“Why Can’t You Be Like Him?” Asked my Mom

“Why can’t you be like him?”, asked my mom.
Like “Who?” , I asked.
“That Satya guy who bought Microsoft”, said my mom. My mom does not understand the concept of CEO. I can’t blame her. For her any one who is big, buys a business.
“No mom. He did not buy Microsoft. He just became its CEO”, I said, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I know where this was leading.
“Same thing” she said, dismissing me with a wave of her hand. I told you to work in some big company instead of wasting time on startups.
“But mom, I enjoy doing startups. I like the idea of building products, making a little money and being independent.”
“I can’t understand you”, she said, obviously not very happy.
“You went to US and you came back. I never know why you did not join Infosys when you had a chance.” Frankly, I did not have a chance. Infosys does aptitude tests and things like that which I am not very good at. I also hate taking tests under pressure.
She was not going to let it go. I had to change the subject and I could not think of anything. Like many others, I don’t really have many common topics for conversation.

Fortunately, I woke up at this point. So, it was all a dream. “Thank God”, I thought. I decided to skip visiting my mom this weekend.

Meta:

This was all made up. Fortunately my mom really does not talk like that but I know some moms who do.  Satya’s appointment as Microsoft CEO is starting a lots of conversations. It is good if you are from an Indian middle class family. Satya will have his job cut out and will be under lots of pressure. But he has the blessings of a large community, who are really proud of him. Microsoft is well known in India. Probably the only other company as well known is Google.

One thought on ““Why Can’t You Be Like Him?” Asked my Mom

  1. I am currently going through this exact scenario albeit the only difference is I m already working for such MNC currently and considering to join a startup.
    Nice analysis of current mindset of our families 🙂

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