If you want something badly enough...

You get it!

And here's a feel-good story for a Sunday evening that tells you how you can make it happen. This example is of a guy - let's call him G - who cracked the CAT exam but it could apply to anything in life.

I am sharing the letter he wrote to me, after being accepted at four IIMs ( reproduced as is, punctuated by my comments in italics).

Dear Rashmi,

I hope you remember me. I was one of the 9 or 10 CAT aspirants who took part in the survey you conducted on your blog, sometime last year.

I scored 99.86 percentile in CAT 2008. I got GDPI calls from IIM Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode, and managed to convert all four of them. I'll obviously be going to IIM Calcutta.

Yes, I was a victim of IIM A's policy of looking at the 10th and 12th standard scores: I had a comparatively lower score in my tenth standard. (IIMA's loss, I am sure! :)

This is the time when I pause and look back at my CAT preparation. And one thing that instantly flashes to my mind is your Kung-fu Panda post written sometime last year.

"Lesson # 1: If you want something badly enough, you get it somehow."

Believe me, I wanted it badly enough. I shifted to a lower paying job in an IT firm, from a high-paying "core" firm, so that I'd get time to study for CAT. I was assigned to a project, and the timelines were tight- we had to work on weekends also.

Initially I whined a bit because I had shifted here to study in peace, but later I managed to 'beat' the system. On Saturdays, I juggled with CAT classes(4 hours) and office work(8 hours). I was determined not to come to office on Sundays(others in my team did come) by working harder on Saturdays. On Sundays I took two mock-CATs: one from IMS and the other from TIME.

(Many others would have given up - but you found a way to juggle both work and study. I do think this is a better strategy than quitting your job and only focussing on preparation - a question I am commonly asked!)

I did not score high consistently in the mock-CATs. Yet, I had a vague inner feeling that I'll hit a sixer on the last ball, and do extremely well in CAT. I just meditated on the last day before CAT, and repeated 15-15-25 in my mind. The numbers referred to the number of questions I would solve in Quant, DI and Verbal sections respectively. It ended up being 13-12-40.

(Meditation is a *must* no matter who you are and what you do. We brush our teeth everyday, but what about all the cobwebs in our minds?)

Frankly I find it very tough to determine causality, i.e. I did 'X' and scored well in CAT. All I can say is that if you are not convinced that an IIM is the only place for you, then it is impossible to succeed in CAT. One more thing: many people take CAT to escape from their IT jobs.

I quote from that post of yours:

"Clearing these super tough exams is like running a lawnmower through your own mental garden. It crushes the weeds of self doubt and self pity which we've allowed to grow. Exam or no exam, you can choose to yank out those weeds. Then look the guys who think they know better in the eye and declare,"My soup is as kick-ass as yours."

I couldn't agree more with you on this. The whole process of cracking CAT, clearing the interviews has changed me a lot. It is not that I have become cocky, or that I have acquired a "Bring 'em on" attitude after getting an admission into IIM-C. It is simply that I don't care about anything else.

I have become less self-conscious about my appearance. I am less anxious about what others will say. I know I can stretch myself to do bigger things after cracking CAT- after all if I could manage a tough office schedule and crack CAT(and eventually the interviews), I can face most (if not all) of the challenges that come in front of me.

And now I realize that those were the weeds of self-doubt and self-pity which CAT yanked out. The whole experience gave me confidence, yet it was humbling too.

(True confidence is really about humility. You know you are capable of anything, and that 'others' do not matter. You are really only competing with yourself... But, no matter how much you 'achieve' you accept that there will always more to seek, to experience, and understand.)

Well, that's all I have to say. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for the wonderful blog that you write. It has inspired me on more than one occasion. Believe me, I view self-help stuff with suspicion, contempt and even derision, but your words work for me.

Cheers,
G

Thank you, G, for sharing your experience. Wish you all the very best in the journey of life. May the panda in you continue to kung fu, even in that suit and tie.

More 'kung fu panda' experiences shared by readers here.

More Kung fu

No more fundas from me though. Here are two true tales that were emailed across to me in response to the original post. Only the names have been changed, on request. Rest is as is, from my mailbox to you.

Experience 1: From XXX, in Europe

I strongly believe in "If you want something really bad, you will get it". I first came across this philosophy 3-4 years ago while reading Alchemist (Paul Coelho) and then spent a lot of time thinking about my life and if this saying was applicable to me. I could think of only one thing that I had wanted really bad - an MBA from a top school.

It hadn't materialized 4 yrs ago but I hadn't given hope. In fact, when I finished my engineering in 2003, I had admits from some good Indian b-schools but wanted to make it to IIMs. To cut the long story short, for some or other reason I couldn't get into a top school by 2006 end. Till then, I had never thought of MBA abroad thinking that I could never afford it.

At the start of 2007, I started thinking about int'l MBA seriously and decided to go for it in March. Took GMAT in June and got a decent score of 740. Even then, when I decided to apply to YYY (top European bschool), I wasn't sure of an admit. In November, I got the admit and was mighty relieved - finally I had an admit from a school which I was prepared to join.

My story did not end there. The journey from getting an admit to actually joining the school was full of ups and downs. Because of funding constraints, at one time I had almost dropped the plan to join the school. But somehow, things started working out and finally I joined YYY in Sep last year.

Cool, I say! And this next one goes out to the engineer who wanted to know about courses in finance. This could the way forward for you...

Experience 2: from YYY, in Mumbai

...your latest post reminded me of my experiences 6 years back. I was in the final semester of my engineering at Ahmedabad and like a lot of people, I had discovered through those 4 years that I definitely did not want to pursue a further degree in engineering.

Through chance, I happened to read a book on Warren Buffet and was instantly hooked on. I did some more research on my own and with great difficulty managed to complete security analysis bibles like 'Security Analysis - Graham & Dodd' and ' Intelligent Investor - Graham'.

Obviously, being an engineer, I had no clue about finance and economics. But I would ask my queries to a few people who understood finance. At 21, with no formal education in finance, I decided to pursue being a security analyst. Although I did secure an IT job through campus recruitment, thankfully I had no financial compulsion to take up a job immediately ( I realize not many people have this luxury).

So, back to the pursuit for a job in security analysis, I read through articles written by analysts in Outlook Money and similar magazines and sent emails to them saying I was really interested in working for them even if it was for no salary. Through a lot of persistence, I finally managed to get a reply from someone who ran a portfolio management business and was amazing at what I wanted to do.

I moved to Mumbai and worked on a few projects with this person who eventually became my mentor. To cut a long story short, I managed to enter my field of liking (and at 21, I was filled with idealistic notions of 'enjoying your work, money apne aap se aayega' kind of philosophy). Things progressed, I worked in this field for a year, then went back to my small family business to get a practical experience on things, meanwhile completing my international CFA and MBA from ISB, Hyderabad.

Last year, I joined ZZZ (MNC investment bank) in Mumbai as a research analyst. Call it luck, call it persistence, but I agree that if you want something real bad and are prepared to go through pain for it, you eventually get it. I don't profess to have 'achieved' anything much, only that I remembered how things for me were in 2001 when I completed my engineering.

Hope that brings some sunshine in your life on a cloudy Monday morning... Go out and get whatever it is you want. Want it badly enough and it will find a way to come to you!

P.S. 'Alchemistry' works with careers - at least it did for these two people. But does it work in friendships and relationships? Will the girl/ guy you see at the bus stop everyday and secretly have the hots for, one day fall for you? Because you really really want them to, badly...

Anyone with success stories in that area, please to share. Kyunki arz hai ki...

Career ke alaava aur bhi gham hain zamaane mein, aur bhi khushiyan
Premi aur stalker mein zyada fark nahin, bas ek ko padti hain jootiyan.

Kung Fu style Career Advice

If a giant panda can become a mighty kung-fu warrior - so could you. Not kung-fu, but whatever. Ballet dancer, arctic explorer or investment banker.

I can already hear you say,"Hey, that happens only in the movies."

Well, yes and no. Here are some definite takeaways from Kung fu Panda, for all those of you struggling with questions of what, where and how to steer your career.

Lesson # 1: If you want something badly enough, you get it somehow.

Po the panda wanted to be a kung-fu warrior really really badly. He followed every kung fu teacher, every battle, every hero there ever was. The chap was a walking Kung Fu Encyclopedia!

And of course, he dreamt about kung fu too.

Ask yourself - do you care something in your life that strongly? If you do - it will be yours one day.

Lesson # 2: It could take a while but you'll get there.

So if you believe Lesson # 1 the question is 'how'? Now sometimes you may get there the straight and easy way. The way to be a kung fu warrior is to train under a great Master, right?

Well, Po got the job another way. He bumbled and tumbled up the mountain and finally literally 'dropped in from the sky'. Master Oogway then pronounced:"He is the one, the great Dragon Warrior". To everybody's surprise!

In real life there aren't enough Oogways who can see a diamond in the coal; a kung fu champion in a blubbering mass of fat.

But how many of you have struggled like the panda to even get to that mountain top where there may be a Master waiting for you?

Lesson # 3: 'A peach tree will blossom into a peach tree. It can't become an apple tree...' - Master Oogway

Why many of us come to grief is we don't know 'who we are'. Are we a peach tree, or a jasmine tree or a cactus? Every one of those is beautiful and useful in its own way. No one is 'superior' to the other.

Yet in life many of us believe that we must all be peach trees. ie MBAs and engineers. The aroma of the jasmine is lost to the world and all we have is peach, peach and more peach (fruity burp!).

Lesson # 4: 'There are no accidents in life...' - Master Shifu

Yup, the fact that you did not make it to IIT or IIM or with that cute chick on the second floor. This was the way it was meant to be.

Think about Steve Jobs being forced to exit his own company in 1985. He went through hell but was forced to think of new ideas, new directions. It led to the creation of Pixar and a whole new kind of animation.

And ultimately, he went back to Apple with iTunes and iPod.

Could he have done all this had he never left Apple? I don't know. But I think greatness is born more out of adversity than in nice hot bathtubs.

Woh Archimedes wala funda bhi theek hai but you can't run naked in the streets anymore. By the time you dress up and get out into the world, you find josh chala gaya.

Lesson # 5: There is no secret ingredient in the secret ingredient soup.

And this is especially relevant at a time when we are all on the quest for the Holy Grail. We believe that joining the right college, the right course or the right company is the secret ingredient which will spice up our soup - our careers, our lives.

The truth is, it's all about what you believe. The moment you join an IIT or an IIM you start believing,"Hey I am really really good". You get the confidence to take on the world, the chutzpah to say,"The world is my oyster".

Clearing these super tough exams is like running a lawnmower through your own mental garden. It crushes the weeds of self doubt and self pity which we've allowed to grow.

Exam or no exam, you can choose to yank out those weeds. Then look the guys who think they know better in the eye and declare,"My soup is as kick-ass as yours."

Lastly, words of wisdom from Master Oogway which apply not just to careers, but any and every walk of life: 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery... today is a gift'.

Have you at least undone the wrapping paper of this brand new, beautiful moment? Right here, right now, today??