The Big five Personality Model
Not more than a month ago, our college was celebrating reminiscence of the alumni. It was a flagship event of our college which we hold every year with a lot of hubris and enthusiasm. It was a delightful day and all of us: future managers, entrepreneurs, possible CEOs, CFOs were sitting in the beautiful auditorium of our college wearing suits and maintaining utmost discipline. It was like any other events which happen, the college was decorated and all the photographs of the guest batches were displayed on lath stands in the premises. There was a photo booth, hangings from the ceiling colorful and delightful, the lighting so pretty which could break your squabble and dismay into harmony.
Soon, as we entered into the auditorium, we were introduced to the five alumni of our college. Three were as old as graduated 20 years ago, and two of them were relatively new. In that group, there was this very vibrant lady who stole attention of all. She had a persona. As she walked pass the narrow hallway clamped between the stage and seating area, the eyes of students swept from left to right. Tall and dusky in color, sharp features, she had wrapped herself in a beautiful pink sari.
They sat across us, and started sharing their life stories: how they build their career, how they made their choices? Why they made them? — caramelized with laughter filled anecdotes about their college days. Every one of them was beautiful and successful, I don’t know if millionaire or not; but they were enjoying what they were doing. They didn’t settle for something they didn’t like; they made choices, took decisions, failed and again started. Guts as I may put!
The ceremony was beautiful and we were all really enjoying it. Having a habit of deeply analyzing something till I vex myself I started to think: What is the value addition of this event to me? What am I learning? There has to be something I am deriving apart from the really loving stories who actually had paid worth to my attendance there.
Then, out of nowhere I stumbled upon a thought in my mind. The Big Five Personality Model I studied a few days ago for my Organizational Behavior paper. I had in front of me, five different personalities carved specifically for each of their solitary quality. There was a mixture of seriousness, discipline, routine, analytics and emotions. And these were the exact qualities, in my perception the only ones which were responsible for their journey and success.
Starting with the Analytical gentleman on the extreme left:
He had an analytical mind. Very carefully carving his way and buying his success from destiny against his hard work and careful nature. I was able to identify with him because I do the same. Every little detail collected, analyzed and interpreted, not because of the fear of failure, but you should know what you are venturing into, if it’s a calculated decision or not, if it’s a fit or not. And after all this, if we fail, we fail with a lot of hubris and I can easily blame god, because “hey I did the calculations”.
It adds a sense of responsibility and amusingly opposite to what people would think: It also accelerates the risk taking appetite, cause you are aware of the Unawareness.
The lady who stole quite a few hearts that day:
As melodious her voice was so was her intention. She was driven not by money, fame and name but with an emotion. She even though was successful, was working with a really renowned group, was not happy in her mundane job. Driven by the fact that college mates are moving to new jobs and she is stuck in the same place she started to feel an absence of emotion in her job. But choices, they have a power to turn you in what you think and dare. Running through some profiles she started working with some institutes which had social cause related to them. She identified that she enjoys working for a cause and suddenly the missing emotion found its perfect place in her work, like a missing piece finds in the puzzle. Happy and chirpy she told us how important it is to have your heart and mind in tandem to take the rolling wheel in the right direction. The stops may be unknown but damn they would be in line with your wants. And, yes it’s better to have few unknown eccentric ones rather than the well set spots of the society.
The Routine Approach:
Then came the third gentleman, whose talk was to the point and very logical. Apart from these other guys, he had a simple path in terms of choices not hard work. While explaining his attitude towards life, his agenda was simple and thought was a commonplace. Commonplace, which is missing in all our lives. All he wanted was, to be close to his family and relatives. Extra ordinary career choices, take too much of our time and the family keeps on adjusting and this was the exact thing he didn’t want to happen to him. He was successful, I don’t recall exactly but at a position of VP. But in a world full of entrepreneurs he chose to become a dedicated employee, doing his work with dignity and making sure his family comes first. That was his success mantra. And he seemed really happy; I could tell it from his talk. And there I learnt it’s you who define your success not the acknowledgment of society. Also, if everyone goes on turning their backs to big MNCs, how will the MNCs survive?
The Disciplinarian:
Passing on the dice to the lady next to him, we entered into the relatively new pass outs of the college. Discipline is what I learned from her. She was doing well in her job, handling clients in India, abroad as well. You see, Life was smooth. But then they all say “When it is all too smooth, Move out”, as you might be heading towards a dead end. She was aware of the fact that there is a need to do something new, but what? Who knows? Stumbling from thought to thought she understood that she needs time to figure out things. But just a “Time Please”, would mean she would end up eating the whole period in leisure. So she gave herself a task, to find out what she would do in life, want to do in her life in the next six months, or she would go back to the old routine. As I recall, giving yourself a deadline helps you channelize your energy she mentioned, which I think is must in our generation. Why? We have so many things available to us at ease, click and food is here, click and Uber arrives, click and shopping done. We have A) forgotten the enchantment of food preparation, shopping on the streets. B) Too much of time left with us, that we are unaware as a generation on how to channelize it, make it productive and thus her statement felt like an umbrella of virtue against the uncanny, unproductive vices.
The CreativeMan :
As they say, save the best for the last, moving on to the blockbuster of that day, really a terrific personality who left the auditorium in fits of laughter. He had a really idiosyncratic way of living life. “He was too creative for this role”, one of his past interviewers had said. Indeed he was, not just in providing solutions but also in the way of life he chose.
I remember he said, “ I couldn’t crack CAT well, I thought to myself I am not dumb not being able to crack CAT. There got to be a different point to it. And there was, CAT is designed to make you better future managers, not possible entrepreneurs and I am one, he said. How would you evaluate the quality of being amicable or building efficient professional relationships through a paper? You can’t, and building network is one of the biggest asset of an entrepreneur”. So, with a pause he said, if I am not able to do something, there gotta be a reason to it and different than I am not able to or I can’t. Identify yours, learn it and hire the people who could do the very same thing you couldn’t. Be a Boss and keep moving on…………………………..
