A few weeks ago, my friend from USA reached out to me with a dilemma. He wanted to support a young man’s further education — someone from a small town in South India — but there was a twist. This young person had a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce but was now insistent that his future lay in IT.

My friend was unconvinced. And honestly, I was equally puzzled.

We decided to speak with the young man over a video call to understand what drove this sudden pivot. The call didn’t offer much clarity. All we got was a strong sense of his “passion” for IT — but not much depth on why he felt this way. There was no clear articulation of what aspect of IT excited him, no tangible examples, and no signs of experience or experimentation.

Luckily, a few days later, my friend got the opportunity to meet him in person in Bangalore. When I also happened to be in Bangalore the following week, we compared notes. My friend’s impression hadn’t changed much — he still felt the young man was directionless and was wasting his solid foundation in commerce. He urged him to consider an MBA instead of an MCA (Master’s in Computer Applications).

We were stuck — at a decision point, and the application deadlines for both courses were fast approaching.

That’s when we decided to test the hypothesis.

A Concierge MVP with a Microbit

I was in a quiet café in Thanjavur — not far from the young man’s hometown of Kumbakonam — when I had an idea. I pulled out my laptop and showed Microbit MakeCode website to him.

For the uninitiated, the Microbit is a tiny, inexpensive microcontroller designed to introduce people to coding, electronics, and problem-solving. It’s tactile. It’s visual. It’s immediate.

His eyes lit up.

He quickly got the hang of the basics. Wrote his first program. Made an LED light blink. A sense of delight spread across his face. It was exactly the kind of spark I was hoping to see.

I left the café hopeful — maybe he was onto something.

Reality Bites

But as the days progressed and we introduced slightly more complex tasks — involving logic, algorithms, and mathematical reasoning — he began to falter.

He struggled to break down problems. He got frustrated. He waited for step-by-step instructions. He hit a wall where original thinking was required.

It became clear that his perception of an “IT career” was shaped more by what he saw around him — the lifestyle, the salaries, the glamour — and not by any true understanding of what the work actually involved.

In the span of a week, after some difficult introspection and honest feedback, he admitted it: his hypothesis was wrong.

Pivoting with Confidence

To his credit, he didn’t let the revelation break his spirit. Instead, he began to refocus — choosing to build upon his actual foundation in commerce and business. He is now actively exploring a career in business administration, aligned with his strengths and more grounded in reality.

Why This Matters

This short experiment reminded me of one of the key principles from The Lean Startup by Eric Ries — the Concierge MVP. In a concierge MVP, you test a hypothesis by manually offering a “real” experience to a small group of users. You don’t build the full product. You don’t scale. You just learn.

We used Microbit as our concierge MVP.

It cost almost nothing. It took one week. And it saved years of potential misalignment.

A Lesson for Mentors, Parents, and Career Guides

If you’re ever in a position to guide someone unsure about their career path — especially when they are swayed by trends rather than tested interests — give them a safe, low-stakes environment to experiment.

Let them get their hands dirty. Let them feel the joy and the struggle. Let them test their hypothesis.

And most importantly, let them fail fast — so they can succeed in the right direction.