Innovation, Foresight, and Business Design

I am taking some very interesting courses in my second-year at Rotman.

Some of the courses are designed to make you think NOT like a business student - they are designed to simply make you think and not download. I find Innovation, Foresight, and Business Design very intersting. The Professor- Alex Manu is from Ontario Colleage of Arts and Design (OCAD), so you can imagine how "un-business" like his teaching style must be.

His power-point presentations are stellar - the slides communicate his ideas, both visually and verbally in two lines! The slides show what a MBA will communicate in two pages can be well-communicated with visual framework. In addition, he brings toys to class, has a great sense of humor, and gives us tools to THINK.

The first question, he asked was,"If you could talk to your toilet, what would you say"?
Weird question - ain't it?

There were numerous hilarious answers, but the key to this question was - what benefit would the question have for us?
Key possible answer - Am I Healthy?

He made us work on another 12-question exercise: we had to ask ourselves a question, which was on our mind at that time and answer 12 questions (2 minute/question) in written. The purpose of the exercise was to realize something new about yourself.

What is the point of this blog entry?

I found out that if I said to Hitesh tomorrow, I want to be a farmer, he would support my decision! Also, I found out that I am a risk-taker. Therefore, worrying about current recruiting at Rotman, worrying because future looks blurry, and worrying because I am unable to let go of my fear is not the way to go.

I felt at a lot more at ease with the decision on Friday. There is a slight question (sub-set of the bigger question) that still needs to be answered though - I am sure it will come to me sometime soon.

Decisions, decisions, and decisions!

I am a mental wreck these days - confusion or blurriness of thoughts is making me extremely moody. I am loosing my sanity!

A few years back, I told Hitesh I would move to US with him once I get my citizenship. It is about that time now. This means, I should not apply for jobs in Canada. It also means that I should start building my network within US, which is a little hard to work on while physically being present in Toronto.

I started off great - I have been slowly building my network. First week into school, and bam! reality hits me. I see my classmates applying for jobs through Rotman's postings, I see jobs getting posted that I would like to apply to, and I see people getting intereviews.

Result 1: Temptation to apply to jobs!
Result 2: US economy's condition - would moving to US be a good desicion?
Result 3: Extreme irritation with everything in this world.
Result 4: Extreme sadness on the decision to move away from Canada.
Result 5: I am sad that my sister & I will once again be living in different cities.

For the last 4 days, I have been all over the place in my head and am unable to think straight. Today, I applied to 3 jobs through Rotman's posting. I feel like a horrible person - not letting Hitesh know what I am doing. In addition, I am ruining someone else's chances of getting short-listed for interviews.

Well, I could say that I should be selfish and at least apply and see how things move along.

Today I asked myself,"what is the worse thing that could happen to me?"
It could very well happen that I'd be unemplyed after an MBA. That scared the hell out of me! Also, US economy could be down the drain when I graduate, so it would be even worse.

Biggest Hindrance:
I am bound by time - when we put time constraints on ourselves, we tend to get nervous if the time seems to go by fast. 8 months seems like a short-time.

I feel so unhappy even while writing this post - I hope I am able to clear my head and think through my future plans.

On the brighter side, life will be so much happier if we move to San Fransciso - I shall be able to breathe the ocean air yet again :)

Canada's East Coast - Nova Scotia

Every 3-4 months, I need to get away from the city.

At the end of my 4-month internship in August, we planned a 5 day get away to the East Coast of Canada - Nova Scotia. One of my friends at school is from Halifax in Nova Scotia. He often mentions that he hates NYC/Toronto, because there are way too many people in both these cities. I could never understand his comment until I saw the kind of life people lead in Nova Scotia.

Top 5 reasons to visit Nova Scotia:

1. People are extremely friendly - canadians in general are friendly people, but people from Nova Scotia are super friendly.

2. East Coast is extremely scenic - we drove around Cape Breton National Highlands Park and Bay of Fundy. It was very pristine and the government has done an excellent job in preserving the natural beauty.

3. Atlantic Salmon tastes different and yummy.

4. Bright colors make everything in the province much brighter - I was most fascinated by the colors of boats, storage places, and houses there - bright green, red, and yellows.

5. Nature plays tricks - around Bay of Fundy, when the tide is low, you can actually walk on the ocean floor! when the tide is high, the water looks quite scary and angry. On one of the beaches, water was jet-black in color!

There was so much to explore around the East Coast - I felt content, happy, and relaxed while I was there.

We took the subway back to our place when we entered Toronto. I can confidently say that I had a cultural shock - the number of people living in Nova Scotia is probably less than the number of people who take Toronto's subway every morning!

Well, and I completely understand what Trevor means when he makes a face and says," I hate NYC - there are way too many people in that city".