Nuwan Online - Nuwan Weerasinghe’s Web Log

Its been exactly a year. I would’nt forget! It was indeed a bright sunny day. So much to be decided, so much of expectations. But not knowing that it will only last another 4 months . Now everything is at a standstill. Time passes by, which i hardly notice. Days go by.

I have revisited that distant day, over and over again to tell me that it was not a dream. But its not a reality either. 20th March, 15 April, 3rd September all these were cherished in my best spirit.

Will never see days like those again.

Its you or never!

I will be starting my first semester at PIM today. The next two years are going to keep me extremely busy. Balancing work and studies is quite a challenge. Specially when considering all the assignments, group activities, presentations and exams. Also to constantly keep a GPA 4 would mean you need to put everything into it. But then, that is exactly what management is all about.

Jeff Immelt the CEO of GE has once said that it was his business school (Harvard) which made him realise that there are 24 hours per day and that he could use all of that. I have already cut down my sleep to less than 6 hours except on Sundays. So I’m using atleast 18 hours so far.

 I’m sure i will find new capacity and hunger in me which was never explored before. Bon Voyage!

I have been marveled on many occasions on the things which we mankind was able to create. It is indeed fascinating to think what humans created from our pre historic stages. We have the 7 wonders which were all manmade. Then so many modern scientific inventions are quite outstanding.

But it is the Mother Nature who is the undisputed creator of all marvels.

Just over a week back, I had the opportunity to visit a friend at hospital who had just given birth to her second child who was a baby girl. She was barely 24hrs old when I saw her and that was the very first time in my life that I ever saw an infant ‘that young’. I just got lost for a couple of minutes in front of that baby. Rosy cheeks, tiny little fingers, silky hair. It was such a wonderful little thing. Actually you can just forget all your worries for a moment and only think of how cute she is.

I don’t know what is going through the happy parent’s minds. But I can guarantee that it’s BLISS!

I got selected to the 2010/11 MBA program conducted by the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) in Sri Lanka which is affiliated to the University of Sri Jayewardenapura.

PIM is widely respected to be the leading Business School in Sri Lanka and indeed it is a happy moment in my life. The selection process for this MBA is probably the most competitive in Sri Lanka.

Every year thousands apply for this most prestigious MBA conducted by the PIM. It is a collection of Executive experience, Academic excellence, selection test and finally an Interview with some veteran academics and industry resource personal which earns you admission to this prestigious MBA program.

I know how hard I worked towards getting selected to this program. Week days I come home after work, take a one hour break and work till midnight preparing for GMAT. Each of those days, I slept less than 6 hours a day. On weekends I worked equally hard. I wrote almost 15-20 practice essays. I prepared hard for the final interview. But I was never sure of my achievement because I jolly well knew the competition I had, in getting selected to one of the best and most competitive programs in this country.

Now that i got selected, I know that the tough part lies ahead of me in the next two years. But I look forward to enjoying this phase of my life and i know the path to success.

Hard work and Perseverance in the face of adversity. There are no shortcuts.

I had to go through some secondary school stuff like Geometry, Algebra, English Essays, English Grammer and Comprehension over the last three weeks as part of a selection examination for graduate studies. So every evening i go home take a one hour break and plunge into my laptop and start reading the GMAT (ebook) till midnight. I could manage the english, but the maths was funny. Also learning how to write GMAT style essays was some new experince.

So that the selection exam was done on this sunday, i now have to wait and see (and pray) that i have done enough to get selected for the interviewing. From what i learned, around 850 candidates sat with me for the written exam and i guess only half of that would be selected for the inteviews. From the interviews they will select the last 150 or so who can join the 2010-11 graduate program.

Its soooo competitive….

It does not show any sign of recovery. All what i hear daily is that US is loosing almost half a million jobs per month and no one is in a position to predict where their unemployment rates gonna end up at. Its a similar story around the developed world. Europe, Japan, Aussie included. Developing countries who depend on the export markets of these rich nations are struggling due to lack of buying power from those countries.

So if and when this is over how would the world look like. I’m convinced about one thing. This recession will further sqeeze the middle class. Those who were in the lower middle income levels would end up in poverty, and they are the majority. Those who are already below the poverty line would be completely broke.

Our Society will look more like an hour glass where the middle is thin and the two ends are large. The two ends represent the Wealthy and the poor. The thin middle is obviously the middle class. So predictable our middle class will be much more thinnner by the time we recover from this global recession.

Its taking action decisively and positively which can push you into the wealthy class or you end up with many regrets.

What is this action? Like Jack Canfield mentions in his famous book ‘The Power of Focus’,

‘If you keep on doing what you have always done - You’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.'’

So if you are already in the middle class, and if you continue to do what you are already doing….you know what you will get right?

So! change your actions, act decisively and most importantly dream big, i mean really big. Learn new skills, work double hard and keep focus on your dream. Do what is required to go to the next level. Work every day to attain that dream of yours even if it takes baby steps. We all have a right to be rich and wealthy and life has so much more to offer. Its a beautiful life! 

DREAM IS NOT WHAT YOU SEE IN SLEEP……DREAM IS WHICH DOES NOT LET YOU SLEEP!…… GET GOING!

I can still remember the ‘controversy’ created by imac in late 90s when it appeared without a floppy drive. Now it was a Huge thing in deed. But imac did have something else… A USB connectivity.

Almost a decade later there are more pc users who have never used a floppy drive.

The lesson is, ‘Its not always what your customer wants and your customer is not ALWAYS correct!’ Sometimes you have to be bold and you need lot of guts to defy the norms. I think that is what all about being a Visionary in your industry.

Steve Jobs was certainly that. Apple did ‘Think different’

Read this article for amusement

Yesterday i happen to bump into this (successmagazine.com) site accidentally and immediately i added it to my favourites. Sometimes when all what you want is pure inspiration, successmagazine.com could be a potential destination for you too.

In this article which was found on this page ‘1-on1: Creating a Full Life’ just read the answer given to the question

‘I’d like to make a difference with my life and create a lasting, positive impact on the world, but I am not famous. Can ordinary people create a legacy?’ just read the reply below given by Amanda Gore

‘ Golly, yes. Being a parent who makes their child feel loved, secure, safe and confident would be at the top of my list. Being a friend who is there no matter what or a partner who accepts your spouse for who the spouse really is and still loves him or her. Smiling at someone who feels alone, helping a frightened child or someone in need. All of these create a legacy every day. We confuse being famous with being worthy and making a contribution. There is a big difference. When you give someone an opportunity to be independent, confident and exposed to new ideas, you don’t just have an impact; you help someone transform their life. You never know what believing in someone or being kind will do for them. You may never realize the true influence your love and support has on another. But if you are steadfast in your faith in them, miracles can happen. No one is ordinary. We all can be extraordinary. We just have to tap into our divine nature and shine it on others. That’s the most profound legacy you can leave. ‘

How diferent everything could possibly be if we stop judging or profiling people we associate with and accept them for who they are. We never see the true beauty of someone since we are too busy judging them rather than accepting them. How much do we try to change someone into something which he or she never is? If we can just accept and fall in love with the individual for who he or she is………. If we can just say ‘I love you for who you are’ instead of ’I love you for who i want you to be’ or ‘I love you for whom i think you will be’………

We’ll only be left with frustration and despair as long as we deny this simple truth. Just learn to accept he or she for what he or she really is! We just cannot defy the rules of nature!

Yesterday I bought a new TV Stand for my TV as i did not have a particular place to keep it. It was a quick drive to Arpico Battaramulla to buy it. I brought it in my car only to realise that i needed someone to support me to carry it to my living room in the upstair apartment.It was simply way too heavy (Guess its around 70Kg) and was broad for me and i did’nt have a proper grip to hold it. There was no one around to support me and only my landlord (Who i guess is well into his 70s) was downstairs.

So i made my mind to do it ON MY OWN.

There are about sixteen steps up the stair case and i did finally manage to take the large TV stand to my living room only after spending 45 minutes climbing 16 steps. After climbing each step with the TV stand i had to rest for atleast 2-3 minutes to catch my breath . Finally when i made it, i was just soaked in sweat, bu nevertheless i felt a sense of pride.

For a moment it looked virtually impossible to carry it up the stairs. (Too heavy, too broad and i had to be carefull with the glass doors and the stairs were narrow) I guess i realised one thing here. Sometimes sheer determination can overcome any physical limitations you think which exist.Its just mind controlling your body. Once you make up your mind to do something its 80% done.

For the last couple of days i was watching CNN and Fox news on the latest happenings in Itran. None of the western media companies were allowed access into Iran and they had to rely on the video footages sent by Iranians. All these media giants were just broadcasting low quality but effective video clips of what unfolded in Iran. Traditional media companies can do little when their correspondant are not allowed into a particular area to report.

But very little can any government do to block people from capturing these moments of truth with their mobile phones and instantly uploading it to Youtube, FB or Twitter. Instead of a few media personal, hundreds and thousands of ordinary Iranians turned into photo journalists told the world what was going on in Iran.

Just like how email usage limited the applicability of a postal department, the emergence of social media will definitely have an effect on news network and news agencies. Boundries between countries are useless in the digital era and news agenciees had to rely on social network for news.

Unlike a news personal from a news agency, we cannot fully rely on some video clip captured by an unknown entity, yet this is the emerging trend and we will need to face it. For now CNN, Fox, BBC etc can continue to refer to Social Network when there is is nothing else they can do!