I, The Absolute

I just returned from a dinner meeting with a friend and a few acquaintances. They were talking about how a few people have made millions of rupees thanks to two attributes – their relative closeness to people who possess critical information and their ability to take risk. Hyderabad and Bangalore have been planning international airports for more than a decade. The decision on where to set up airports was taken about six-seven years ago. Some key people in the secretariat knew about it and people who knew them also got to know about this. The latter group of people went out to buy massive land close to where the airport was coming up. The value of the land has since gone up by 100 times. What risk did they take? Airports are political decisions. A small issue and the government can roll the decision back or change the area where airport would come. These people bet that the airport would come at the place where it was initially planned to come. To that extent they took risk because if the airport did not come there, the entire investment could have vanished. If one is smart and invests to build contacts, all it takes to earn money is this. One might think – this is easier said than done. No. It is not as difficult as getting into a b-school, not as difficult as going through a b-school. Money making is NOT as difficult as it is made out to be. *

Then, why are higher salary / more money the number one reason for many of the candidates coming to b-school. Money should not be the number one reason. Because there are “many other” easier ways of making money. One need not come to a b-school. The reasons why one should come to a b-school should be many. Making more money surely can be one among the many reasons. Those who are in the process of applying to b-schools could begin to write why they want to go to b-school. If money making still comes at the top, please reread the post and do think about it.

PS:

* Did I sound like the chairman of the Barings Bank? People who have read the book, the “Rouge Trader”, would know of the statement made by Peter Baring, the chairman of the Barings Bank – The recovery in profitability has been amazing following the reorganization, leaving Barings to conclude that it was not actually terribly difficult to make money in the securities market.

= Clearadmit is one of the best know and in my opinion the best MBA admission consulting firm in the world. Clearadmit regularly reads my blog :-))