Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 4

Lesson 10: Excite your work

 

No matter how many leaves we take from our college or office, ultimately we need to accept the truth of life that we need to work to earn our bread and butter. We need to work to earn our livelihood, we need to work to accomplish our dreams. Ultimately majority of our life is spent only on working because life is just the other name or work and vice versa. As we are aware that we need to work throughout our life, it's mandatory for us to make our work exciting. No one can come and make your work exciting. You've to innovate different ways of exciting your work all by yourself to enjoy doing it day and night.

Lesson 11: Every new skill matters

 

There is no other option but accepting the fact that there are a billion talents and skills existing in this world today. Every skill has its advantages. So no skill is small, no skill is big as long as you know as to when to use it and where to use it. No opportunity comes to us with a pre-invitation. We must be prepared to meet any opportunity whenever it strikes to achieve success. Developing new skills goes into the category of preparation. A new skill which you're interested in may or may not be useful currently in your work but there's no harm in developing it today because it might be of help tomorrow or sometime later. Hence I claim that every new skill matters.

Lesson 12: Surprise the world with something new frequently

 

The world around us and the people in it always like and love surprises. Monotony is ruling the lives of many in current times. People are trying to find solutions to breakthrough the doors of daily work schedule. Unfortunately some are bound by honesty while some others by salary. As a result, they work in spite of all the hard feelings at heart. What brings a fresh feeling in them is that of seeing someone who has broken the shackles of the world, broken some rules, taken some risks to boast of some achievements. When the audience is awaiting, the superstar has to arrive and he cannot repeat monotony. He has to bring something new for every show to entertain the audience . Likewise, each one of us will have to get something new often to surprise the world around us which is waiting for it.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 3

Lesson 7: Capture the collection on the way

 

How many photos have you taken of the street that you travel through everyday? How many photos have you taken separately with each of your friends? Probably the answers for both these questions is very less in number. We go through a lot of things but don't capture them as memories. Sometime, during the course of our journey when we need a collection of all such things we have no clue as to how to build it. Hence it's always advisable to take a photo at a new place where you are the first time on the way to your work. Like this you can have a huge collection of memories stored with you to refer back at any wanted time.

Lesson 8: Categorize your To-Do list

 

Writing down a to-do list is very important for our work to get distributed into a format such that not even one activity escapes our notice. However, putting all the work to be done under just one list gives no priority or consideration exclusivity for any single task. Each item on the to-do list is equivalent to the ten other tasks that exist there. It's just like training a lion and a chicken in the same training room with the same hunter which is totally irrational. Hence we must categorize the tasks on our to-do list so that we can prioritize accordingly and work.

Lesson 9: Targets are the most essential

 

No run can be scored if the crease is not marked at all in cricket; not even a single goal can be scored if the goal post is absent in the football field. Likewise in life nothing can be achieved if we don't have targets to achieve something. Target need not be only what we need to achieve, target should also be the time limit within which we need to achieve what we desire to achieve. Unless our target is time-bound, we will not be able to drive our energy at the highest peaks possible in order to exploit our complete efficiency. Associate your work with a target and enjoy the benefits.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 2

Lesson 4: Wake up, Take up, Dress up, Make up

 

If you've to go up in life, then you have to follow the 4 UPs of life. This was taught to my mentor by his mentor. Here are those 4 powerful UPs which can make us go up and grow up in life. Firstly, it's essential to wake up from our sleep early. Secondly, we must be ready to take up every responsibility that comes our way by seeing it as an opportunity. Thirdly, dressing up to be ready for work is the next UP. The world recognizes you by your dress first than your words. To err is human. So, it's very natural to find mistakes happening and we will have to respect the Murphy's law as well. Finally, we must be ready to make up for all the wrong decisions taken and unanticipated events that take away our intended results from us.

Lesson 5: Be time conscious

 

Time is eternal and immortal but humans are not the same. Hence, everything that's associated with us has a limited quantity. Likewise even time is a limited resource that God has gifted us of which we must make a wise choice of while using. A penny spent can be earned back but a minute lost can never be regained. That's why it's important for us to keep a check on where our time is being invested in and be totally time conscious.

Lesson 6: Feel the superstar in YOU

 

No matter how much ever one tries, one cannot be exactly like someone else is. Each human being on this planet is unique in himself/herself. Being so, everyone has unique capabilities and the skill levels to excel at them. It's completely up to us to decide how far we want to reach in life. Everyone dreams of being a superstar by mastering certain skillsets. While you dream of becoming a superstar you should feel the superstar in you. You will have to behave as if you've become the best in what you do and that influence itself shall make you a real superstar someday in the eyes of the people around.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 1

27th July was yet another remarkable day when I went to my mentor, Sujit Lalwani sir with a problem seeking for a solution only to learn that the problem was not the problem at all but there was something beyond that. The discussion started with just a request of one minute to discuss about the plan on work timings but it took an entirely different course as the real reasons for the confusion started unfolding. A one minute intended clarification went on for more than two hours of discussion and some of the best lessons were shared by my mentor. There is no point keeping these 12 powerful lessons with me alone. They've helped me a lot and I wish to share them with my dear readers so that whoever wants to uplift their lives can use them.

 

Lesson 1: Feel your dream

 
All of us have dreams but not all people feel their dreams. The reason you will find people with dreams but no destinations is because they don't cherish the feeling of accomplishment of their dreams even before dreams come true. Only when you can feel the thriving effect while imagining the dream coming true only then will you be able to accomplish the dream with the drive it gives you. Hence it's very important to feel your dreams while working to achieve them.
 

Lesson 2: Reignite your dreams

 
I am sure that you can go back to your past and recollect a lot of dreams that you had in your childhood. As we grow up we tend to forget the dreams and start building new ones. The same process repeats and old dreams are forgotten while new ones are built. There is no point in forgetting a dream once dreamt. Hence it's very essential to reignite our dreams time and again only to not allow them from dying away. There is no point in allowing your dreams to die away because we are alive to realize our dreams in reality.
 

Lesson 3: Even you're a human

 
While working towards multiple accomplishments in life, we tend to get pressurized by the number of tasks on our to-do list/s. Too much of competition from all directions bog us down. At one point, the frustration reaches its peaks and we might even decide to just get away with all the work at hand and not do anything just to attain some bliss in solitude. At such times, it doesn't mean that you're one of those who run away fearing work; it's just a temporary feeling which is very much natural for a human to feel.

Indoor Cricket: The Next IPL for India?

Cricket is a religion in India, one would not oppose this statement even under hypnotized conditions of their minds. Indoor cricket which is truly exciting and a game that wouldn't get abondoned even due to rain, isn't loved as much, may be because of lack of its reach and infrastructure too.

Its all about how long we stick to the sport that truly counts in making it a part of the culture of a nation. Its been close to 4 years as we share this with you, that Indoor cricket, through this lovely brand Action Sports, has existed in India. Now Inspiration Unlimited (IU) envisions to take its baby steps in realizing this dream of having Indoor cricket reach every corner of India. We are working hard towards finding out if there is enough craze and zeal in India for this GAME.

India is a land of opportunities and of passionate people who would endorse new ideas to try, test and learn unlike before when many a people were closed to new ideas. Lets together fathom the sea of Indoor games really deep and drown into the beauty of these games.

Every Industry takes its time to grow. The foothold anywhere only gets stronger with years that passby if the commitment levels are a testimonial for that industry & even others. Indoor cricket is one such platform in Indian Context that hasn't got much recognition equivalently as compared to IPL or other popular names and games have got. Its now a rising industry.

There is already a young budding team of players coming from different backgrounds for Indoor cricket in India. If you attempted to study how they got together to become the Indian Indoor Cricket team, you would go through a maze that would have no parallel to leave you bewildered.

 

                        

These guys have hair-rising stories of how they fought to win every single match for the team and now they are aiming to win it for the country as a team in Sri Lanka. A sport which doesn't quite easily find sponsors because of lack of attention, is something these young boys are putting their time and efforts for, simply to represent the nation and win back pride, as their aint other profits or benefits to strive for.

The determination of these boys is of steel, their love for the game is deeper than the deepest beds of ocean and their passion is higher than highest peak of everest.

IUeMagazine takes a step forward to recognize their brilliance and reward them with best wishes from all of its readers to win the Title In Sri-Lanka for India and make their way to World Cup in NZ in 2014. GO GO GO!

The 8 YOUNG SUPERSTARS of Bangalore

Today's youth is useless. This is one of the most offending statements that I've heard from the mouths of many elders. I wish to claim here like other great men that today's youth are used less and not useless. Swami Vivekananda would say, "Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India." IU (Inspiration Unlimited) was born with the same vision to transform the world and that is where, we also needed youth to take part in this auspicious crime. It was May 18th, when we officially launched IU1010, wherein we chose 10 mad and crazy people from different parts of Bangalore to build leaders in them. Through a journey of 8 challenging weeks of tasks and lessons, IU team was successful in moulding these young leaders for our society who astonished the Bangalore crowd on July 14th.

 

Aditi, Anusha, Harikiran, Harshitha, Nikhil, Pavada, Spoorthi and Vishwesh were the youngsters from Bangalore who organized a massive conference on the topic, 'Being Entrepreneurial' for a gathering of close to 150 Bangaloreans. I was glad to be one of the speakers on the list who was invited along with Mr. Bharath GC, Mr. Anil Kumar KN and Mr. Sujit Lalwani. The conference happened on July 14th afternoon, from 2:30pm up to 7:30pm in Telugu Vijnana Samithi auditorium and was indeed highly inspiring.

 

Spoorthi and Harshitha were the two young ladies who shouldered the responsibility of compering the entire event. These 8 young STARs were the reason for close to 150 people to learn about entrepreneurship. Right from booking the hall to winding up after the event, every part of this mega event was taken care by these 8 inspiring individuals. The event kicked off with inspirational videos followed by an energetic introduction by Mr. Bharath GC. Then the stage was taken over by Harshitha and Spoorthi, who introduced the concept of entrepreneurship. I was glad to be invited as the first speaker and I spoke about the 'E' of 'Entrepreneurship' and that 'E' symbolizes 'EXPLORING'. I explained about how exploring every talent, skill and opportunity can make one entrepreneurial in life.

 

The next person to rock the stage with his technical bent of mind was Mr. Anil Kumar KN, who introduced the requirement of energy and enthusiasm for one to be entrepreneurial. He was followed by none other than the One Young World Ambassador from India, Mr. Sujit Lalwani who shared his entrepreneurial journey and showed how he had made it so big in life at such a young age. The climax was the feast of the entire event. It was all worth listening to the first 4 hours because the last hour held the proof of all that was spoken during the initial 80% of the conference. The time had come to know and witness about how ordinary students in their graduation had gone on to transform their lives in just a matter of 8 weeks and had impacted 5 lakh lives. The last hour ignited tears of happiness in the eyes of parents of these 8 powerful young souls. Each of the IU1010 candidate was invited on stage to share his/her experience in IU1010.

 

 

The first person called upon the stage was Spoorthi who shared about how hopeless she had felt just 8 weeks back and today how she stood as the hope for many and about her project on dignity of labour. She was followed by Aditi who filled her speech with her attitude of gratitude to her mentors and shared about her project of 'Help Women Lead'. Then came in Harikiran who shared his dream of becoming the youngest Chief Minister of Karnataka. Then came in the ever smiling Harshitha who blew away the audience with her powerful words. She was followed by Pavada who showed that language can be no barrier to become a leader. He was followed by Vishwesh who shared his dream of owning a Hayabusa by his own earning in the next one year. Then, we had Anusha who showed that she could be an inspiration to thousands of students even though God had taken away her parents from her. Finally, came on the stage the Indian indoor  cricket team player, Nikhil Kanchan who rocked the stage with his words. These 8 young leaders were the superstars of July 14th and will remain for times to come to stand as live examples of what youth can do and how they can change the country.

 

Last but not the least, I cannot forget the people from the audience who jumped onto the stage to share their feedback. One person also shared about how his friend had survived cancer by watching inspirational videos of Sujit Lalwani sir online. This was the cherry on the cake for the entire event. I wish and pray to God to bless all of us and keep blessing to repeat such success stories again and again.

I know I'm shattered but I also know that God is with me always

God lashes out every trouble at a person to only make him/her stronger. Here's a story of a young girl from garden city, Bangalore, who was underestimated by her close acquaintances for 20 years of her life but found her true purpose of life and started enjoying the spirit of unlimited inspiration in her life. Today, she has been responsible for making more than 35 people including children and adults literate within a span of just 5 months.
 
Kavya Madhavan is a student from Adarsh College pursuing her graduation in B.Com during the day and working part-time during the afternoon in the same institution. She is a highly sensitive person who gets emotional with just a sight of apathy of any person around her. After realizing through a number of incidents that crying alone doesn’t solve anyone’s problems she took up a dream to jump into action to give her bit to solve the problems of others. She recognized that lack of education was the root cause of all evil and hence decided to teach the under-privileged kids in her free time for one hour every day after she finishes her work and on the way to her home.
 
Here are her answers to our questions;
 
1. How did you start this campaign of educating poor children who aren’t allowed to go to school?

A. On 28^th of October, I was washing vessels during which I was thinking as to what I was doing in life. I used to get emotional at every scene of trouble of others but I was helpless as I could do nothing about it. I read a lot of books of Swami Vivekananda, who advocates that work shouldn’t be in words but in action. That’s when I decided that that day I would go out and teach any poor kid whom I found on the road. I asked the suggestion of Sujit Lalwani sir if my idea was correct and he gave me a green signal to go ahead with the project. That is when my life started to change.
 
2. How was your initial phase and experience when you started your initiative?

A. I got ready and left my home. I boarded a bus wherein I saw a beggar boy. I felt really sad for him and then approached him. He started asking me for food. I shared my lunch box with him and asked him to stay back at the same place where we both got down so that I could come back in the evening and teach him. Sadly, when I returned the boy wasn’t there. I felt that I had failed in my life but didn’t want to give up.
 
Next day, I once again went in search of poor kids who couldn’t afford their education on the roads of Chamrajpet but couldn’t find anyone. God was testing my patience while I was crying in desperation. Third day, God had to open his eyes to help me. Finally, I found around 5 kids near a construction area who were the children of the mason workers. I asked them if they would learn how to read and write if I taught them. The answered yes! And that’s how my journey began.
 
3. How many people have you taught till now and how has been your experience?

A. I have taught around 20+ kids to write their names in English, English alphabets both capital and small letters ­­and numbers from 1 to 100. Even adults were influenced to learn while I was teaching those young kids. So I have taught around 15 adults to write their names in English and basics of English language.
 
The experience has been totally satisfying. I now feel that I am living my life to the fullest. There are so many small faces that await my arrival in the evening just to learn. I feel so empowered while I am empowering someone else’s life through education. In spite of all the difficulties in my life, I feel every moment that the Almighty is right beside me and supporting me.
 
4. Were there any incidents during the process which made you sad?

A. Definitely, Yes! On a number of occasions I was disappointed and had lost hope. Thanks to IU (Inspiration Unlimited) who inspired me to carry forward my work. My parents were absolutely not supportive of my work as it included meeting strange people and teaching them. I had to make sure that initially I had to work without informing them. Couple of times, those students whom I had taught had gone back to their villages and didn’t return to Bengaluru. I was broken and felt that all my efforts had gone a waste but when I learnt from those who had returned that they had taught English to their friends and relatives in their village I was jumping with joy.
 
5. Which was the most striking incident during this whole process?

A. I used to teach a group of kids who lived near a construction site. There were 4 girls and a boy. Every day they used to come running to me as soon as I reached their place to teach them. On one fine day, it was strange for me to see that the boy who was always enthusiastic to learn was running away as soon as I reached their place. I was disappointed and felt bad thinking that he had lost interest in learning. I was into tears almost. However, I started teaching the rest of them. After sometime the boy returned and said that he also wanted to join the class. I was angry at him and scolded him. Immediately came the reply from him that he couldn’t come to learn as his pant was torn. I couldn’t control myself. I started crying. This was one of the most striking incidents of my journey.

The pool of talent for the modern world. The global platform that's changing lives

I thank Chris Arnold, the Founder of Your Big Year and World Merit*, a phenomenal platform that's bringing about talent from different parts of the globe for sharing his message with us.

Following is a direct letter from Chris Arnold, Founder of YourBigYear, Smaller Earth & WorldMerit*.

Today, Inspiration is not that difficult to find. Social Media makes great quotes extremely accessible, almost to a point beyond saturation. The oratory and poetry of great historical figures is being somewhat undermined by the sheer quantity of ‘wise words’online.
 

However, though sharing a platform with the common words of ‘Anonymous’ may dent the ego of past poets and political leaders, I say this ‘inspiration clutter’ is a great thing. It has created a modern day peer pressure to be a source or conduit for inspiration. As Anonymous or perhaps a famous poet first said, there is a pressure now to do well but also to do good.

 

Users of Social Media have already and irreversibly made a commitment to check or judge the actions and values of politicians and corporations. Though that is not always going to be fair in the unfiltered world of places like Facebook or Twitter, the consequence is that all emerging leaders know that they have to be people of value and values. The best of the upcoming generation know that it makes strategic sense to be collaborative, emotionally aware, culturally aware, ‘social’ entrepreneurs.

 

In the past, because the chance of being ‘found out’ was much lower, leaders were ‘safe’ if standards occasionally dropped lower than the electorate or customer would want. There were only so many news reporters to go around. Compare this to the speed and distance both news and innuendo can travel today. As David Jones, CEO of HAVAS Worldwide and Founder of One Young World says, "People are now empowered by social media to hold business and leaders accountable. So, if you behave in the wrong way – whether you are the head of an Arab Spring country or News International – then people can sanction you. That has taken corporate social responsibility out of the silo and put it in the P&L statement. Business cannot avoid this.”

In my opinion the remarkable effect of Social Media is not the access to information or communication it has provided, but rather the positive change in culture it is inexorably making. Twenty year olds have always been vaunted as idealists and activists, but today I believe it is increasingly more so. The tools are there to collaborate across borders and the desire to be seen to take action and have positive momentum is something for society to harness.

Old people, and by that I mean everyone who has failed to adapt to the current online methods of communication, will latch onto the painfully frivolous uses of social media. They believe that Twitter is about sharing lunch updates; they believe Facebook is simply a source for inanity; they regard the Internet mostly as an efficient delivery system for porn and a way to browse information– like a big virtual library. This view is irrelevant and almost certainly in its final years.

 

There is Merit Online. That is a useful pun for me as my organization is called World Merit and we have our own online social community, however, I mean it in a more encompassing way. The upcoming generation is grouping together in ways that will absolutely change the world. Yes! There are huge number of superficial online communities, but just look at how many powerful groups are being formed, for example,  www.worldmerit.org, www.dosomething.org, www.oneyoungworld.com. This multi–tasking generation is comfortable with being bombarded with messages that naturally splits its focus. In the same minute it will think about football and famine, pop and poverty, and these groups sit unapologetically next to each other on Facebook and in their consciousness.

 

So here is my main point. Quotes are unlimited, messaging is unlimited, but because of the actions that the upcoming generations will take and the way that content is easily shared, inspiration is also unlimited.

 

This has been recognized by my friend, Sujit Lalwani, who happened to be a finalist in the www.yourbigyear.comcompetition that I started a few years back. In YBY2 Sujit beat over 60,000 people from almost every country in the world to become a finalist. He had already recognized the power of his actions on peers and had set up the Inspiration Unlimited initiative, and has now authored his first book with the title ‘Life Simplified!’. Sujit is in his mid twenties and is one of the most motivating emerging leaders I’ve met. The incredible thing is that the ‘Your Big Year’ competition revealed to me the positive power and positive mentality of such a huge proportion of youth. They will not allow the cynicism of the older generations to infect them, but unlike in the past, this is not because of naivety.

 

They know the problems that face humanity and the planet. They understand the need for change more acutely than ever before. They also know that their approach will be unrecognizably different, more collaborative, and more open, than ever. They are aware of the risks of being subverted or made immobile by sheer weight of input and death by committee, but in the transition of leadership styles, to theirs, they know that they hold the seeds of previously unimagined potential.

Sujit from India, Charles from Uganda, Barbra from the US, Linh from Australia, Sarah from the UK, each one of them knows their responsibilities to make the world a better place. I for one, for the sake of my two children and because it is so much fun, will do everything I can to help them.

 

Join the Merit community of global citizens and emerging leaders at www.worldmerit.org. Also try and become the voice of the upcoming generation by winning our Ambassadorial world trip at www.yourbigyear.com. If you are in a position of influence please try and support both initiatives and contact me directly. If you are old, and I mean in the definition I laid out earlier (not being literate in the new world’s communication methods) then you are unlikely to have read this note, but if you have, either modernize, or get out of the way of Sujit et al.

 

Chris Arnold,

Founder, World Merit and Smaller Earth

Kalpana - Beyond imagination

The word 'kalpana' in Hindi means imagination. But the word 'Kalpana' that I have used in the title doesn't refer to imagination but to a girl by name Kalpana from Gujarat who is beyond imagination. Students from 5 different colleges made their presence felt today in Bangalore to attend a session about ENTREPRENEURSHIP by Team IU(Inspiration Unlimited) and international inspirational speaker Mr. Sujit Lalwani. A large group of youth participated in this event and out of these there was one girl by name Kalpana who has an inspiring story to share with us.

Kalpana was enrolled into a Marathi school during her early childhood and had to study completely in Marathi. Then for her higher classes during schooling, she was transferred to another school that taught in Gujarathi. There was no option for her to study in an English medium school. After her schooling, she was sent to Bangalore to study in IKON nursing college to pursue B.Sc in nursing where the complete syllabus was taught in English alone. Indeed this was a big shock for Kalpana as she had to shift from regional medium school to English medium college all of a sudden absolutely without any expertise in English. However with the encouragement of her dad, she took up this bold step and entered Bangalore. This is just a brief introduction about Kalpana. To learn about how she managed through these language barriers let's see some Q&As;

How did you feel when you were transferred to schools teaching in different languages?

When I joined a Gujarathi institution to learn science I was very afraid. Then, I told myself that nothing is impossible on this earth. Even my dad encouraged me and I gave my best in the exams. Everyone around me was schocked that a girl from Marathi background had fared well in Gujarathi medium.

When you were trasnferred from Gujarathi medium to English medium institution, how did you face the challenge?

I almost doubted myself if I would be able to do anything but then consoled myself that now I couldn't turn my back on education and leave. I felt sad thinking that my dad would be disappointed to know that his daughter had accepted defeat. Hence I decided that I would put in my best efforts and learn. Today, though I make mistakes while speaking in English, I can understand English completely. I am even proficient in Marathi, Gujarathi and Hindi.

When you started practising to communicate in English how was your experience?

In our college, speaking in regional language is prohibited. So, when I used to speak in English with my Gujarathi friends they used to get irritated with the mistakes that I made while speaking and would ask me to stop speaking in English, but today the same friends appreciate me for the kind of fluency that I have mastered in speaking in English.

When you felt bad hearing to your friends' comments what did you do?

I used to cry a lot when my friends teased me. I have a habit of writing my daily dairy. I used to pour down my feelings in it. I blamed my dad for not enrolling me into an English medium school but my dad told me that I would be proud about him when I would be the topper of the class even in the English medium college.

When you were changing schools and college, your language medium was changing which upset you but because of that today you know Hindi, Marathi, Gujarathi, Nepali and English and you are a multilingual person today. How do you feel about it?

By learning different languages, I have even learned different cultures of which my friends are a part of. Hence I can mingle with all friends of mine very easily because of which I have many friends.

What is your one message to those who feel inferior while communicating in English?

Please don't think negative. Tell yourself that you will be able to do. Instead of thinking that things will not happen, give your best to make things happen. I gaurantee that if you try, you shall definitely succeed.

Who all do you want to thank for being an inspiration in your life?

First of all, I want to thank my dad about whom I am very proud of. He is the reason for my success today. In spite of low income levels, he is spending a lot on me and my studies and providing me all the amenities. Secondly, I want to thank that teacher of mine who encouraged me to go on the stage and talk to hundreds of people. Thirdly, I would like to thank Sister Devi who has helped me and my friends to get an exposure about different things happening around us and who has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for us always.

Public Speaking Club Exhibition

It was yet one more wonderful day on February 2nd, 2013 when I witnesssed young kids of KLE Society's International School participate in "IU Public Speaking Club Exhibition". Students starting from the age of 7.5 years to 12 years participated in this wonderful exhibition to entertain the audience with their linguistic and speaking abilities. The entire event that happend for three hours encompassed three different activities to showcase different strengths of the students. I am really excited to share with you about each of them here.

The first activity was a public speaking competition for students from 2nd and 3rd std and the topic was 'My Dreams'. The reason this topic was given because today's children need to be made aware of their dreams as early as possible so that they don't end up in confusions later. Primary school kids shared that they had dreams of becoming doctor, engineer, IAS officer, police officer, architect and many more. It was really heart-touching to see each of these small eyes carrying big dreams.

Second activity was a debate between two teams of two students each studying in 3rd std. The topic given to them was whether homework was good or bad. This debate was the highlight of the entire show. Each team started arguing as to why their perspective towards homework was correct and tried to convince the opposite team agree to their ideology. There were many funny moments which the audience enjoyed thoroughly throughout the entire show. Finally I had to stop them else they would have continued to debate the whole day.

Third activity was a cabinet meeting of the Karnataka government body which included students participating from 5th and 6th std. 7 students assigned themselves the roles of Chief minister, agricultural and irrigation minister, sports minister, health minister, education minister, transport minister and home minister. These young kids really showed the way a board meeting should be conducted with their wonderful respect to each other and discussed about the pertinent issues of the society. This was the final showdown that the audience were really impressed with.

All these wouldn't have been possible without the support of Sujit Lalwani sir, Geethika Kharola mam, Bharath.G.C sir and Bharathi mam. Thanks to all the parents who enjoyed the entire show and a big thanks to all my lovely kids who made the show a grand success.  To know more about such sessions from IU(Inspiration Unlimited) please contact 9916034862.

Negotiation - VIP

Negotiation is a very important power that needs to be present in every person who is willing towards becoming an entrepreneur. It's an art that simultaneously gets tested and developed during run time always. A simple phone call of negotiation can save good amount of money, time, energy and help you in the most crucial times is what I have learnt and experienced. Thanks to the best pair of brothers who taught me a sample of this amazing skill right at the required moment and hence this blog is dedicated to the Lalwani brothers.

 

Many a times it happens with us that we shy away from negotiating with people. While there is a different expectation in our mind, we fail to express it in front of others either because of fear of rejection or feeling of what will the other person think about me. It becomes a prestige issue to disagree to what the other person says. Sometimes we tend to feel that if we negotiate about what we want exactly the other person might feel we are either too stingy or might throw negative comments. All these are just feelings which are just instantaneous, all of which will subside as soon as the discussion is over and what remains is what both the parties have agreed upon and if we have agreed to those terms that are not beneficial to us we end up on the losing side of not the discussion but our money, time and energy.

 

It can't happen all the time that we agree to whatever the other party has to say w.r.t their norms and rules and end up accepting all of them at the cost of our resources. So it becomes highly important to learn and practise the art of negotiation by which we bring up our concerns and make the other party alter and adjust their conditions such that both the parties benefit. Obviously there stays a feeling in us as to why should we invest that much amount of time in negotiating, rather we can go ahead and finish off the process soon but this feeling is only during the initial times. This fades away soon as we start interacting with more number of people and negotiate more and bigger deals. The world is not fair to give you exactly what you want exactly the way you want it. So negotiating becomes a very important and an essential art and skill to develop for all those who wish to make big things happen and I feel entrepreneurs and businessmen can never survive in their fields without sharpening their skill of negotiation.

Once again, a big thanks to Sumit Lalwani sir and Sujit Lalwani sir for sharing and teaching this amazing art. Keep blessing and keep sharing more lessons of life sir. Friends! do post in your experiences of negotiation on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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ATTH - the Beginning

ATTH is a word that takes its roots from the mother of all languages sanskrit which means the beginning. Almost all our ancient scriptures of India including our bhagwadgeeta contain this word 'ATTH' at the beginning of many chapters and shlokas. This was the word that we chose to name an event which would symbolise the beginning of an era of massive impact for the improvement and the empowerment of our society. ATTH is going to be one of the most grand events that Bangalore city would be witnessing this November 4th,2012.

Entrepreneurship is a vast field that has been providing food for every individual existing on this planet today. If there were no people who could pay others who worked to build a business, probably we would still have to follow the lifestyle of a chromagnum man of collecting fruits and roots from trees to eat. There are businesses developed by certain people towards a common objective to serve a particular need and they amass many others of different talents together at one place to meet this requirement. With the need getting the service even the employees and employers earn their livelihood from entrepreneurship.

When the word 'social' gets added before entrepreneurship it becomes social entrepreneurship and the need that this business will serve is going to become a social cause. Today's world is suffering under the hands of global warming, illiteracy, hunger, poverty, caste discrimination, racial discrimination, scarcity of drinking water, lack of basic necessities to all, soil erosion, animal extinction and many of them. If there can be any company or an organization or a business that can come to address such issues and help serve, improve and empower the society then that gets called as SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP which is the need of the hour. So its time that we take the control right in our hands to protect the planet earth from the clutches of such social problems. So it very important for each one of us to understand and explore this arena of social entrepreneurship. Henc to know and learn more about social entrepreneurship you can block your seat at the mega event on SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP forum that's coming up this November 4th,2012 in Bangalore, India presented by 'Inspiration Unlimited' and powered by 36meals(NGO which aims at erdicating hunger from the world). For more information visit
www.atth.org
www.36meals.com or mail atthteam@gmail.com

Awaiting you at ATTH!!!!!!!!!!

Food donated is hunger killed

Food, clothing and shelter are three basic necessities of life. Everyone of us on this earth are struggling through life to fulfil these three constraints of life. Be it a multi millionaire or a person who earns every meal of his day on that day, no doubt that all of us are in a pursuit to satisfy our basic needs and probably man could have survived even without clothing and shelter but not food for sure. This is the reason food stands at the top of the priority list. It was indeed a great eventful day today when a group of youth woke up to a social call on a Sunday morning when most of the rest were enjoying their cozy sleep on a weekend.


A group of twenty youths studying in different courses and young professionals working in different MNCs got together this morning to be a part of an exciting event of meals donation. I was glad and surprised to be a part of this super happening. This was not just a normal meals donation in an orphanage or an old age home where you just go, donate and feel satisfied for doing the good deed. Today's generation looks for adventure in everything and that is what exactly happened. There were twenty enthusiastic Indians who were grouped into ten teams of two each and were asked to explore random areas of Bangalore, find the needy people in that area and serve them meals as an initiative of IU cares under the banner of 36meals.com. The best part was that people had to take buses to new places. Also this entire task had to be completed within just 120 minutes. 


After the entire adventuristic task people came to share their feelings and experience of donating meals. We search around different places to buy things for us but this was the first time for many of us when we searched for someone who needed our service. It was a sense of accomplishment after we had killed the hunger of close to hundred genuinely needy people. It was a reinforcement in us that good deeds can be done in an enjoyable way and that's why I feel that I want to share this event with all of you. An amazing feeling to see a hunger free world set in all of us today. Are you also with us to make this dream realise into reality???


For further information I'm sure that you'll check out www.Facebook.com/36meals

Recognize your life's story

Recently I was invited along with my mentor, Er.Sujit Lalwani to give an inspirational talk to students in Kundapur. The talk was organized by Saraswathi Group of institutes and Akshaya Coaching classes led by Mr.Rithesh Kamath and Mr.Rama Murthy respectively. The talk was sponsored by Moodlakatte Institute of Technology, co-sponsored by Arena Point, Veta One, Chinmayi hospital, Shree Krishna Educational Trust and Gold Jewellers including the media and banking partners as Suddhimane and Axis bank.

During this talk I happened to share my story of life during which I had my own challenges and how I had overcome them. I also shared the story of Sri. Narayan Murthy sir who was responsible to make INFOSYS the face of Indian software industry. After I narrated both these stories a powerful thought was lingering in my mind which comes in front you in the form of this blog.


When I had to go through the struggles of my life, I had no other option but to grow through them. Probably optimistic attitude and a liking for challenges always pushed me to win over every defeat and create records. At that time of my life all I had done didn't seem much bigger. It was all a flow that had to flow but later today when I turn back and see I can clearly see how inspirational I was to myself. If I had taken even one wrong decision at any of those critical points of my past, probably I wouldn't have been writing this blog today. In the similar fashion, I have also been inspired by listening to lot of others' life stories. Some of them were great phenomenal leaders well known all over the world while some were leaders of their own lives. When we read autobiographies of great people, we tend to see some similar incidences and qualities in our very own lives. Great men have always recognized the greatness in them that has inspired them and have shared it with the public while others fail to recognize their own capabilities. Everyone of us have been put to tests in life by the circumstances around us. Everyone of us would have fought through some of them and would have come out successful. The point here is whether you recognize your potential at these junctures or you just move on forgetting it. If you spot that experience as a strength of yours, you will add it to your inspiration and move on to greater tasks else you are just undermining yourself. 


Once you recognize the inspirational story of your life make sure that you're sharing it with people around you. Some might value it, some might just neglect it while some might feel that you're boasting about yourself. Please be immune to any of these outcomes. You are sharing only to spread the knowledge of yet another inspirational story. If sharing this is to be called as boasting about oneself then every autobiography writer has done the same through a book not just by a talk. Inspiration is suppose to be spread throughout the world through different means and you are a messenger through your story, that's it. Care enough to note down every inspirational incident of your life and share it with the world.


Please share your life's inspirational stories with me which I would love to read on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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Look in for your advantage

"Work is the second name of Life" says Sujit Lalwani, well reknowned inspirational speaker. If so, no doubt that every moment of life we are doing some or the other work. Sometimes might be because of our very own personal interest or sometimes because someone else has forced us to do it. Whether we accept or not everyone of us is bound to work to have a life. The only choice here is what kind of work you would love to do. Would you be happy only if you get to do the work that you like to do? Are we really sure that we know the work which we would love to do forever in life? These are some of the questions I would like you to ponder over as I share my experience with you in next few minutes.

"Unceratinty is the other name of Life" I say. You never know when God throws a challenge upon you. You can just escape it and lose the experience of it or you might just want to catch it to gain the advantage of it. Beware! God keeps throwing one after the another. Its your choice whether to catch or miss it. I have observed many times that whenever a tough task is assigned to anyone the first reaction is that of frustration in most of the cases barring a few exceptions. Some cases it might even end up in rejection of taking up the task. The prominent reason for these frustration and rejection is the fear of deadline and the lack of willingness to put in extra efforts. If there's no deadline then there is no point in doing anything in life. Infact even Life itself is not spared from not having a deadline. At these instances either people try to put the task on someone else's shoulders or start giving silly reasons even before starting the task as to why it can't be completed. This seems more like a negative approach to me. This is where I say "Look in for your advantage".

No doubt that whenever there's a challenging new task you are bound to learn something new. Learning new means growth in life. When 'Growth' itself is the synonym for 'Life' as stated by Sri. Sumit Lalwani, why not take up the new task? The tougher the task the more you will learn for sure. Coming to the point of fear of deadline, when you know you have put in your hundred percent efforts to the maximum extent possible, you would have definitely made progress in the task if not solved it completely. Everyone around you would be sane enough to understand it if explained with proper proofs. You might not have found a solution to the problem at hand but you would have atleast found 'n' number of improper ways which won't yield the result intended similar to the story of Thomas Alva Edison. Sometimes we would have underestimated our own capacity. You might just finish off the task almost in half the time than that given to you. You know about your performance only when you perform not by just speculating it.

In any work or task or challenge or problem you are offered look in for your advantage. More than worrying about what benefit the task has for anyone else look in for what it has to offer you might be knowledge or experience or fine tuning of your performance. I would like to conclude this topic by the famous quote of the young energetic speaker Sujit Lalwani - "When you love something do it, when you don't love someting don't do it but whenever you are doing something, better love it".

Please feel free to share your feelings, thoughts and opinions on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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