Success VS Satisfaction

Few things I found unique to IIMA is fantastic courses that get floated in second year. I took Shodhyatra- A Journey for exploration where we traveled to the valleys and mountains of Sikkim for a week. Then in fifth term I opted for Strategy Safari which involved a week long industry excursion in Malaysia to study the strategies of organization in context of different cultural and economic settings.

When it comes to sixth term people prefer to play safe. They don't prefer to opt courses which drain their energies which they want to better utilize for the placements. I had chosen the mixed route. There are certain courses people perceived as fraud courses, which are not much demanding in terms of efforts required. When I chosen subjects for this semester, I heard similar things about a subject LVMR ( Leadership, Vision, Mission and Reality). This course involved study of 14 novels and 4-5 films which help to understand the various context of leadership with the practical examples.

I was excited when I got the set of novels at the start of the course and decided I will try my best to read them. Though I haven't done enough justice to this course but today when my group has to present on 'Success Vs Satisfaction' there is no way out for me. I just finish the class and kind of discussion we had is I felt worth sharing here.

The course involved story of a lady Rohini ( Thirsting for Water - Milind Bokil) who opted to enter into the fight of dam affected village. The other characters are Aai her mother who stood firmly behind her, her selfish husband and her sister. The theme was does success and satisfaction goes hand in hand or there is trade off ? What is important the joy of attaining destination or journey towards it? Is uncertainties create dilemma of knowing what is meaning of satisfaction for you and how one can resolve it?

You might predict that the discussion followed by this must be global but believe me this is most pertaining lesson. At many stages of life we keep on doing this trade off and end up facing these dilemmas. It will long and boring for you if I share whole discussion here. The summary was....
'The satisfaction comes out of meaning one attach to one's work. It is internal phenomenon where as success is something that is attributed to you by external factors. One should be very clear about what one is looking for. Some people are successful but not necessarily satisfied....some satisfied but not necessarily successful ...and some manage a fine balance between two"

I can't end this topic without sharing this fantastic video by Guy Kawasaki ....here you go