Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Monday, February 09, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Evil
You Are 48% Evil |
 You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination. |
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
RULZ
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
“Geek-Out” Adventurous White-Water-Rafting for “Virtechies”
Imagine a brainstorm session. Imagine a picnic. Imagine a meeting of the geekiest and most technologically savvy people. Imagine it all happening at the same time in the same place. Geek-Out offers a unique opportunity for geekiest and most technologically savvy people to meet in a completely informal environment for some much deserved rest and relaxation. Rafter's Retreat situated in Kitulgala 90 Km from Colombo (2.5 hr Drive) is an eco-resort, popularized by white water rafting and Modeled on the popular Foo Camps on the banks of the Kelani River of "Bridge on the River Kwai" fame.
Owner, Channa, is the epitome of life in the woodland and on the river. Channa runs a 3-day adventure programme (2 nights) packed with bird-watching, mountain biking, pre-historic Beli Lena caves, a day white-water-rafting (fine for age 6+ and non-swimmers)
Eco lodges/tree-houses set 6 ft above ground level with each has twin beds, lampshades and hooks made from natural woods from the estate, Roofed with palm leaves and walled by wooden slats, yet discreetly modernised with electricity and plumbing awaits the tiring visitors to provide comfort.
Service is 100% within the context of eco-projects, welcoming, friendly and with lots of tuition on living with nature – but don’t expect any frills. April to November is the best time to visit Kitulgala to enjoy all the adventure and stunning lush. Contact Channa on 0777-421455 for your Adventurous Team Outings.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I Believe...
1. I believe that life is there to enjoy.
2. I believe crushes are there to crush hearts.
3. I believe true love is there from the start.
4. I believe you should give people chances.
5. I believe you should treat people the same because you never know what they will do for you in the future.
6. I believe that good things will come to people who work hard.
7. I believe great things come to people who never give up .
8. I believe silence will teach you something if you listen hard.
9. I believe that the heart leads you in the right direction if you follow it.
10. I believe friends are needed no matter who you are.
11. I believe family should stick by your side.
12. I believe God will help you if you believe in him and trust him.
13. I believe drugs destroy.
14. I believe sleep calms the soul.
15. I believe the heart and soul are more important than looks.
16. I believe trust helps the world go round.
17. I believe love brings great things.
18. I believe kids could teach adults a lot if adults would just listen.
19.I believe pets are great because they listen and love you no matter what you look like.
20. I believe you should always chase your dreams.
21. I believe hope is something everyone needs.
22. I believe you need to make time for fun.
23. I believe music soothes the soul.
24. I believe that money cannot buy happiness.
25. I believe books can take you anywhere.
26. I believe jokes have to be there to keep people sane.
27. I believe people are special the way they are.
28. I believe that true friends will last a lifetime.
29. I believe that enjoying what you do will help you enjoy life more.
30. I believe parents are more important than you think.
31. I believe the sky is the limit.
32. I believe you should shoot for the stars.
33. I believe being loved and loving are two totally different things.
34. I believe that you have to love yourself before you can love others.
35. I believe records are made to be broken.
36. I believe promises should be kept.
37. I believe brothers and sisters are made to teach.
38. I believe a simple smile can make anybody's day better.
39. I believe that being popular is not the key to life.
40. I believe in being nice to nerds because you might grow up and have to work for one.
2. I believe crushes are there to crush hearts.
3. I believe true love is there from the start.
4. I believe you should give people chances.
5. I believe you should treat people the same because you never know what they will do for you in the future.
6. I believe that good things will come to people who work hard.
7. I believe great things come to people who never give up .
8. I believe silence will teach you something if you listen hard.
9. I believe that the heart leads you in the right direction if you follow it.
10. I believe friends are needed no matter who you are.
11. I believe family should stick by your side.
12. I believe God will help you if you believe in him and trust him.
13. I believe drugs destroy.
14. I believe sleep calms the soul.
15. I believe the heart and soul are more important than looks.
16. I believe trust helps the world go round.
17. I believe love brings great things.
18. I believe kids could teach adults a lot if adults would just listen.
19.I believe pets are great because they listen and love you no matter what you look like.
20. I believe you should always chase your dreams.
21. I believe hope is something everyone needs.
22. I believe you need to make time for fun.
23. I believe music soothes the soul.
24. I believe that money cannot buy happiness.
25. I believe books can take you anywhere.
26. I believe jokes have to be there to keep people sane.
27. I believe people are special the way they are.
28. I believe that true friends will last a lifetime.
29. I believe that enjoying what you do will help you enjoy life more.
30. I believe parents are more important than you think.
31. I believe the sky is the limit.
32. I believe you should shoot for the stars.
33. I believe being loved and loving are two totally different things.
34. I believe that you have to love yourself before you can love others.
35. I believe records are made to be broken.
36. I believe promises should be kept.
37. I believe brothers and sisters are made to teach.
38. I believe a simple smile can make anybody's day better.
39. I believe that being popular is not the key to life.
40. I believe in being nice to nerds because you might grow up and have to work for one.
Monday, August 25, 2008
LIFE in Four Photos
First Pic
Break of Dawn -- New lease of life, embarking upon a New Voyage......
A Child Flying Kite -- Young Blood, Aspiring to Fly High with Enormous Zest n Zeal...Coz U Know, Sky is The Limit......
A Small Tree -- Need to Nurture.......
Two Birds Hovering Above -- There r People Around to Take Ample Care of You, You r Actually Carefree.......
Second Pic
Daylight -- You r Almost Halfway Through in This Voyage Called Life.....
Couple -- You Have a Better half of Yours to Lean Upon n Speak Your Heart Out to......
Grown-up Tree -- You Have Been Nurtured Profusely to Stand Tall n Rigidly in The Storms That May, Otherwise, Let U Down........ .
A Small Tree -- You, Together With Your Better half, Have Given a New Lease of Life to Another Breaking Dawn (Your Child).........
One Bird Hovering Above -- There r Comparatively Less People around You to Take Care of You, Unlike during Your Wonder Childhood Years.......
Third Pic
Fall of Dusk -- Twilight is setting Upon, Life Has Come a Full Circle....
An Old Man -- It's a Race Against Time Now On, It's The Beginning of The End of The Voyage......
Ageing Tree -- Signifies The Above Two Things, Second One Being The Personification of This........
Grown Tree -- Your Kids Have Grown Up; It's High Time You Start Supporting Them With Tender Care Rather Than Clashes..........
One Bird -- Self Explanatory, I Guess???
Grave -- In Course of The Voyage You Have Lost Loved Ones n You Also Start to Anticipate Your Ultimate Fate n Destiny..........
Fourth Pic
Nightfall -- Voyage is Over, Darkness is Looming Over, High Time to Say Good Bye....
Starry Sky -- There's Still Happiness Around, Thanks to The Aesthetic Memories Left by You n The Good Work Done Too..... .
Grown-up Tree -- Your Kids r Walking in Your Shoes now, It's For Them to Follow Your Footsteps Drawing Inspiration From Your Exemplary Life..
Grave With Two Crosses -- You r United with Your Soul mates n RIPS........
"Someone's Watching Over Me"
Found myself today
Oh I found myself and ran away
Something pulled me back
The voice of reason I forgot I had
All I know is you're not here to say
What you always used to say
But it's written in the sky tonight
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over me
Seen that ray of light
And it's shining on my destiny
Shining all the time
And I wont be afraid
To follow everywhere it's taking me
All I know is yesterday is gone
And right now I belong
To this moment to my dreams
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over me
It doesn't matter what people say
And it doesn't matter how long it takes
Believe in yourself and you'll fly high
And it only matters how true you are
Be true to yourself and follow your heart
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
That I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even when it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
That someone's watching over
Someone's watching over
Someone's watching over me
Oh I found myself and ran away
Something pulled me back
The voice of reason I forgot I had
All I know is you're not here to say
What you always used to say
But it's written in the sky tonight
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over me
Seen that ray of light
And it's shining on my destiny
Shining all the time
And I wont be afraid
To follow everywhere it's taking me
All I know is yesterday is gone
And right now I belong
To this moment to my dreams
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over me
It doesn't matter what people say
And it doesn't matter how long it takes
Believe in yourself and you'll fly high
And it only matters how true you are
Be true to yourself and follow your heart
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
That I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even when it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
That someone's watching over
Someone's watching over
Someone's watching over me
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Who will Cry when you Die? By Robin Sharma
Robin Sharma, the Author says: "When you live your truth, your dreams beat a path toward your doorstep".
Robin S. Sharma is an acclaimed international guru who guides readers towards enlightenment. The success of his best seller The monk Who Sold His Ferrari is nothing less than sensational!
That book had a captivating, as well as a delightful story. When I was still under the spell of Sharma’s books, I started reading this book. This book does lay a tough task ahead of us!
“Who will cry when you die” sets about making us think hard as to how to manifest the fullness of our talents. It is not simple though, we know! Robin Sharma calls this book life lessons which is of course very apt. The title suggests that we should live such a life that the world cries when we die! Who wouldn’t ask for that? He gives simple solutions to what we think are complex problems. But I find that, the language and the way he puts them are simple, but to follow them is definitely complex.
Frankly speaking, even the title is a bit odd..WHO WILL CRY WHEN YOU DIE...I mean at least I don’t want people cry when I die, already they would be so sad and here Robin Sharma is so concerned about people who all will cry when some body dies? I think the title of this book looks good when you look at it ,but when you think about it, its really vague..
The author has given not less than hundred points for us to follow to enrich our lives. At this rate, reading this book has to be a life long pursuit, if we want to follow at least some of them. I personally feel, if we patiently read through the book completely, we are on step one already! It needs a strong determination on our goal towards self improvement to think and climb on to the second step! It is, in patches, similar to a moral science book, since it is full of “do’s” and “don’ts” in life!
But we can’t deny that even if we start practising a few of them to start with, there will be better balance, control and effectiveness in our daily lives. There is no doubt that this will be a pleasure for the people who interact with us! So we start with the idea that “the pleasure of my improvement will be others’, not mine!” To think this way, is not easy either!
To start with, if we identify our calling & make it our way of life, our life starts changing for the better. We all want to be the person which we never are, ultimately! I think I am going through this phase personally after all these years, in my life and hence I am able to appreciate this point better ! We struggle to establish an identity for ourselves throughout our life, but very often, only unsuccessfully! Sharma suggests working hard at it, is worthy of the reward, we get in life.
A very interesting suggestion of R. Sharma is to take a “worry break”, allotting a specific time every day, exclusively to brood over your difficulties. He says make a note of all your worries the whole day and wallow in your problems in the allotted time. He assures us that gradually we will decrease the time for this break and eventually this habit will be eliminated forever! Sounds worth trying! But there may be one problem – we will end up creating worries since we have allotted a time for that & we do not want to waste that time, not worrying! So this suggestion has to be tried with special care!
A practical solution to create a sound Life and strikingly balance life filling in the gaps with humility. Robin refers to his father's words that a tree that has most fruits is that which bends to the ground. And though there are some exceptions he have found in his own experience that it is true-the people who know the most, who have achieved the most, and have lived the most, are also the people closest to the ground. In a word, they are humble. There is something special about being in the presence of a person who is humble.
Robin Sharma thinks that practicing humility shows that you respect others and reminds us that there is something for us to learn. It sends a signal to those around you that you are open to receiving the gift of their knowledge and listening to what they have to say. The book is door to exceptional life and live life to the fullest with a purpose and attain peace. The book is in-depth wisdom with absolute life changing solutions to cope with life's trials, challenges, frustrations and so on.
Like Deepak Chopra, Sharma also suggests regularly spending time in communion with nature and silently witness the intelligence within every living thing. I personally follow this, since reading this book and find that it keeps me centred on my highest life priorities. This has made a difference in my life.
Sharma expects us to be mature enough to see troubles as blessings which teach us valuable lessons in life. It is rightly said that tough men last and tough times don’t! I personally feel this trait cannot be cultivated, but we come to accept it only when life takes its toll on us, mercilessly, sometimes.
Yet another point which I liked very much in this book, is one I have been practising, ever since I attended my energy classes. Whenever we give away money, if we bless it and give, it comes back to us many fold! This only proves the timeless truth that the hand that gives is the hand that gathers. To bless the money every time we give cash or cheque – does sound odd and funny, but even once you are proved right, you start practising it – who does not want money to come back, multiplied?
Our respecting our own instincts – the voice within, is stressed by the author and rightly so. It helps us decide whether that thought or action is within or outside our “comfort zone” as we call it. I think this is one of the best suggestions given by the author & the morally strong sounding word “conscience” is replaced by the layman’s word “voice within”! Now it looks within our reach!
If the book “ The monk who sold his ferrari” helped readers cope with the rat race of life, this book with its long list of lessons does make us wonder whether we can take up the challenge at all. But I am not one to give up easily & try I did my best! Regular reading of the book and trying to incorporate atleast a few in my life have made my mind more full, and life more happy. The more I live, the harder I want to work and rejoice in life for its own sake. Only then I would have been fully used up when I die and hopefully, people who know me will cry!
As Robin Sharma recently visited India in preparation for the production of 'The Monk who sold his Ferrari' as a major motion picture, Robin reminded in his speech that wherever in the world he went, he found human beings struggle with same challenges, same longings. All people are part of one great family with invisible ties. Thus, peace is at your own doorstep and Robin Sharma's books are real 'Gem Picks' - Yeah, sure you can surf his website too and hear his Gem voice too! Good Pick & Great Message.
Who is Robin Sharma?
Robin is one of the world's top leadership experts and the author of 10 international bestsellers on leadership and personal success. He is the CEO of Sharma Leadership International Inc. (SLI), a global learning firm focused on helping people Lead Without Title. A former litigation lawyer, Robin holds 2 law degrees including a Masters of Law. His work has helped millions of people in over 50 countries show leadership in their work and personal lives. SLI clients include many of the worlds best known organizations including GE, Microsoft, IBM, Nike, FedEx, BP and Yale University.
Success Facts:
• In an independent ranking of the world's top leadership experts by leadershipgurus.net Robin is ranked #2 (along with Jim Collins, Jack Welch and John Maxwell)
• Robin's books have been published in over 50 countries and in 40 languages
• The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is the 5th best selling book in the history of Israel. It has been on India's Top 10 bestseller list of rover 2 years. Robin's books have been the fastest selling books in Turkish publishing history. His books have also been blockbusters in Japan, Spain, England, Dubai, Mexico, Singapore, Puerto Rico and throughout South America.
• Robin starred in his own PBS special and has appeared on over 1000 television and radio shows.
• Robin Sharma is the founder of The Robin Sharma Foundation for Children to help underprivileged children become leaders.
Robin’s Mission Statement:
• To help people and organizations Lead Without Title.
Family Status:
• Single Dad
Greatest Blessings:
• "My 2 children. And the fact that I get to do what I do."
Favorite Recreational Passions:
• Skiing, sailing, music, travelling (ideally with a backpack) reading, nature, and great conversation
Favorite Quotes:
• “The tragedy of life is not death. The tragedy of life is what we allow to die inside of us while we live.” Dr. Norman Cousins
• "Your lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr
Robin’s "Cindrella Story":
A former lawyer, he quit his job and self-published a book at a Kinko's copy shop (his mother edited it). Stored 2000 copies in his kitchen. Second book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari was also originally self-published until former HarperCollins president Ed Carson discovered Robin in a bookstore. The book, and the series that followed, has become one of the world's most successful publishing franchises.
What’s the Buzz on Robin Sharma: Robin's become one of the most trusted advisors on Leadership and Personal Success to organizations internationally. Many Fortune 500 companies have already embraced Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Corporate transformations have occurred in organizations such as Microsoft, IBM, FedEx, Panasonic, Kraft, General Motors and Panasonic. The book is essentially about creating workplaces where it’s safe to be human again, helping leaders work and live by a high moral code, inspiring individuals to step up to the plate and show leadership at work and in their personal lives.
What People are Saying about Robin and his Work:
• "Independently ranked one of the top 10 leadership gurus in the world." - LeadershipGurus.net
• "Robin Sharma's books are helping people all around the world live great lives." - Paulo Coelo, author of the international bestseller The Alchemist
• "Though Sharma rejects the guru label, it's hard not to think of the CEO of the training and coaching firm Sharma Leadership International that way" - Publishers Weekly
• "Robin Sharma has the rare gift of writing books that are fun to read yet truly life changing." Richard Carlson, Ph.D., author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Don't Sweat The Small Stuff.
• "The Saint, The Surfer and The CEO will touch and change many lives." John Gray, author of the #1 bestseller Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
• "Another amazing, life-changing book by Robin Sharma." Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the international bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Favourite Books
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
• A Manual For Living - by Epictetus (Interpretation by Sharon Lebell)
• The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Marcus Aurelius Antonius
• Hope for the Flowers - Trina Paulus
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Ben Franklin
• The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
• Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
• Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership - Joe Jaworsky
• The Message of a Master - John McDonald
• Often Wrong, Never in Doubt: Unleash the Business Rebel With - Donny Deutsch
• iCon Stev Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Buisness - Jeffery S. Yound and William L. Simon
• Thinking Body, Dancing Mind - Jerry Lynch
• The Power of Optimism - Alan Loy McGinnis
• Take Your Time - Eknath Easwaran
• The Go-Getter - Peter B. Kyne
• The Art of Happiness - Howard Cutler
• The Art of Worldy Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian
• University of Success - Og Mandino
• Small Graces - Kent Nerburn
• The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
• The Magic of Believing - Claude Bristol
• Walden - Henry David Thoreau
Favourite Movies
• The Matrix
• Million Dollar Baby
• Braveheart
• The Shawshank
• Redemption
• Wall Street Scarface
• Scent of A Woman
• Gladiator
• Life is Beautiful
• Dead Poet's Society
Favourite CDs
• Cafe Del Mar: Volume 7
• How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2
• X & Y by Coldplay
• O by Damien Rice
• In Violet Light by The Tragically Hip
• In Between Evolution by The Tragically Hip
• Part of the Process by Morcheeba Amar
• Es Combatir by Mana
Favourite Sites
• The New York Times
• Fast Company
• Business 2.0
• Zaadz
• Wired
• Squidoo
• Human Clock
• ClickZ
• Apple
• Amazon
• Wikipedia
• YouTube
His most famous book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, which is told like a fable, has been published in dozens of countries in dozens of languages.
Other publications include:
* Who Will Cry When You Die?
* Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
* Discover Your Destiny With The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
* The Greatness Guide: Powerful secrets of getting to World Class
* Discover Your Destiny
* The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO
* Mega Living!
Sharma is the CEO of Sharma Leadership International Inc., a global training firm whose clients include GE, Nike, FedEx, NASA, Unilever, Microsoft, BP, IBM, The Harvard Business School and Yale University.
Success Facts:
• In an independent ranking of the world's top leadership experts by leadershipgurus.net Robin is ranked #2 (along with Jim Collins, Jack Welch and John Maxwell)
• Robin's books have been published in over 50 countries and in 40 languages
• The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is the 5th best selling book in the history of Israel. It has been on India's Top 10 bestseller list of rover 2 years. Robin's books have been the fastest selling books in Turkish publishing history. His books have also been blockbusters in Japan, Spain, England, Dubai, Mexico, Singapore, Puerto Rico and throughout South America.
• Robin starred in his own PBS special and has appeared on over 1000 television and radio shows.
• Robin Sharma is the founder of The Robin Sharma Foundation for Children to help underprivileged children become leaders.
Robin’s Mission Statement:
• To help people and organizations Lead Without Title.
Family Status:
• Single Dad
Greatest Blessings:
• "My 2 children. And the fact that I get to do what I do."
Favorite Recreational Passions:
• Skiing, sailing, music, travelling (ideally with a backpack) reading, nature, and great conversation
Favorite Quotes:
• “The tragedy of life is not death. The tragedy of life is what we allow to die inside of us while we live.” Dr. Norman Cousins
• "Your lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr
Robin’s "Cindrella Story":
A former lawyer, he quit his job and self-published a book at a Kinko's copy shop (his mother edited it). Stored 2000 copies in his kitchen. Second book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari was also originally self-published until former HarperCollins president Ed Carson discovered Robin in a bookstore. The book, and the series that followed, has become one of the world's most successful publishing franchises.
What’s the Buzz on Robin Sharma: Robin's become one of the most trusted advisors on Leadership and Personal Success to organizations internationally. Many Fortune 500 companies have already embraced Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Corporate transformations have occurred in organizations such as Microsoft, IBM, FedEx, Panasonic, Kraft, General Motors and Panasonic. The book is essentially about creating workplaces where it’s safe to be human again, helping leaders work and live by a high moral code, inspiring individuals to step up to the plate and show leadership at work and in their personal lives.
What People are Saying about Robin and his Work:
• "Independently ranked one of the top 10 leadership gurus in the world." - LeadershipGurus.net
• "Robin Sharma's books are helping people all around the world live great lives." - Paulo Coelo, author of the international bestseller The Alchemist
• "Though Sharma rejects the guru label, it's hard not to think of the CEO of the training and coaching firm Sharma Leadership International that way" - Publishers Weekly
• "Robin Sharma has the rare gift of writing books that are fun to read yet truly life changing." Richard Carlson, Ph.D., author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Don't Sweat The Small Stuff.
• "The Saint, The Surfer and The CEO will touch and change many lives." John Gray, author of the #1 bestseller Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
• "Another amazing, life-changing book by Robin Sharma." Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the international bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Favourite Books
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
• A Manual For Living - by Epictetus (Interpretation by Sharon Lebell)
• The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Marcus Aurelius Antonius
• Hope for the Flowers - Trina Paulus
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Ben Franklin
• The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
• Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
• Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership - Joe Jaworsky
• The Message of a Master - John McDonald
• Often Wrong, Never in Doubt: Unleash the Business Rebel With - Donny Deutsch
• iCon Stev Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Buisness - Jeffery S. Yound and William L. Simon
• Thinking Body, Dancing Mind - Jerry Lynch
• The Power of Optimism - Alan Loy McGinnis
• Take Your Time - Eknath Easwaran
• The Go-Getter - Peter B. Kyne
• The Art of Happiness - Howard Cutler
• The Art of Worldy Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian
• University of Success - Og Mandino
• Small Graces - Kent Nerburn
• The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
• The Magic of Believing - Claude Bristol
• Walden - Henry David Thoreau
Favourite Movies
• The Matrix
• Million Dollar Baby
• Braveheart
• The Shawshank
• Redemption
• Wall Street Scarface
• Scent of A Woman
• Gladiator
• Life is Beautiful
• Dead Poet's Society
Favourite CDs
• Cafe Del Mar: Volume 7
• How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2
• X & Y by Coldplay
• O by Damien Rice
• In Violet Light by The Tragically Hip
• In Between Evolution by The Tragically Hip
• Part of the Process by Morcheeba Amar
• Es Combatir by Mana
Favourite Sites
• The New York Times
• Fast Company
• Business 2.0
• Zaadz
• Wired
• Squidoo
• Human Clock
• ClickZ
• Apple
• Amazon
• Wikipedia
• YouTube
His most famous book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, which is told like a fable, has been published in dozens of countries in dozens of languages.
Other publications include:
* Who Will Cry When You Die?
* Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
* Discover Your Destiny With The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
* The Greatness Guide: Powerful secrets of getting to World Class
* Discover Your Destiny
* The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO
* Mega Living!
Sharma is the CEO of Sharma Leadership International Inc., a global training firm whose clients include GE, Nike, FedEx, NASA, Unilever, Microsoft, BP, IBM, The Harvard Business School and Yale University.
Good to Great By James Collins aka Jim Collins
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't is a management book by James C. Collins that aims to describe how companies transition from being average companies to great companies and how companies can fail to make the transition. "Greatness" is defined as financial performance several multiples better than the market average over a sustained period of time. Collins finds the main factor for achieving the transition to be a narrow focusing of the company’s resources on their field of competence.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Farewell Timmy 5th July 2008
Today July 5th, 2008 I write another sad story of mine. Departing of a good friend. Departing of a loyal friend. Departing of a faithful friend. It’s Timothy (Timmy) my pet dog being with us for almost 10 years.
The memories run back 10 years. Timmy is the best gift I’ve ever got from my Best friend in 1997, it was hard to separate him from his siblings at that time. The small one was always the center of attraction among his sister and two brothers. And he was lucky enough to live beyond his siblings life span.
I am not sure exactly the time he passed away, I assume it was today early morning (1 a.m. to 3 a.m.) his last breath was taken away. The body still had a light warm when I discovered him under my sisters bed around 9.45. He missed his usual tea and it made us to find him everywhere. I know I am writing like a kindergarten kid but no words are coming out.
So we decided to wait till my sister comes home for the Burial. Actually Timmy was a gift to her for her good results during the OL exams back in1997. And most of the time Timmy spend time with her every time my mom was not at home. Its me who always protected him when getting beaten up for all the naughty things he did. So no matter what, he always used to come to my room at night to get his neck rubbed before I go to sleep.
For the last 10 years its Timmy I’ve always grab into my lap and hug whenever I went through shitty situations. Now I guess it’s time for me to move on. After all that’s life I guess.
The memories run back 10 years. Timmy is the best gift I’ve ever got from my Best friend in 1997, it was hard to separate him from his siblings at that time. The small one was always the center of attraction among his sister and two brothers. And he was lucky enough to live beyond his siblings life span.
I am not sure exactly the time he passed away, I assume it was today early morning (1 a.m. to 3 a.m.) his last breath was taken away. The body still had a light warm when I discovered him under my sisters bed around 9.45. He missed his usual tea and it made us to find him everywhere. I know I am writing like a kindergarten kid but no words are coming out.
So we decided to wait till my sister comes home for the Burial. Actually Timmy was a gift to her for her good results during the OL exams back in1997. And most of the time Timmy spend time with her every time my mom was not at home. Its me who always protected him when getting beaten up for all the naughty things he did. So no matter what, he always used to come to my room at night to get his neck rubbed before I go to sleep.
For the last 10 years its Timmy I’ve always grab into my lap and hug whenever I went through shitty situations. Now I guess it’s time for me to move on. After all that’s life I guess.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
HARVARD COMMENCEMENT SPEECH - 2008
The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
Text as prepared follows.
Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008
----------------------------------
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.
The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world’s best-educated Harry Potter convention.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.
They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I’ve used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank you very much.
Text as prepared follows.
Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008
----------------------------------
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.
The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world’s best-educated Harry Potter convention.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.
They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I’ve used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank you very much.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Top 10 reasons to start a business at uni
10. A more impressive story.
9. No family to take care of, mortgage to pay etc.
8. Aren't oppressed by the system i.e. can still think 'outside the box'.
7. No fat paycheck to walk away from.
6. Ignorance is bliss.
5. Can't lose what you don't have.
4. Free resources at your fingertips.
3. Ability to live like a hobo
2. Plenty of time to do it again if you fail.
1. You're at uni now.
9. No family to take care of, mortgage to pay etc.
8. Aren't oppressed by the system i.e. can still think 'outside the box'.
7. No fat paycheck to walk away from.
6. Ignorance is bliss.
5. Can't lose what you don't have.
4. Free resources at your fingertips.
3. Ability to live like a hobo
2. Plenty of time to do it again if you fail.
1. You're at uni now.
Monday, June 02, 2008
My 1st Job... I mean my 1st real job
It’s been a long time since I last posted. My life has changed dramatically. One loveable sister already departed, and other one to leave soon. Several things happen in my life..some good and some bad. I dunno? I will leave that to u!
Going to Kovil early Saturday morning has now become a habit. Few things happened during the last 2 years which I cannot describe myself. Even though I tried my self hard I still have no answers. And I still pray god every Saturday morning for his grace, wisdom, encouragement and will power without which my life would be harder than I can ever imagine for last couple of months.
Its been a hard and fast journey. I finally submitted my FYP on time, and both my Supervisor and Assessor were impressed in the way I did my presentation. Finally I have done with my university life. And for me I still feels like in 2004 September 14th… the day we started our Degree as fresh school leavers at a Strict Professional Institute called APIIT. Soon after my Uni Exams, my sis got married. It was a Grand wedding and everything went nicely and smoothly as we all expected. And again thank you God for your grace, wisdom, encouragement and will power to keep my family going through all ups and downs. I wish all the very best for my sister and new brother in law for a wonderful and lovely life ahead of them with millions of beautiful babies and Gods prayers for both to stand thick and thin to each other through out their medical profession.
And today 2nd June 2008, I got my first real paid job. The place I used to work for my Internship. A dream come true, an excellent opportunity with an excellent package. What else can I ask from u dear God. And again thank you for your grace, wisdom, encouragement and will power given to me constantly through out my life to reach my dreams and achieve my goals for each year.
Going to Kovil early Saturday morning has now become a habit. Few things happened during the last 2 years which I cannot describe myself. Even though I tried my self hard I still have no answers. And I still pray god every Saturday morning for his grace, wisdom, encouragement and will power without which my life would be harder than I can ever imagine for last couple of months.
Its been a hard and fast journey. I finally submitted my FYP on time, and both my Supervisor and Assessor were impressed in the way I did my presentation. Finally I have done with my university life. And for me I still feels like in 2004 September 14th… the day we started our Degree as fresh school leavers at a Strict Professional Institute called APIIT. Soon after my Uni Exams, my sis got married. It was a Grand wedding and everything went nicely and smoothly as we all expected. And again thank you God for your grace, wisdom, encouragement and will power to keep my family going through all ups and downs. I wish all the very best for my sister and new brother in law for a wonderful and lovely life ahead of them with millions of beautiful babies and Gods prayers for both to stand thick and thin to each other through out their medical profession.
And today 2nd June 2008, I got my first real paid job. The place I used to work for my Internship. A dream come true, an excellent opportunity with an excellent package. What else can I ask from u dear God. And again thank you for your grace, wisdom, encouragement and will power given to me constantly through out my life to reach my dreams and achieve my goals for each year.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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