Annual Report

As a popular Indian mobile phone ad goes, life can change in a second. Over the last 31.5 million seconds that I've spent in India, I can safely say that my life has changed more than a few times, sometimes even in a matter of mere seconds. This past year has been one of extreme contradictions - at different points in the year, I've been called smart and stupid, hopeless and high-potential, star material and goofy-looking, greedy and unambitious, and aimless and resolute, and I've felt despised and admired, underrated and overestimated, and ridiculed and envied. Needless to say, I have plenty to write about these last 365 days, but instead of writing yet another giant, deeply introspective post, let me leave matters relatively light with a bulletized list of noteworthy happenings/ changes from the last year.

The Good:
1) Understood how India has changed in the last 10 years and learned economics in the process.
2) Figured out to achieve wealth (legally) with just the resources I have.
3) Discovered the true potential of networking.
4) Recollected and validated my long-forgotten ideas on Indian society and where I fit in it.
5) Traded in my defensive, servile, middle-class mindset for a self-assertive, entrepreneurial one.
6) Learned to quit ruminating over a decade of bad decisions to instead focus on what I can now to improve things.
7) Overhauled and greatly optimized my family's finances and significantly improved their standard of living.
8) Wrote an ad that went on the front page of the Times of India.
9) Kick-started a money-making machine.
10) Made peace with the fact that I can not change some things/ people in my life.
11) Understood what I want to do in the short, medium and long term.
12) Made a few good friends and one awesomely crazy, little "pretend-sister" along the way. :)

The Bad:
1) Lost focus of career for a while, leading to a complete failure of the green venture.
2) Fell behind the 8-ball by 2 years: I'll be older than a majority of my classmates when I enter B-school at 28 (and when I graduate at 30, I'll be considered to be too old to be still "unsettled" in life.)
3) Let a few cracks emerge in my very strong faith.
4) Antagonized parents and was shown the door! (x 3)
5) Went through few cycles of failure-induced-depression.
6) Lost all vestiges of having been an NRI. (Makes life & business difficult here.)
7) Did several things that were against my political beliefs.
8) Earned less money than in any year since I turned 17.
9) Despite learning the importance of being irresponsible, still readily compromise like a 45 year old.
10) Did not hang out much with my old friends, most of whom live in other metros.
11) Did not make very many new friends nor network as well as I had expected.
12) As a result of 10 & 11, did not have much of a social life.

The Ugly:
To paraphrase a couple of friends, I look like a much older, anemic, sleep-deprived guy who in one or two angles kinda sorta resembles me from a year ago! (This is really bad because it wasn't like I was one looker a year ago!) I suppose I can safely blame excessive stress, lack of exercise, highly un-nutritious, carb-laden food and too much time out in the sun for this.

With that review of the last year out of the way, it's time to move on to what comes next. I have roughly 10 months left in India before I (hopefully) leave the country for an MBA and I would do well to use this time to address a few problem areas (and to build on the gains) from the past year. So, here are some objectives for the next 10 months to a year.

1) Get into a good B-school. (Targeting Harvard (super-stretch), Stanford, Yale & Berkeley for now, with INSEAD in Jan 2011 as plan B.)
2) Get back to looking like myself again => gym + green tea + multi-vitamins + lots of sleep.
3) Make friends and network! I think preparing MBA apps and (hopefully) interviews will give me an opportunity to meet and network with like-minded people.
4) Travel more and hang out with friends in other cities.
5) Make enough money in the next 10 months to pay for all MBA related expenses. (What's life without a few challenges? ;) )
6) Work out a transition strategy to ensure that my real estate engine keeps running here while I am abroad getting a degree and having some much needed fun. :)