Yesterday was a good day. I had time to work, to develop NGO, to cook and to chat to Tricia (my flatmate), to post pictures and even have time to learn how to work out movie maker. Moreover, I even had time to reply to emails. Because yesterday was a full day on the email side. I guess somehow I am thankful today for the internet being so unreliable here and that no emails can come in or out because I will not have that temptation of checking what the corner of the screen is popping out.
There was one common pattern in the emails yesterday, which was a reaction to yesterday’s post (I guess people don’t like to post in blogs!). Many of you friends were impressed with the work I was doing in the NGO, how the kids looked so sweet, how the post was so full of emotion. I think in the most touching email Teeba said I was her inspiration. Now, hence my title, it is not me.
We all have this inside us and some people are fortunate enough to have been able to meet the right people and have the right life experience that gets you a “competitive advantage” (Harvard jargon) in starting of these things. But I would not be more than a start-up if it was not for you. This is how “a little gesture” started. It started from people being able to understand that if we all do little gestures we will be a great help. And that is all I did, opened up the way for you to be a “star”, as Adrien wrote to me today. All I did, as Mukti would say (my EM professor) was to ignore my limitations and surround myself with the right people to make my enterprise grow. And in my case, this was easy, because the right people were my friends, my family, and friends of friends and family.
It is not me, it is you. You are the ones who put the smiles in the kids’ faces and inspire me to tell you the stories of what you achieve!
I heard what is likely to become one of my top 3 favourite quotes on a podcast on Friday. "Time is the only real democratic asset. We are all awarded the same time, it is what we do with it that distinguishes us". Now, I recognise that most of us need to work with survive and that is not democratic throughout. But on an equal opportunity basis, this is an interesting way of putting it. For many years I did not understand why MS thought my resume was so interesting. In fact, they chased me during the entire recruitment process, even though I had no idea of moving to London or Finance. I wanted to be a consultant and stay in Lisbon forever. But traditional consultants in Portugal saw nothing in me, and MS did not let me go. When I started screening resumes and hiring people a couple of years later is when I understood why I was different. TIME. I was truly different about what I did with my time. Not necessarily the basics - choice of degree or anything. But really ...
Comments
you do.. and I said in the email, I must emphasize this again and say that it's true that a lot of it has to do with "meet the right people and have the right life experience" but the other half of the chunck has to do with you taking advantage of it.. because I know so many people might have
opportunities but never seized them.. and this is where
the main difference comes between you and others....... :*
yes it is you
Ja, es ist Ihnen
是的，这是ä½
SÃ, es usted
ja det är du
sim és tu