Fear, and career decisions || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi Live, 13.10.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:  ~How to make the right career decision? ~ What fear stops us form making the right choice? ~ What is that evil which stops us? ~ Should I go for job or do what I like? ~ What are the steps to take to realise my inner calling?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Acharyaji Pranam. Gil decided what he would like to do when he was just 16 and followed

00:12it throughout his life. I have always been risk averse and have followed a conventional

00:17career path. I have planned to go for MBA next. Though I decided this long back, there

00:23is also a feeling in me that I should experiment and do more of what I like. I am trying to

00:28understand why it is so difficult for me to follow my inner voice. How can I overcome

00:32this mental block to be sure of my decisions? Please guide the steps that I should take

00:38to realize my calling. First of all, it is not MBA versus something else. It's about

00:47the center from where you decide. If you are deciding from the wrong center, then whether

00:52you do MBA or MBBS, it's just the same. It's the same and it's wrong. He wanted to do MBA,

01:03he couldn't do an MBA. He had to do an MS instead. Why did he do an MS instead of an

01:10MBA? Oh, his father pressurized him. So he went for MS instead of MBA. His father pressurized

01:19him so the poor chap couldn't do an MBA. But why the hell did he want to do an MBA

01:24in the first place? Because all his friends were doing MBAs. So he desperately wanted

01:29to do an MBA. Now would it have been any better had he managed to do an MBA? MS he did influenced

01:46by his father. MBA he would have done influenced by his friends. How is one choice superior

01:53to the other? Why do you want to do your MBA? You don't look like one of the business kinds.

02:02Look at your face. Do MBAs look like this? Not successful MBAs. MBAs like me look like

02:11this. What do you want an MBA for? To influence other people through your ads? What will you

02:36advertise? So I want to do MBA so that I can advertise. And maybe end as a brand manager

03:01for a company. Something like that. Is there any bit of you in all this? Advertising, brand

03:14management. I want to end as a brand manager. You may end but you will not end as brand

03:25manager. What is all this? Will it be too difficult to see that somebody put all this

03:40stuff in your head? Not one person in particular. Maybe a long sequence, an entire crowd, a

03:56process that took years and is still continuing. If you meet me in a market or had you met

04:20me 15 years back in some corporate seminar, I wouldn't have raised these questions. But

04:33because today you are sitting here all clad in white as a spiritual seeker, I want to

04:38understand. What do you mean by brand management, advertising? Basically, we are influencing

04:48the audience to buy the product. Which product? For my company. For your company? For someone's

04:55company. What's there in it for you? I will be able to put forward my ideas. Your ideas? Then

05:09put them forward. Why do you want an MBA? I mean, it pays well. So you want those ideas from the

05:16MBA degree so that you can use those ideas for somebody else. I mean, this is the kind of career

05:25which also pays well and you can access your creative skills. Creative skills? Yes. What is

05:30that? Because how many of you find advertisements creative? What do you mean by creative

05:38advertisement? In a way, we have to influence people. We have to. We have to? How many of you?

05:46The copywriters, the art directors, the brand manager, everyone in the team. If you want to

05:57influence people, why don't you become a documentary maker? Why don't you go to Bollywood

06:02and start writing scripts? Yeah, this is one of the way, but this is the more conventional and

06:07some people are paid for it. People? I mean, the brand managers, the chances of succeeding there

06:15are more. What do you mean by success? Money. Yes. What will you do with money? Buy some product

06:35that you have been influenced to buy through ads. Safety for my family. And the ones you will buy

06:44safety from have advertised safety to you through their ads, like insurance companies. So you want

06:53to influence others exactly the same way others are influencing you. Sell yourself. This might be

07:15an interview for MBA entrance. I mean, when I was thinking that what I should do next after my

07:23B.Tech. What were you doing? When I was doing my B.Tech. And I thought you were thinking. No. So

07:28when I was doing my B.Tech, I was thinking, what should I do next? What were you thinking? And then

07:33I used to do theater in college. And there were a lot of things like I come from a middle class

07:43family. So I have to take care of them also. So I came at a settlement then I would make some money

07:49also. And I would excel in my creative skills also. So the balance was this. Did you see why

07:54did you do your B.Tech in the first place? I used to like science at that time. So why don't you

08:10become a scientist? I mean, at that point, at this point, you like ads.

08:40Evil is not some humongous monster. Evil is small and helpless things like these. These small and

08:54helpless things that get together in millions and take the shape of a huge creature. One

09:09person, lost and senseless and directionless is pitiable. An entire institute offering MBA

09:23degrees full of lost and senseless persons becomes an attractive destination. It is no

09:32more pitiable. It is attractive. If there is just one person who wants socks with a thousand holes,

09:53then that person will be declared a lunatic. But if there are a million persons who want socks

10:02with a thousand holes, governments will create policies to have an entire industry catering to

10:13this huge market. Evil lies in the great number of small people. What you are saying right now

10:28is very obviously stupid to everybody here because you are alone. Had this been a batch

10:40of graduating MBAs from some premier MBA institution, you would have shouted me out

10:47of this room and that's what you will do two years later. Then do you know who would be sitting

11:00here? Some stupid HR person of some marketing company or ad agency. And the whole occasion

11:27would appear very very solemn. A bunch of 200 graduating MBAs eager to present their

11:36credentials to the HR person of a promising firm. On its own, stupidity is so feeble,

11:51it can be crushed very easily. But because stupidity is feeble, it knows one thing. It

12:03must gather numbers. So it forms huge organizations, colonies where all the stupid ones can stick

12:18around. And then they are very difficult to tackle. Don't you see even a Gail Winand

12:29quote to his audience. Why did the banner have to be the most smutty thing in New York? Because

12:40that's what the audience has wanted. By himself, on his own, each of his readers was a nobody.

12:49Totally a nobody. A newspaper has millions of readers. That's how the circulation of the big

13:01chains runs. Each of the single readers is inconsequential on his own. But when they

13:12become a huge mass in millions, then even Gail Winand has to surrender to them. You

13:23are surely progressing to be one of those who can bring Winand down to his knees. One

13:39of Toohi's boys.

14:05What will you tell yourself when you get paid? I got paid to sell somebody's batata vada.

14:16I made a good ad that sells batata vada as masala dosa. Creativity.

14:46Or vada as salted donut. Creative ads. Young talent like you. What exactly do you mean

15:13by creative advertising? I'm curious. You say you have been listening to me and I always said

15:23creativity has to be purposeless. If there is a purpose, you can't be creative. How can an ad

15:29be creative? Tell me. Why do you want to abuse the term creativity? It's worse than abuse. It's

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