Snapshots from Hell : A Review

Ever since I came to know that TCS Bangalore library doesnt have fiction books, my heart sunk.I am an avid reader and fiction books have been my favorite.I mean I have nothing against books titled "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" & "How to Instantly Influence People" etc etc but I believe human mind is so intriguing that it cannot change itself by books that step wise tell it to look at things or develop a perspective.

The most powerful books that truly leave an impression are the ones in which we live the life of the author in the book.These books make us ponder on a lot of things that we would miss out otherwise.

One day wandering through the book shelves of TCS library , I came across a book titled "Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson.Delighted to see a title that differed from topics like SAP FICO, JAVA Complete Reference, Performance Appraisals, I reached out and opened the book. The introductory note said this book was about the experience of a poet in Standford Business School.I went ahead and issued it.

The author was the former speech writer in Ronald Reagan's office when he took a sabbatical and went ahead for MBA at Standford hoping for a life with money and happiness ever after.Set in early 1990's, this book talks about the MBA phenomenon where the smartest people go to a business school, from diverse backgrounds ranging from Banking to Civil Services to Army, all with common idea that they would win the world after MBA. Almost 2 decades later I feel nothing really has changed.

While students like the author who were "poets" or students with minimal mathematical background had a tough time managing the calculations for subjects like Macroeconomics, Computer modelling etc, the "Non poets"  like the bankers, consultants and engineers happily & competitively sailed through them.The book is filled with interesting insights from the Standford classroom where sometimes Professors taught something that went totally above heads of even the brightest of the class, where students protested against mediocre teaching, studying hard for mid terms & end terms, competing , falling in depression, making study groups and slogging over case studies.In other words, It felt like just any other college.

The author states the biggest impact of Standford MBA was that it helped him develop a quantitative & analytical way of looking at things. Right from Organisational Behavior to Finance, each course made sure the students develop a perspective that is supported by numbers.Standford MBA students having numerous accomplishments were also normal humans  having strong egos,relationship hassles, worries about future, yet at the end coming together as a single group just like any other graduating batch.

The biggest lessons from the book were when the author describes two incidents. One, where the transition of students from rosy life assumption after MBA  to the extreme hard work during Business school to some landing a dream job at The Investment Banks while others struggling for jobs.It says that "While we all chase some things beyond our reach, crying helplessly, running restlessly , without catching a breath , it dawns upon at the end that there was no destination after all, it was the journey that was all that mattered."

Second was during a Marketing class when an executive with Procter & Gamble visited the classroom and discussed about a product they launched which failed miserably at the market. It conveyed a simple message "Its ok to make mistakes in life". Even big boys like P&G who hired the best brains made mistakes, so it was absolutely fine for mere mortals like us to make mistakes.

An awesome read! This book exhibits the journey of a person who joined an institution where he considered himself as a misfit but at the end discovered a side of his he had never met before.Hope I experience something like this in life :) Cheers to life !