I Don’t Hate My Degrees Anymore

For a Large part of my life I have hated my academic degrees. I know hate is a strong word, but yes, I have hated them. So what are these degrees I am talking about? I have a B Tech in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering from IIT Madras – probably India’s best engineering college, and a PGDM (or MBA) from IIM Ahmedabad – probably India’s second best management institute 😉 . I also have a PhD from London Business School, but we can leave that one out of this essay because I never hated it – for reasons that will become clearer soon.

So why did I hate my IIT & IIM degrees? There are three broad categories the reasons fall under

a) I felt like my degrees were holding me prisoner and keeping me from experimenting with my life and my work. Me (and everyone around me) was afraid I would ‘waste’ my degrees.

b) I was privately ashamed of the reasons that had driven me to pursue and ‘collect’ these degrees. My reasons had mainly stemmed from insecurity and competition and not a desire to acquire knowledge.

c) My IIT-IIM Stature had made me a part of a very elite peer group and comparing myself with others in this peer group used to sap at my sense of self worth.

In this video blog I elaborate on each of these points and share what has helped me move beyond these ‘hate factors’. I am now at a place where I don’t hate my degrees anymore and I don’t feel my body cringe when I look at my CV or my certificates. I am able to gladly accept these degrees as important parts of my life’s journey, am able to draw upon them to contribute to myself and others, and have even found ways to leverage them in the work I currently do.

I hope you find this video useful, and if you do please do share it with others who might be struggling under the weight of their degrees. Lets try to transform that burden into something that is a contribution instead.