Reflections 2.0

Posted by Amiya Atahar on October 29th, 2012

Like many years ago, I suddenly have an urge to clear my mind and get things in order, so here are a few reflections from the past few months that had me spinning like a ceiling fan (because that’s the fastest thing I can think of at the moment).

 

Reflection #1: Leadership isn’t about whether you can do it all, because you probably can, but whether you choose to or not.

I know, a little confusing; let me elaborate. I’ll use personal examples because, well, that’s how I got to this conclusion in the first place. If there’s anything I’ve learnt in the past year, it’s that I have a tendency of accepting any responsibilities (asied from home) given to me, whether I can actually do it or not. Not always, I’m not that extreme, but you get the gist of it. It slowly started dawning on me that it didn’t matter whether I took up everything thrown at me – I’d make a mess of things, stretch myself until there was (nearly) nothing left to salvage, and worst of all, disappoint people (yes, I know my priorities are messed up). At the end of the day, nothing would be done, and my subconscious heroic act of accepting all tasks would turn out to be a foolish act of an ignorant child. That’s not leadership, that’s stupidity.

So what I’m getting at is, you haven’t even begun to start tasting the practice of leadership if you haven’t had to choose what to do and what not to, which tasks to give your attention to and which ones to delegate. Now that I’m writing this, it seems so silly to me that hadn’t known this before. But then again, I wasn’t born with infinite wisdom on the art of leadership, so I’m just glad I came to this realization.

 

Reflection #2: What you choose to do defines you as a leader, but more importantly, defines what you represent as a whole. Sadly, not everyone will see it the way you do.

Sometimes, you’ll be the one stuck smack at the centre of all the commotion and chaos, being tugged from all directions to fulfill people’s wishes (voices and all that, in BBLT terminology). You can do all the strategic planning in the world, or ‘go with your gut’ – or both – and you’ll still be judged. You can choose to focus short-term over long-term, process over results, people over actions – either way, even if you find a balance, you WILL leave a trail of grumbling crowd reluctant to go along. Even someone with the same vision as you may misinterpret – or simply just fight the adaptive challenge – your actions and hold a grudge.

My point? As hard as I may have tried, it seems impossible at some points in life to get people who agree with sustainability to work toward it, because it’s too difficult to break out of a habit and develop a new one. I can advocate for it all I want, and it may even reflect well upon my community, but at the end of the day, it’s the people’s work, and they won’t be happy about it.

I’m beginning to realize how bitter this piece is sounding, so maybe I’ll put in some positive thoughts…

 

Reflection #3: Once you find those people who stand by you through thick and thin, or as you may hear in BBLT. ‘allies’, you should probably try to hold on to them.

OR

Reflection #3: Allies are important.

The rough journey of trying to exercise leadership will lead to numerous failures, which will eventually lead to success of sorts. At the very low points, you’ll be bitter and potentially push people away. Don’t. That’s probably a bigger mistake than the one in Reflection #1. With your allies by your side, you don’t even have to know if you can fall – you’ll want to try harder anyway, because as relieving as it may be to share failures, it’s exhilarating to share a success with those who stood by you. If I didn’t have friends who shared my views/responsibilities/experiences in all sectors of life – family, education (getting into a public university in Bangladesh!), work, etc. – I wouldn’t find a reason to even try.

In other words, they’re your support system, and without them, you’re more likely to fall apart than not.

 

Reflection #4: Asking questions, reflecting, evaluating is all good, until it’s not.

I was introduced to the world of evaluation some time ago, and it’s gotten a very strong hold on me ever since. I ask myself how well I’m doing, the whole process of pros and cons, what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong – I even make a point to write it all down sometimes, to track my progress (okay, so I’m not THAT crazy about it – I’ve only written it down once or twice). It took me a very long time to realize it, but I was stuck in my reflections for so long that it seemed like a part of the world had passed me by. I was going round in circles asking my self the same things, but not doing anything more. Sometimes, you have to get back on the dance floor, however much you may enjoy the balcony.

 

I’ve shared some views, talked a whole lot, and now, it’s time I get back on my dance floor for good and put some of these reflections to the test. I do wish others would share their views here at the BYLC blog, though. Please keep in mind this is in no way a look into BBLT, BYLC, or anything else I’m affiliated with, and definitely no solution manual to leadership problems. In case it didn’t hit you, I’m not exactly a ‘leader’ – just a BBLT graduate looking out a few windows from my comfort zone.

 

Until next time,

Amiya Atahar,

Graduate, BBLT 3

Posted in On Leadership | 1 Comment »

BYLC organizes workshop on “GIST Tech-I Competition”

Posted by Mashruba on September 16th, 2012

Sparkly and bright eyes looked intently at the projection on the white board that ran slides as Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC), Bangladesh’s first leadership institute, organized a workshop on Go-To-Market Plan (Executive Summary & Video Pitch) for aspiring young entrepreneurs as part of its commitment to promote youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.

Mr. Zobaer Zoha, Assistant Project Coordinator, BYLC, inaugurated the workshop on the Global Initiative through Science and Technology (GIST) Tech-I competition at BYLC Headquarters on Saturday, September 15, 2012. He introduced BYLC and the GIST Initiative, launched in 2010 and funded by the U.S. Department of State.

He pointed out that as a local country partner of the GIST Initiative, BYLC was running the workshop on the technology idea competition ‘GIST Tech-I’. Technology entrepreneurs, permanent residents or citizens of a GIST eligible country, can apply in the competition by uploading an executive summary and a two-minute video pitch to the GIST website. Selected applicants will receive a first round of seed funding ranging from $2,000-$25,000; the applicant with the greatest number of votes will receive an iPad; and the top five startups will also receive a scholarship to the GIST Accelerator, a six-week Silicon Valley immersion program.

He then invited Ms. Shammi S. Quddus, Head of Business Development, A K Khan WaterHealth Bangladesh Ltd. and co-founder of BYLC’s Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) program, to conduct a session on entrepreneurship. Shammi graduated as an environmental engineer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2010. She said that her interests were development and entrepreneurship. She defined development as the sprouting of one’s knowledge, expertise, and education; and entrepreneurship is the realization of an idea into reality in a financially sustainable way. She said that someone undertaking a business venture by bearing risk without guarantee of profits is the distinguishing feature of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur finds a start-up – which is a new organization or firm that has not been publicly launched.

The participants cited facebook, beta, sumazi, and nike as classic examples of start-up when Ms Shammi termed start-ups as refining models that can start from a garage, university, home, or even the back of a trunk.

The start-up lifecycle starts with ideation – which is the determination of one’s passion and pain. A test and tweak, beta version of the prototype is made. The business plan has the costing required and the revenue earned. She goes on to refer to the raising of capital by getting grants, competition, crowd sourcing, venture capital, equity and/or debt. The launch ensues through operations like recruiting, manufacturing, marketing and selling.

Finding a pain means determining a problem that one can solve with one’s passion. Then it is possible to ideate by the strong connection between the problem and the passion. A participant mentioned the testing of feasibility of pilot product. Ms Shammi then said that the product that reaches the public must be workable. User receives feedback on the prototype product; the basic, operational and marketing costs take time and require expertise to handle.

Innovation was coloured by Ms Shammi as – an idea is a terrible thing to waste… unless it’s a bad one! A good idea and a successful prototype is innovation, according to Ms Shammi. Military innovation is very expensive, very creative, but not marketable, she said.

Ideation is the identification of one’s problem, getting one’s cross functional team together, brainstorming, filtering and categorizing, and choosing what is to be prototyped. The participants named Anisul Huq, Sir Fazle Abed, A K Azad, Dr Muhammad Yunus, and Ejaj Ahmad as notable entrepreneurs of Bangladesh.

She ruled brainstorming as one conversation at a time, encouraging wild ideas, going for quantity, being visual, staying on topic, building on the ideas of others, and deferring judgment – no blocking. She instructed them that scribing legibly and visually captured on the board ideas that team members call out.

The participants were then divided into six small groups of five and asked to identify six problems of Bangladesh. Each person wrote down each of his or her ideas as they came, and verbally shared it with the group. They worked on that problem for ten minutes, and then filtering and categorizing those ideas, they presented one smart solution for one single problem. The first group identified public transport as a problem of Dhaka City and mentioned public-private partnership, smart traveling tools and mechanization of the railway system, introduction of trams in cities and collaboration of public and private transport owners.

The second group worked on electricity crisis and went on to describe its generation from waste. According to Unicef, 900 tons of garbage is produced by Dhaka city every day. This garbage has combustible and non-combustible parts. The combustible portion contains fluid and can be passed to a generator through a turbine. The non-combustible portion, however, is non-burnable and has 98-99% methane gas from which heat is produced. Water is boiled to vapour and electrical power is produced by passing it through a turbine to a generator. They will sell the electricity to the National Grid.

Maternal Care Company mentioned the mobile company text message service that will send one message everyday regarding the care and risks of a pregnant mother from the first weeks of pregnancy till the lactation period. Nurses and Doctors on duty during emergency calls will be available. Information through website revenue and the marginal income from the villagers will be their revenue.

Education problem was addressed by citing online learning, and community education learning in accordance with the taste of students, which would reduce school drop-outs and flavorsome proceedings in education.

The next group stressed on a multipurpose co-operative society for the sorting of waste, reusing and recycling of waste, running an organic biogas plant, recycling papers, setting up of ashredder plastic bottle industry, garments factory jute business venture, cotton from scraps of wasted garment, and income generation of unemployed youth and women would ease waste management in Dhaka.

Food adulteration barricade would be initiated in 7 major cities of Bangladesh. Public awareness and business would be done at the same time. Like the middlemen, the company would amass raw materials from farmers; crops, fruits, and vegetables would afterward be separated. Harmfulness of food preservative, employment of preservative detectors, and online revenues plus first hand buying and selling of goods would foster business.

Ms Shammi emphasized the importance of a diverse assortment of group members for promoting broad thinking and narrowing down of problem through pin-pointed identification. She stressed on the proffering of one sharp solution. Where from the revenue comes and why it is flowing is to be explained by the companies in detail.

She then explained the composition of a winning business plan that the participants should prepare. The opportunity, product and operational model, the team and the financials i.e return on investment, cash flow, comparison to market return on capital (5-13%) were thoroughly explained by her with the voluntary partaking of the participants.

Shammi clarified that the executive summary should summarize the entire business plan in one or two pages, must follow the same structure and flow as the business plan, must be concise and to the point, and must provide example with discussion. She mentioned that the video pitch should sequentially feature the problem, the solution, the team (why them?), and the ask (what needs to be grown?). She circulated an executive summary template to the participants and then showed some inspirational videos – MIT 100K winning elevator pitch 2009, Size does matter – the Poikos Story, and the Solar Pocket Factory.

The lengthy yet exciting session was brought to a close by inspiring words and sincere encouragement from Shammi.  Finally all participants were fired up to apply to GIST Tech-I competition equipped with new knowledge and skills that they have learned from the workshop.

To learn more about “GIST Tech-I” competition, please visit (http://gist.crdfglobal.org/gist-programs/gist-tech-i-competition)

The deadline for applying in the GIST Tech-I competition is September 25, 2012 (3.00 am BDT). Get your brilliant idea together and apply now!

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Musings 2

Posted by Amiya Atahar on June 11th, 2012

You know you’ve been around for a while when you have different chapters to tell tales from. At BYLC, there’s been a Granny, a ‘Dad, a kid (or two), a China teddy, and a whole lot of other personalities that you only read about in novels.

Now, when people ask me which BBLT I graduated from, they don’t want an answer – not really. They assume its 6 onwards, so hearing ‘BBLT 3′ results with their eyebrows shooting up and occasionally, jaws dropping. It’s an ancient concept to them – one that didn’t exist in their world of BYLC. It’s pretty ironic, considering the fact that I always felt like the new kid when I was in BBLT 3 – there were so many other graduates before me, the ‘seniors’ from Seasons 1 and 2.

[Just to clarify, I don't remember who exactly came up with 'Season' as an alternative to 'BBLT', but I popularized it. I shamelessly take full credit for that. Only because everything else that I came up with is now widely used and it would be excess chechrami if I asked credit for those!]

I used to be a BYLC fanatic once. Sometime around graduation, I made a ‘BYLC Calendar’ – 12 special days during Season 3 – and left it at the BYLC office, along with a couple of photos with captions behind them. On the first anniversary of Season 3, I made – well, I’m not sure what to call it – some sort of a publication. It never saw the light of day, because someone broke their promise and failed to provide me with the last crucial piece. But the point is, I really, really loved BYLC, and it was solely because of the people and the dynamics that existed back then. You can see hints of it here and there now, but with time, we’ve all grown, and so have the complications in our lives.

Oh, and I used to blog, too. A lot. I probably have the highest number of blog posts at the BYLC blog!

Where am I going with this? Nowhere. Just reminiscing, and maybe getting the word out that I don’t take some things – or people, really – for granted. I’ve been around for a while now, and I appreciate everything I’ve experienced so far. Hadn’t I met certain personalities, life wouldn’t be as interesting as it is! These are things I hold near and dear to me, because once you forget the little details, there’s not much holding it all together.

 

Amiya Atahar,

Graduate, BBLT 3

Facilitator, BBLTJ 2

(Super-)Delegate, Youth Leadership Summit 2011

Organizer (Knowledge Team), Youth Leadership Summit 2012

(On & Off) Writer/Editor/Blogger, December 2009 – Present

Talk about chapters!

Ah... fun(ny) times!

Posted in BYLC Batch III, Life after BYLC | 1 Comment »

Ejaj Ahmad at TEDxDhaka 2012

Posted by Amiya Atahar on March 4th, 2012

If you were one of those who were at the Senate Bhaban for TEDxDhaka 2012, you’ll know what I mean when I say E.A’s talk was awe-inspiring. The event was definitely a memorable one, albeit with a few glitches here and there, but it was all a part of the excitement.

Besides E.A, there was a diverse group of speakers who told us of their worlds – much like E.A did with leadership. The group included

  • Dr. K. Siddique-e Rabbani (an amazingly brilliant man – the first ‘scientist’ I’ve met so far!)
  • Mohammad Tauheed (one of the organizers of the event)
  • Jishnu Brahmaputra (or Main Man, as the gaming world knows him)
  • Iraj Islam (of NewsCred)
  • Taslima Miji (CEO, Techmania)
  • Ivy Huq Russel (of Maya)
  • Khaled Mahmud (CEO, Headoffice)
  • Cal Jahan (another organizer of the event).

A powerhouse group, no doubt, despite some of their stage-fright.

I won’t go into much details, but I do want to share a few of my favourite moments from E.A’s speech. Believe it or not, I already knew most of the things he spoke about, and yet I was blown away! I’m sure I can say the same for the other BBLT graduates present.

He began with a slow pace – he singled out an everyday problem, incorporating leadership into it.

“What kind of leadership is needed to move the work forward?” he asked, pausing before admitting it sounded a little heavy.

Ejaj Ahmad at TEDxDhaka 2012

"Leadership is not person-centric, it is work centric."

“My name is Ejaj Ahmad, and I teach leadership at the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center, and I am here to share with you today the lessons that I have learnt and the insights that I have developed for the past three years from working with the brightest students of our country from diverse education, religious and socio-economic backgrounds.”

The perfect introduction, I’d say. Simple yet powerful – and most importantly, perfectly understandable.

Then, he moved onto some of the familiar leadership theories; well, familiar to BBLT graduates. Even then, he managed to show it to us from a different perspective, which was a refreshing touch. He grabbed everyone’s attention instantaneously, improvising some bits to connect with those present by adding value to the audience.

What struck me was how he referred to speeches by speakers before him, working their concepts into what he was trying to explain. A personal favourite was his contradiction to Iraj Islam’s speech on innovation:

“But innovation is also inefficient, because innovation has a high failure rate. You have to run experiments to innovate, you don’t just innovate the first time!”

This wasn’t the only captivating moment, though. You can now watch his talk at TEDxDhaka here.

If you want more, apply for BYLC’s second Youth Leadership Summit (YLS)! It will be held April 26-28, 2012. To apply, fill out this application by March 10, 2012. And no, this isn’t pure advertising – I genuinely enjoyed TEDxDhaka, and YLS 2011, and am definitely applying for YLS 2012!

Amiya Atahar, BBLT 3 Graduate

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Posted in News, On Leadership | 2 Comments »

Community Project Beneficiaries of BBLT 8: Attending the ‘First Call’

Posted by Khaled on February 1st, 2012

Destitute people, in proper sense, are not inferior versions of well-to-do people. They are independent persons with same intellectual capacity, although we treat them differently than others mainly for the reasons of their protection and development. It is, however, not a matter of kindness for the state or society that it would do something for the ‘welfare’ of them but rather a collective duty of ours to protect their rights and thereby to ensure collective and sustainable development.

Images of starving children and adults are cliché, but the social and psychological impact of malnutrition on children is less visible.  And in reality, very few realize how stunted children become when they go through life hungry, without the necessities for growth or advancement. Persistent poverty, malnutrition, disease, unemployment and ignorance make their life an on-going struggle for survival. Low education levels and high offense rate in them contributes in enlisting Bangladesh as one of the least developed countries in the world.

But the community has potential – the people themselves and the community as a whole. Their lives are an ongoing crisis, but the crisis is best defined by the lack of opportunities. Academics and policymakers alike have concluded that the large number of children living in impoverished places could be a great asset to Bangladesh if given adequate, if not ample, opportunity.  They become, however, a liability when they have no opportunities and are faced with only bleak future. To build human capital in the community, we have to create a process which can manage incentives for the members of the community to reinvest what they earn and learn– that is the essence of leadership BBLT program fosters, helping people to find solutions to their own problems.

Given the status quo, empowering the most marginalized people, the pavement dwellers, to assert their rights should have ‘first call’ on society’s concerns, and indeed it has been society’s duty to protect them from any harm, insecurity, under-development and injustice. While the ‘call’ should be attended to by all concerned naturally, BBLT 8 participants, as the future leaders of the country, stretched their hands to help the community face their own problems in collaboration with SAJIDA Foundation by undertaking two different projects on both children and adults. They will provide “informal education” to the children to socialize with proper education and the other project on “employment generation” will focus on marking sustainable development by improving skills and capacity of the adult target members. The aim of the projects is to revitalize the community– but most importantly the investments are the community members themselves.

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Posted in BYLC Batch VIII | No Comments »

BYLC organized a workshop on “I Dare” GIST Business Plan competition

Posted by Donna on January 23rd, 2012

Recently BYLC has extended its network by partnering with Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST), a global initiative to spur economic advancement through science and technology-based innovation in Muslim majority countries. As the regional partner of GIST, BYLC arranged the new organization’s first workshop on January 20, 2012 at the BYLC Headquarters. The workshop was on developing an executive summary for the participants who are eager to present their business plan in an international platform through GIST’s “I Dare” Business Plan Competition. The workshop was attended by forty-five participants.

Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish, director of youth leadership programs at BYLC, welcomed the participants and highlighted the main purpose of this event, namely to equip striving entrepreneurs with the skills and strategies to develop a business model for the upcoming GIST business competition. He introduced the instructors of the workshop, Saifur Rahman, CEO of Maayas Secutronics and Bijon Islam, financial analyst at Citibank, N.A. Both instructors are also strategy affiliates of BYLC.

Saifur Rahman spoke on technology-based entrepreneurship and shared the risks and challenges of starting his own business, especially as a fresh graduate. He gave a presentation on how to model a business from scratch and placedan emphasis how business ideas are generated. He explained seven steps in developing an idea: identify the problem, set goals, compile ideas, categorize ideas, filter ideas, modify ideas and lastly finalize the idea.

Mr. Rahman then addressed the importance of understanding the nature of an idea. This requires identifying whether it is evolutionary or revolutionary, and whether it is simple or a complex. Grouping the ideas into categories helps to develop the next steps of the plan. To elucidate the entire process, he conducted an interactive brainstorming activity and within few minutes, the audience generated fourteen business ideas.

A young entrepreneur’s most challenging phase is to secure funds for the start-up business. Mr. Rahman shared his personal experience of starting Maayas Secutronics, which is now one of the fastest growing electronic security solutions companies in Bangladesh. Since electronic security systems were a new concept in Bangladesh then, electronic parts which are rarely found in the country had to be imported. Mr. Rahman had to be prudent when approaching banks for financing. The business plan was presented to the bank just as any proposal for an electronic appliance supplier business but the originality of the idea drew much of the investment for his business.

During the open discussion round, Manik, a Buliding Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) 5 graduate, asked how the market has responded to Mr. Rahman’s innovative business especially since technology based security is a new concept in Bangladesh. The presenter then shared his enterprise’s business scheme. For example, he provides his customers the security service but not the product itself, thereby providing convenience and at the same time protecting his intellectual property.

Mr. Rahman encouraged the participants to think about social development and personal satisfaction while designing a model, rather than focusing only on monetary profit. He also emphasized that before jumping onto a single idea; one must conduct research and market analysis to enhance the success rate of the business. Mr. Rahman’s investment into research and development has been the greatest strength of his enterprise.

A remarkable idea is nothing unless it is presented in a way so that it attracts investors and assures its long term survival. An executive summary of a business plan report is an overview of the business idea and helps investors to make a decision. The first round selection of GIST’s “I Dare” competition will be based on the executive summary. Bijon Islam covered the technical aspect of writing executive summaries to help the aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience prepare a strong report.

According to Mr. Islam, an executive summary should briefly highlight the following components: strategy, potential, insight, competition, capability and resources. But one should focus on ‘strategy’, which greatly influences the reviewer’s decision. The report must address the following three areas: product/service, financial feasibility and the social benefit of the endeavor.

Mr. Islam stressed that the report be appealing and that the team think deeply about the product/ service they are planning to deliver. He pointed out three factors to consider when deciding on the product/service, namely the market, consumer insight and possible challenges. Since financing is the biggest obstacle in starting a new business, Mr. Islam suggested to keep the financial statements of the report simple by using one or two indicators like internal rate of return (IRR), sources of cash in-flow or net present value (NPV).

In addition, Mr. Islam encouraged the participants to develop a business plan approach based on human design model. He concluded his presentation by advising the participants to keep the report within five paragraphs and to present it in a way so that it is easy to visualize the business model in the real world.

At the end of the two-hour workshop, Mr. Mojlish encouraged the young participants to take part in this international business plan competition. He also invited them to approach BYLC and the instructors for any questions or assistance regarding the competition.

 

 

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Tensed? What for?

Posted by Anik on December 26th, 2011

A few months ago, I started taking admission tests in different universities after my HSC exams were over. The first one that I faced was the one for the business faculty of Jahangir Nagar University. It was on 10th September this year. I checked my seat location and it was at the Old Arts Building. So I reached the campus within 12 pm, and the exam was due at 1:30 pm. But the gates opened only 15 minutes ahead of the exam and as the line was really long, by the time I entered the building, it was 1:25 pm. I started running to and fro about the building looking for room no. 214, which held my seat. And guess what, there wasn’t any room 214 there. I searched and I searched, only to get more and more tired and I started thinking if this was really happening with me. By the time when my watch read 1:35 pm, I was sure something was wrong, terribly wrong. I ran out of the building, frantically asked a student who was standing there that I couldn’t find my room and what to do then. He ushered me to gigantic notice board. As I approached the board, it seemed it was a detailed seat plan. I rechecked my seat. And guess what, it was in the New Arts Building!

Those of you who have ever been to the Jahangir Nagar University know how vast its campus is. One building to another is a rickshaw distance of at least 10 minutes. I grabbed a rickshaw and shouted, “New Arts Building! Quick!” The rickshaw puller had one look at my face, and started paddling at breakneck speed. I reached the New Arts Building at 1:42 pm. I jumped off the rickshaw, don’t know what note I threw at him, and raced against time into the building. As I found and got inside room no. 214, my watch read 1:44 pm. In an exam of 1 hour, I was 14 minutes late. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and dug into my paper.

There’s not much left to tell. In an exam where over 24,000 students took part, I, using 46 minutes out of the allotted 60, stood 4th in the merit list.

Why have I shared this story with you? To brag? To demean those who took the test alongside me? Nah. Read the story again. Is there any word there that tells you how I was feeling in those moments? When I was running from one end of the long corridors to another, hoping against hope that one of the number plates on the rooms would read 214, and neither did? When I was on the rickshaw, and had nothing else to do but to look at the seconds tickling by on my watch? No, there isn’t. Because that’s what I’m going to tell you now. And trust me or not, I didn’t feel tensed. I didn’t feel worried, and I didn’t feel restless.

Do you know what I was telling myself? There must be a reason for this to happen. I don’t know it yet, but I will, in no time. And when I will, I will feel lucky that it happened. So I just need to wait. Just wait and see what happens next. So I just played on with what was happening. And I didn’t feel unlucky, nor did I curse my fate. I knew in my heart, nothing’s wrong. I got only 46 minutes and the rest examinees got 60. But so what? I have less ammunition than my enemy; does that mean I have already lost the battle? No! It just means I have to fight harder, and make up for my lower hand. Which may be tough, but not impossible. And come on, if you want every single challenge in your life to be easy as a pie, you probably shouldn’t be reading my blogs.

Life isn’t a straight road. You can’t see what’s ahead before you reach the next turn. So just wait till the next turn comes before you get frightened of all the mud under your feet and stop walking. You might, and I assure you, you will, miss the wonderland that lies ahead. Take my case for example. I was 14 minutes late, and wasn’t it a blessing for me? Would I get the same euphoria that I got after the results, if I hadn’t been late? Would the same pride surge through my veins if I didn’t know in my heart that I beat about 24,000 students using 14 minutes less than them? And would I get this opportunity if I had lost my nerve then, and panicked, and failed to utilize the 46 minutes that I still had?

Nothing is wrong. Never. You just need to wait till it looks right.

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