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...

My 200 Meetings Over Coffee

Who would have thought that coffee would come to be recognized as the Swiss Army knife of professional (and not so professional) networking? Centuries ago, when the first of Kaldi's goats nibbled on the nameless red berries, I'm sure the poor goatherd had no clue that the serendipity would eventually give birth to a whole new way for people to build real-life relationships with each other. Fast forward many centuries; today we are all familiar with what "let's meet over coffee" means. Well, for one it doesn't mean you have to drink coffee. It is just an invitation to have a casual conversation about things that might be of interest to both parties. In not too distant past, many conversations that started with that phrase ended up becoming admirable success stories for businesses and individuals. 200 Coffee Meetings Later This realization came to me a bit late in life. I do not recall considering my first coffee meeting as a chance to offer or rec...

Of Clocks, Clones & Cloaks

It was last Wednesday evening and I had just gotten back from work. The news that our world had changed yet again a few hours back, had not permeated my senses through the deluge of social media posts that had to follow. So I threw myself on the couch, glanced the clock on the wall and flipped my laptop open. The first thing I saw was a news report posted a few days earlier, about scientists working on a grandiosely ambitious project to bring back to life the extinct woolly mammoths that walked the earth for hundreds of thousands of years. The next thing I noticed was another report about a 14-year old schoolboy in Dallas Texas who got arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. Let me admit; for a moment I too felt guilty for my brazen revolt against the newly established norms of civil obedience, but still dared to glance the clock again only to make sure I had not traveled back in time. And just then, my cell phone buzzed with a Twitter notific...

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