Thought-Wise: Taking Action

Back to the Basics of Self Empowerment - Victim or Creator?

A young boy I was mentoring years ago as part of a program run by The Citizens Foundation in Pakistan blurted in middle of a group pep talk, "You don't understand sir, the whole world is against me; the teacher never gives me the marks that other students get for the same work." Being a mentor, I was a bit taken aback by that downbeat remark but I realized that I had to be sensitive to how strong emotions from other students might come into play. Before I even had a chance to wrap my head around the possible nuances of the comment, another boy cut in "But sir, he does not even try." Rewind one week to the orientation session; we all gathered in a small room already filled with a bunch of passionate boys and girls all wanting to make a real difference in the lives of less privileged students living on the outskirts of Karachi. An equally enthusiastic speaker adorned in crisp white shalwar kameez spoke about the Victim-Creator model of thinking. I was fas...

2014 Internationally Educated Professionals (IEP) Conference, Toronto

I spoke as part of the "Sales, Marketing and Communications" sector hub in the 11th Internationally Educated Professionals (IEP) Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto on Friday, April 11, 2014, attended by over 800 delegates. Please refer to the conference report for details. The focus of the IEP Conference is to bring IEPs from the five diverse sectors together with stakeholders to get career advice, discuss labour market information, and provide an orientation to Canadian job search practices and workplace culture. Conference stakeholders include: government, business professionals, educators, professional associations, regulatory, accreditation and credentialing bodies, and community-based organizations. The theme of this year’s IEP Conference was innovation, collaboration and cultural intelligence, building on the new IEP Conference format introduced last year. As always, networking is one of the pillars of the conference and the need f...

The Law of Action - 7 Tips to Master Success

I have been quite intrigued by how some people are able to achieve success in life while others pursuing the same goal under similar circumstances are not. It becomes more interesting when both groups of people have similar potential to achieve success. A couple of months back, I decided to look at the whole cause and effect pandemonium in light of the control system theory. I figured we are like electronic devices with our own built-in closed circuits taking input and producing output. Think of us as amplifiers or oscillators if you will. The output we produce is directly or inversely proportionate to the input. For instance, if you reprimand a child for doing something undesirable, he would either stop or stay on doing it with greater zeal and vigour. One way or the other, our influence will impact his action. This is the simple cause and effect relationship where the output depends on the input. We see it all around us, all the time. Now let’s get a bit more creative and thi...

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