Episode 31 Your Definition of Success is Interesting

Yesterday had dinner with a strategy head in a multinational corporation. He graduated from MBA 20+ years ago. The dinner lasted for four hours.

During the dinner, he once said, "Through the conversations with MBAs these days, I found current students' definition of success is very interesting.

Basically you guys think success is making no mistakes. You are afraid to take any risks. I can tell you what's going to happen in twenty years if you don't take any risks. You will become a mediocre manager. Why?

Because you are identical to so many other people. I am not saying that’s bad. I am just asking whether that's what you want. Twenty years ago when I graduated from MBA I went to China. China then was totally a different country from China now. Nobody wanted to go to China and people thought I was crazy…"

He then shared two stories that he failed publicly and dramatically, which was totally unexpected because he was there supposedly to introduce the company he represents.

At the end, he said, you don't actually have life commitments right now. Your engineer boyfriend is not a real commitment. Your loan is not a real commitment. You are free to live the life you want even if it may not seem like this. Pretty soon when your parents get really sick, when your children are born, you will understand what I am saying right now.

(Originally posted on Oct15, 2016 on Wechat)