Having pretty much wasted my 4 years at IIT without learning much, I was determined to not repeat that mess, ever.
So when I joined my MBA, I was focused and doing well academically. But it created another problem — I became greedy for top grades and felt like only taking quantitative courses (e.g., finance, operations), where I could score effortlessly.
Then came the chance to do Wharton’s highly recommended course — Negotiations.
I was in a bind: In Negotiations, I had no edge over others and might miss the top grade. Why not just just take a finance course and seal a near-perfect GPA in the 2nd year?
Honestly, MBA grades are irrelevant to success in the business world but negotiation is a truly valuable skill. Thankfully, good sense prevailed and I took ‘Negotiations.’
This shows the danger of allowing our quest for success to become such an obsession, that we are unwilling to accept failure.
When we do that, we condemn ourselves to staying in our comfort zone. And who learns anything in their comfort zone?
Ironically, aversion to failure results in life’s biggest failure — you don’t learn.
Much better to keep failing and learning, even if it creates a messy resume.
Life is bigger than a resume.
– Rajan