India, May 8 -- In my years running a global business school, I have sat across from enough MBA applicants to know what a well-prepared failure looks like. The GMAT score is strong. The undergraduate institution is recognisable. The employer has a name that opens doors. The essays are clean and confident. And somewhere in the middle of the conversation, it becomes clear that nothing in this person's life has actually been chosen. It has been assembled. Each piece selected for how it would look in this room, at this moment, rather than for what it would teach or demand or build. The application is flawless. The person behind it has not yet shown up.

This is the gap that early planning, for all its seriousness and effort, is not closing. I...