Never in my wildest dreams did I think that one day I would be giving a motivational speech to engineering students at VJTI. So when I was invited by my ex-colleague Najeeb, I grabbed the opportunity.
LEAP Talks, is a platform where 4-6 powerful speakers share their knowledge, excitement and inspiration; where ideas and innovation are showcased; driving the audience to excel and outperform. A 2 hour monthly seminar where 4-6 dynamic and inspiring speakers talk about driving change. Using instances from their lives and what they've achieved they inspire audiences to believe in themselves.
Who - Change makers, Collaborators and Enthusiastic young people who we need to watch out for.
When - Every last Saturday of the Month/ Or as scheduled otherwise
15 min speeches, preferably using visual aid and multimedia on how they Beat the odds to get where they have reached and what they aspire to achieve in the next 3 years.
Mission
Create a strong dedicated audience that walks out amazed, eagerly looking forward to the next one. Build the LEAP Talks brand, where only the most inspiring and powerful speakers share the podium and convey what life’s greatest lesson to them has been so far.
Date and Timing:
10th February,2011 @ 5:30pm. till 7:30pm
Address: VJTI College, Matunga.
Address: More than 400-500 students of VJTI. this program has been organized as an extension to their Annual Festival "Technovanza" and is being organized as one of the main draws for their Annual celebrations.
I had no clue what was expected from me, so had to ask Najeeb for a little more background and his brief to me was -
Well it would be preferable to keep it focused on yourself, who Elsa is as a person, how she has grown in life and most importantly, what has been the turning point in her life - professional/personal and how she has done things differently which is why she is here today but others (who might have started their career about the same time as Elsa) could not achieve. And what difference she has made as a human being to the society.
Anyway, so with mixed feelings - excitement (to be able to address the students), a bit of anxiety (to ensure that I had the right content; being the perfectionist that I am) and a bit of wonder (God works in mysterious ways and what was he trying to tell me?) I went to VJTI. I met the General Secretary Benjamin and he explained the various events organised for the fest. I was quite impressed with the students ideas which was based around India and how to make it a superpower.
My co-speakers were a varied and eclectic lot:
- A scientist from BARC who specialisation is robotics. Meher is not only a woman in a highly specialised field of robotics but is also a kind hearted lady who runs her own NGO - Hana foundation. She truly touched my heart.
- An excise commissioner, Mr. Patel, who started off as a cowherd and today helps others in career selection and trains them to appear for competitive exams. He has a library with over a lakh of books.
- An entrepreneur who worked with Microsoft for over 8 years, had a green card but gave it all up to return to India to set up his own IT company. He now has offices in 8 countries and does a lot of philanthropic work.
- An astrologer, Hitesh, who chose to follow his dreams and passion rather than join his father's business.
I was truly humbled hearing their experiences and I definitely learned a lot. But through it all, I was reminded that success is not about designations but actually fulfilling your passions. Success is when you are happy, satisfied and when you can touch other people's lives. In order to achieve it, the path is fairly common - commitment, honesty, integrity, openness, thankfulness, sensitivity to others, willingness to adapt and change, courage to take risks, passion and most of all belief in yourself.
