Academics: Is that everything?

In the recent past days, I've been chatting with a new friend of mine, about academics and qualification; and how it shapes an individual's life. I dont know what you call the thing you put beside the eyes of the horses when they are set for the race. Whatsoever it may be, they are meant for them so they are not distracted by the green grass on the pathway. Our education system is that way !!

We are too lazy for the opportunities that come our way. We ignore and race ahead towards what we call as "CAREER" which is already set in our minds. We dont dare to think beyond that. Right from 8th grade onwards they know what they want out of thier Life. They want to become doctor, engineer, architect, lawyer, blah and blah. This is because our education system has trained us to be so. The other day I read a quote on t-shirt which read, "I was born intelligent, but education ruined me". So true !!

Ironically nobody wishes to become Bill gates, Warren Buffet or Ambani...If you really look into the fact files, you'll see that most of the millionaires and billionares had just one thing in common, "they are all school-dropouts and under-performers". Also if we closely see, we also realize that the Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, or any professionals, they are all working directly or indirectly for these school-dropouts and under-performers. In other words, "its a bunch of school-dropouts who are movers and shakers of the world economy".

What does a Consultant DO?

My views are purely the outcome of my experience. Now this is something very interesting. I was at some point of time couple of years ago, into "web-development-consulting''. So to comment upon, I would begin commenting, that consulting is an art where the power of communication, ideas, intellect and know-how of the concerned market are together driven towards the achievement of the ultimate requirement of the client, adding value to our service. Here, understanding the client's requirement is very important. The skills demanded by the position of being a consultant is tremendous but these skills alone wont help. Its like "I have a phone but no one to talk to". Yes I mean it right... 'being client-centric' is essential at every instance being a consultant. The bottom line says, "Being a consultant, is being client-centric".

But then, is that so very easy as we think? I wont comment on that, as it depends on the experience and expertise level of various tycoons of consulting industry, no matter in what. In every aspect of consulting, client plays the most important role. For the purpose of knowing the needs and core requirements of the client, we need to undergo a vast thought-process, we need to have an in-depth insight about the business goals of the client, how does it function, the circle of all the vendors with whom they work with, the vendor policies, outsourcing details, etc. The more clear and precise we have the information with us, the more we have the ideas "ready-to-sell". This comes not with a great liberation but a lot of sacrifice. But its not necessary, all the time that we need to know these since it also depends on the policies of the companies, if they would disclose these critcal information. So we need to be wise enough to understand and act as per the circumstances based on facts. There are 'n' number of factors which influences 'consulting', which gives you 'n' number of options.

When in a meeting for instance, with the client, nothing but a scribbler will do a great help. This helps you to jolt down the critical points and minute details that you may miss out while making some of the most critical decisions. I do very precisely remember a phrase told to us by my high school principal. He'd said, "A faint ink is much better than a sharp memory". So travelling back from the sweet memory lane and re-learning some school days lesson, the punch line here says rather screams with a pinch of salt to convey the message. The points that we write down when in a meeting helps us not to miss out any minute details that is being conveyed to us by the client, helping us to get to the root level of the requirement and thus better decisions. Does the job of a consultant finishes here? I definitely need some further insight into the same.