“You are what you do” is a famous statement in most widely (wrongly) quoted book, “the art of war”. I have heard this statement mostly from professors teaching competition and marketing strategies. Certainly B-Schools have their environment which compels you to believe and think only on the lines of position, profile, authority, business sense, profitability, pay package, brand name and of course power.
The question we often forget to ask all the while we are in school is that all there is to one’s existence?
Is there no other dimension to our identity? Why we always tend to classify everyone on only these lines, which we are taught to be the pillars of professionalism.
Even these pillars are very tenuous; they exclude some of the very basic and essential characteristics.
This process of commoditizing individuals, in certain set of characteristics, categories and classes is very dangerous. It prevents us from looking at those things which are beyond MBA. Things like basic goodness, honesty, ability to sacrifice, courage to blow a whistle etc.
There are so many day to day instances where we need not be super humans, but only simple individuals, but alas, simplicity is being fast rubbed off from our minds and hearts…..!!!
