| The terms "self-help" and "MBA" don't often go | | | | "I was sticking my neck out a bit to recommend |
| hand in hand. So it's surprising that a Columbia | | | | that we take on this course," says Paddy |
| Business School class called Creativity and | | | | Barwise, head of the marketing department at |
| Personal Mastery (CPM) is fast becoming one of | | | | the London Business School, where Rao taught |
| the most popular B-school classes in the U.S. | | | | last fall. "Most of the people who come to my |
| Weirder still, it's arguably the toughest to get into, | | | | class are downright unbelievers," admits Rao. "But |
| requires thinking about the "meaning of life," and | | | | is the mental model you're using now working |
| not infrequently convinces MBA students that | | | | better for you than the one I'm proposing?" |
| --surprise!-- money isn't everything. | | | | There must be something to it. The class is so |
| CPM is the brainchild of Srikumar Rao, an | | | | oversubscribed that he has had to devise a |
| ex-marketing executive from Wall Street and | | | | rigorous application process. (Each candidate must |
| Hollywood. (The Exorcist was one of his early | | | | submit a resume, agree to be interviewed, and |
| successes.) He went into teaching when, he says, | | | | write seven essays.) And Rao's is the only course |
| "I needed to integrate my spiritual life with my | | | | at the Columbia B-school that has its own alumni |
| work life." Now Rao is spreading his message with | | | | association. |
| a new book called Are You Ready to Succeed?: | | | | If you read Rao's book, brace yourself: Some |
| Unconventional Strategies for Achieving Personal | | | | Raoists have had dramatic epiphanies. Magnus |
| Mastery in Business and in Life. | | | | Asbjornsson, a newly minted MBA, was hell-bent |
| Unconventional is right. "Raoism," as his devotees | | | | on a high-powered consulting job--until he took |
| call it, uses a system of intense introspection to | | | | Rao's course. "I realized I was chasing brand |
| revive energy and creativity. In a series of eight | | | | names, and it was all driven by pure ego," he |
| mental exercises, Rao explains how to shush the | | | | says. Now he works for Marakon Associates, a |
| inner chatter and clear the way for career | | | | small strategy firm whose culture emphasizes |
| growth. Granted, it sounds like New Age hokum. | | | | work-life balance and public service. |