Q1.

Fifer’s Career at a glance:

Educational Life:

Bronx High school of science

• Highly focused on studies and getting the grades.

Harvard College
• Influenced by his elder brother, who was in the same college, to get admission.
• Opted for Applied Mathematics course on the recommendation of his father.
• Dropped out of the course due to lack of practical knowledge, Bob felt it was more of
memorization.
• Switched to Economics Major, which was less intense than the previous course.
• Started two businesses I college, Winthrop house grill, and a mail-order chess
business along with his father.

Harvard Busines School

• The businesses in Harvard school cleared his way to HBS.
• Rejected consulting job at a firm called Temple, Barker and Sloan due to lack of job
profile challenges.
• Chose SPA over Braxton associates following his senses.

Professional Career:

Strategic Planning Associates

• He counted a lot to learn from his mentor in the film, Walker.
• Started living together with his future wife and the then recruit, Nancy. Giving more
importance to his love life than Career to a certain extent.
• After his growth was slowing down at SPA, Bob rechannelled all his achievement
drive and ambitions to taste politics that was the reason for his hindered growth as per
him.
• Rejected an initial offer by Michael Kaiser to join his startup, later joining him at 26.

Kaiser
• Accepted Michael’s offer to buy his stock as Michael decided to retire. He made this
decision because he did not want to go to a consulting firm again.
• Bob was working seven days a week that impacted his family life, later he cut down
his work period to 4 days a week to maintain a work-life balance. Again, cut it to
three days a week.
• Withdrew from the active management of the firm to spend more time with his
family. Chose family over corporate positions.

Q2.
In the initial phase of his Career, Bob Fifer was influenced by his siblings and was chasing
grades. In high school, he always used to come in top rankers. After meeting different kind of
people in his college, bob started understanding that grades are not a door for success in life,
as exploring new things with confidence is something that takes you forward. He started
believing more on his gut than his brain to make a decision; in this way, he developed a risk-
taking ability (a calculated one).
Early in his professional Career, Bob tasted a lot of success, and things were a bit easy for
him; the progress of his Career was at a rapid pace. It gave him happiness until he got to
know the reality and was introduced to politics at the workplace. This was the phase where
success for him was earning a lot and achieving the heights in the workspace. Fifer used to
work seven days a week to reach those heights. He was chasing materialistic things more than
ever.
Personal life was always important for Bob, but his schedule started to overshadow it slowly.
So he decided to give more time to his family in order to maintain a work-life balance. Now
Bob understood that family comes first.
Professional success is still an important component in Bob’s life, but he wants to maintain
the work-life with other spheres of his life. Milestones are still important, but not at the sake
of his family.

Q3.
Bob Fifer’s parents were teachers and big supporters of education, and his siblings were good
at studies too. Due to this proper educational setup in his house, Bob was very much into
studies and grades. Bob’s father has his stint with a small computer business; it gave Bob a
sense of feeling that it is something he wants to do in his life where he is his own boss at
work. This later helped him to start two businesses with his father in his college days and
later pursue an MBA at HBS.
Bob’s stint as an assistant with Walker helped him establish himself as an admirer or his job
at SPA. But when he found out that others were excelling at his own expense, Bob was
propelled to join Michael in his new venture.
When Michael quit, it was his dream to be his own boss that made Bob buy Michael’s share
to have the number 1 spot at Kaiser. HBS taught him the ability to use data in an efficient
manner that he utilized perfectly when he was at Kaiser and competing with firms like
McKinsey.
Some accidents including the loss of his unborn child impacted Bob in a way that he started
understanding the value of family to a greater depth, the same value that was passed on to his
parents but was clouded by the professional success.

Q4.
Initial Schooling- Much like Bob, I was chasing grades in my initial schooling days. I was
getting the grades, but the real-life exposure was not that much. So, I decided to focus more
on extracurricular activities that game my thinking in a different direction.
When I was in 4th or 5thgrade, passion to join the armed forces was at high. Opted for PCM
in 11th standard so that I could be eligible to go for NDA examination.
To continue with the same idea of joining the forces, I pursued B.Sc. and appeared for SSB
interviews several times during the course of the second year of under graduation. It was then
when I decided to have an MBA as a backup option. Financial condition, along with keeping
the CAT exam preparation in mind, I started teaching maths and GK in a coaching institute. I
also worked in an NGO for about nine months to get some practical exposure before joining a
B School in 2020. I opted for SME IIT Jodhpur to pursue my MBA due to the
entrepreneurship and Tech element it has to offer.