In Criticism of - The Two Roads Diverged In The Woods.

When I was sitting for my placements in MBA, I really wanted to get into investment banking. However, 2013, being the year before the national elections, there were no investment banking or corporate banking jobs. The ideal approach would have been to take a job in consulting, apply aggressively, and transition to an investment banking role within the first year. However, I decided to be different. I did not conduct any research on career paths and decided to pursue a job in consumer banking. I then hoped to transition into investment banking within the bank. It was a wrapped logic. There was no path like this. I did not enjoy consumer banking and ultimately left the industry within three years.

I believe Robert Frost’s poem - Two Roads Divided in the Woods gives the wrong lesson. There is very little glory in taking the path that is not taken by others. The beaten path benefits from the community's wisdom. It is a path where dangers and pitfalls are known and does not suffer from the fear of the unexpected. The community heuristics ensure that there are inbuilt fail-safes and pit spots marked along the way to mark progress.

On the other hand, the path not taken may not be taken for a reason. It might be a dead end, filled with wild animals or having no means of survival. It is a very low probability event that you would discover something others have missed. But what comes in our way is our ego. The supreme belief that we are better than others, and will show them how it is done. Most of the time, rationally, it does not make any sense from a risk-reward perspective. The risk-reward of the known path is provided via stories and heuristics told through the ages. The risk of the unknown path has not been battle-tested as many times, and hence is unknown.

Hence, it is always a good strategy to understand the successful playbook and try to replicate it. However, if one wants to take a new approach, it has to be understood why it was unsuccessful previously and what the associated risks were. The core job then becomes how to circumvent or tackle those risks. To be successful, one has to learn from others.

As for me, things turned out okay. Leaving gave me the chance to escape the rat race, learn a new skill, and start on my own. Things turned out well, but there are days when I think about going to the office in a suit to work on a merger deal between two large conglomerates.