I am a mediocre person and as with all mediocre people I never set high goals for myself. With goals I mean the ones for which a person toils for days and nights. I am too afraid of such hard work. I was never good in academics nor had any significant extra-curricular achievements. I scored a decent rank in EEE that was just decent enough to help me get into a decent engineering college.
As with all mediocre people I was drifting along just fine. I had my inhibitions and weaknesses and was arrogant enough to pull them along with me all the time. Mixing in the crowd is obviously my biggest strength. I had some dreams but they were always seen with closed eyes in the lull of the night. I liked to think that I had a sharp mind- my school teachers would always point it out- but it was in pristine condition because obviously it was never used.
Just then there was change in the current. A ray of hope to make those feeble dreams strong. That change was a senior who stood out of the crowd and achieved something (for mediocre people like me, it is getting into an old IIM). The thing that I always lacked started to grow in me – DETERMINATION.
I aimed for a very high percentile in CAT (for mediocre people like me it is 98). But don’t forget, I am a mediocre person, I can never aim for an IIM. I aimed for a very high percentile in CAT. That’s it. Nothing more. Getting that percentile was my salvation. It was my justification to MYSELF.
When I started to prepare I realized I can handle QA, DI and LR quite well. I grew in confidence exponentially and remained determined. I kept myself at it. Never loosing sight of my dream percentile. It wouldn’t be true if I go on and say I worked hard for it, but I can confidently say that I kept my eyes on that percentile (even if for some periods I didn’t do anything about it except that ? ) and somehow, for whatever reason, I was somewhere in my mind confident that I would get it.
As luck would have it, I got that much percentile and then some. The one and half year journey till now has affected me. It has brought many positives into me. I now have clear cut goals, determination and confidence.
The preparation for the second stage started with some introspection and a peek into life@B-school and post MBA life. I now know exactly what I am (without Google’s help ;)). I am driven now and hope this transition in me lasts for a very long time.
PS- I hate writing but I have to prepare for WAT ?