matter at the micro-level.

Being able to make smart assumptions and build hypotheses which are verifiable through data and being able to convey the message/findings through the PPT slides are more important attributes.

At the top of the pyramid will be the ability to understand business issues at macrolevel, relate to people and understand what they want. It need not be just the client. It can be team mates, boss, anyone in the form, or any other person who supports our work.

What out of these aspects of work one needs / uses most depends on which level one is at.
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Given that our firm is a start up in India, we get to do a lot more things than just being a newly hired consultant. There are a lot of opportunities to learn things which will be with us for a long time.

Everyone in the firm believes in keeping the weekend free to be with the family. That is quite a thing. When you know that you will have to time to be family, it gets quite easy to stretch during week days. Of course, it is even easier when the work is enjoyable………

It has been a long gap. It is too early to write about what it feels to be a management consultant. We have been undergoing training, which feels like ISB-extension. A few partners have flown in from far away places to train us. The entire org is quite enthu about the new hires and the new office in India. So much so that the global CEO is expected to be in India this month end to spend good amount of time with each of us. I more or less know what I am going to do for the next one or two months. The work is going to be exciting, no doubt. I await all the new things and the unpredictability that a consultant’s life will bring along.

Mumbai has been both kind and unkind. Kind because I dont have to navigate through the roads of Mumbai. My office and house are separated by about 4 minutes. Unkind because the weather has been heavy resulting in my catching cold and a little bit of fever.

But then that is how life is………….

PS: Hope to be regular now that I have internet at home too.

Found a nice flat at Bandra in Mumbai. Will be moving there on 30th. Way back in 1996, I started my career in Mumbai and now I will start my second career from there. Mumbai never lets one down as far as learning, opportunities and growth are concerned. But when it comes to quality of life in terms of roads, traffic, cleanliness, a decent place to live, et al, Mumbai quite disappoints.

Any new thing is always exciting because of the unanticipated twists and opportunities it can bring in life. Only as things get old that they tend to get too predictible and many times quite boring.

Let’s see where this new journey takes me…

PS: My next post will be after I join my employer…

Relocating is usually easy for me because I generally belong nowhere. But moving to Mumbai is always pain because finding the right house is not easy. Another one week and I will move to Mumbai.

I went to ISB today – played squash and bought more ISB t-shirts, which I feel like wearing every other day. Spoke with a few guys from the Class of 2007. The initial hype and mania associated with the first term and first mid-term exams seem to have gone away. Business is as usual there. The school or the people there do not miss us – because none of them exists to miss us. Many of us will, however, continue to have this ISB hangover………

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill has been a major influence in my life. A book of about 100 pages but a very difficult read. Mill’s message is simple – the individual and his liberty are absolute and unquestionable. Of course, a person’s liberty ends where someone else’s starts.

Capitalism and Democracy, as proclaimed by Fukuyama in his influential book, The End of History and the last man, in conjuction with individualism make the highest form of social evolution.

However, capitalism and democracy do not regard individualism. Capitalism is a non-starter but for collaboration and democracy disregards any form of individualism. Right to Franchise is about individualism but it can hardly influence the way we can elect our representatives. So much for individualism as the third dimension of the new society.

In a society driven by capitalism, supported by globalization and information revolution, I am not sure if individualism will thrive or die.