星期六, 八月 27, 2005
CCTV9 is the English-language channel of the state-owned national TV broadcasts here in China. I was ironing my shirt this morning before coming in to work, and watching a travel program about Tibet. A monk said something that struck a chord: "As Buddhists, we seek to reach enlightenment by eliminating hate, ignorance, and greed".
Most religions will include the bits about hate and greed but for me, one of the great attractions of Buddhism is its emphasis on learning and critical knowledge - every individual should question, and learn, rather than accept assertions uncritically. It's said of the Buddha that he wasn't omniscient, but that when he turned his attention to a subject he understood it completely. Knowledge and understanding of a broad range of fields has always been my aspiration, and it's one reason why I took an MBA as opposed to other graduate degrees that were attractive (and much cheaper!). An MBA covers a lot of areas that are really fundamental to understanding our daily lives, and to see clearly the influences that shape world events - macroeconomics, microeconomics, how the financial markets work and what that means for both ordinary consumers and the highest realms of international affairs. Having an MBA means I understand much, much more about how the world works, for good and for ill.
So, the meeting today was about the company's sales forecasting, CRM, valuations - all topics that once would have struck me as dull and obscure, and for which I could have made no contribution. I'm still going to have to to keep my textbooks on my desk, especially when I get to dealing with the accounting aspects (fortunately for the company, I don't have the main responsibility for this!). I am going to have a lot of work to do on valuations and sales projections, though: and now I find that I'm interested, and I can really make a contribution. Just one year ago that wouldn't have been possible.
