Convocation Post

It is a dull afternoon and I am sitting in the office jobless (albeit temporarily ). In spite of the boredom around, some excitement is yelling at me from a distance. It is the convocation ceremony slated for this weekend. Wow, so I am going to receive a degree(actually a PG diploma) this weekend. For most of the people who receive their degrees this would probably be their second convocation ceremony. But for me this is the first such ceremony. This fact adds to the excitement.

A Convocation Ceremony

In MBA college we were made to believe that people who quote famous people are well read and proficient in communication. That thing still refuses to leave me. So I ran a search in Google to find some interesting quotes on the theme of convocation. Google, as usual, did not ditch me and threw some 1.5 million results in 0.17 seconds. I got hold of an 'interesting' quote which I made my Facebook status message. It was a quote from Robert Orben (do not ask me who is he, probably Wikipedia can tell you that). 'A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that "individuality" is the key to success.' 

As I do not have a first hand experience with convocation, I searched for some vicarious experience and I found one. Some times back I got my hands laid on an very impressive and innovative book, 'Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish' written by Rashmi Bansal. In the preface to the book she made a reference regarding the significance of the book's title. It was the closing remarks of the commencement speech delivered by Steve Jobs to a graduating class of Stanford University in 2005. 

Steve Jobs

On a lazy Sunday afternoon I googled this speech of Jobs and immediately realized I am reading one of the finest talks of my life. A college drop-out addressing graduates in a talk filled with hardcore realities of life was too good for a commencement speech.  For MBA's this kind of talk could be an anathema. (By the way, I am not sure whether he addressed MBA's. ) Universities invariably train us to simplify things. Cliches such as 'putting things into perspective', 'to make things clear' etc attempt to simplify things. Often they simplify things to the extent of robbing the very life out of the story. Some amount of fuzziness actually spices up the subject. This talk of Jobs has a lot of fuzziness in it. 

Probably his philosophy of connecting the dots retrospectively, is one of the most powerful thought-provoking idea. When I realize how I ended up doing this MBA, I was able to connect most of the turning points I had in the past. There were times when I did not know where the road was leading me to.  But now, on the eve of convocation, I have an answer to such questions. But the road still extends into some unknown territory. I think this convocation is perhaps a signpost pointing to my destiny, which lies beyond the visible horizon.

Rashmi and her books

On a lighter note a bit of food for thought for my readers. Rashmi Bansal, has so far written two books on entrepreneurship. Both of these had their titles borrowed from this talk of Jobs ('Stay hungry and Stay foolish' and 'Connect the Dots'). Now this is the question. What would be the title of her third book (if at all she writes one and tries to coin the title borrowing from Jobs' talk)? 

My bet is 'Keep looking until you find it' or 'Don't settle'.

Readers can register their bets in the comments. 

Prizes are assured for correct bets..