Tag: success

Turning Stress in to Success – A practical Illustration

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence7 Comments
Image Credits: www.gvsu.edu
Image Credits: http://www.gvsu.edu

I had the fortune of helping out a person to overcome a highly stressful situation. Lets call him Frank.

He was quite a successful businessman and his success was partly due to a business partnership he forged with another individual who was more senior, who had more experience and who was more successful. Lets call him Robert. After awhile Robert had lost control of his lifestyle and had started to face some financial challenges too. Robert kept assuring Frank that it was a temporary cash flow issue that most companies go through.

After awhile Robert requested Frank for financial help and due to the gratitude he had for Robert, he responded. Frank was promised an early return of the loan. The loan amount was so big, it virtually wiped out all his savings; a part of it was reserved for his daughters’ higher education.

The promised day passed and Robert was not in a position to pay back. Many meetings with Robert and constant follow up did not help. Robert needed more financial help and mentioned that a new loan will help him seal a deal and get out of the financial mess, enabling him to pay back Frank. Frank gave the last bit of saving he had trusting his business partner who helped him to be successful.

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Celebrating a spectacular 2012, filled with amazing learning and growth!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social networking, Spiritual, Uncategorized, World affairsLeave a comment

ImageWith the Mayan Calendar reaching the end of its current cycle, 2012 was eventful with the economic downturn continuing and there were many efforts in many countries around the world to get out of it. Then there were the various natural and human made disasters such as the various storms, earthquakes, wars and killings that added more burdens on the leaders grappling with the economic crisis. Political leaders had new challenges to deal with, dividing their attention between the economy and the new challenges.  There were elections in many countries such as the USA, Russia, France, Spain, Egypt and it is hoped that the new leadership will have new vision and a new mindset to solve the challenges faced by the world.

Then there were the celebrations with the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, The London Olympics, the re-election of Obama, the launch of path breaking communication technology [Quad Core] for smart phones and tablets such as the iPhone 5, iPad 4th Generation, iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy note and Windows 8. And of course the first video on You Tube to reach a billion hits; Gangnam Style!

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Job Interview – flying over the critical hurdle

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Relationships2 Comments
Image credit: http://www.german-business-etiquette.com/

Yes the job interview is one of the critical hurdles in our lives. So let me try and share some tips from my experience of facing some critical interviews in my life as well as being in hundreds of interview panels.

A successful interview starts at the point you apply for jobs. It is important to apply for the right job that is the best fit for you in line with the purpose of your life. Read my blog post; Living purposefully – path to success and happiness [ http://ranjandesilva.com/2012/07/04/living-purposefully-path-to-success-and-happiness/ ] and getting that dream job – 3 simple steps [http://ranjandesilva.com/2012/06/08/getting-that-dream-job-3-simple-steps/ ] for more insights in this regard.

Once the euphoria of getting invited for the interview settles down you need to get on with getting to know the company and the job you are applying for. When I applied for a job as marketing manager of Keells Foods in the late 80’s there was no access to information at our finger tips like we have now. I found out a friend of mine who is a shareholder of this company, visited him and collected the past 3 years of annual reports and started getting to know the company, reading them in detail. I then got myself introduced to a person who was working in John Keells Holdings [the parent company of Keells Foods] and understood details of the corporate culture and the type of team members they like to have. I immersed myself into the company and started living it in my mind the next few meetings before the final interview with the main board of directors of John Keells Holding. The preparation I went through made me feel comfortable and at home when I went for the interview and it was no surprise that I got the job of Marketing Manager of Keells Foods at the age of 24.

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Living Purposefully – path to success and happiness

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Spiritual1 Comment

An interesting question that keeps getting asked by my followers and students is; why do we live? Some gone on to ask; how can we make our lives more successful and happy.

The answer lies in the ability of discovering as life changing gift we are all capable of. This blog will helps you to dive into the amazing arena and to come up with the life changing gift we all look for.

 The following story will help us unearthing this life changing gift;

 Martin and Sam lived in a tiny village at a foot of a mountain. Martin was ambitious and he had some mountain climbing skills. His level of health and fitness was above the level of an average person. Sam on the other hand was less ambitious and had not even learnt basic survival skills such as mountain climbing. They always wanted to know what was on the top of the mountain, but they rarely found the time or motivation to go up the mountain as they were so engrossed in their day to day work.

  One day they received a message from an angel that there was a million dollars on top of the mountain with each of their names on it. They had to climb the Assume Mountain within 24 hours [mid night to mid night] on a selected day within one year. They were told that in order to climb the mountain during the given time, they would have to have an above average level of health and they would need to have basic mountain climbing skills. 

Both Martin and Sam considered the million dollars an important thing to have so that they could start a business or an industry and start making a comfortable life for them selves and their families. Martin the more ambitious, skilful in mountain climbing and who was above average in health and fitness, decided to start the journey the very next ay, starting at midnight. 

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Understanding & making ourselves understood! – The key to quality relationships and success!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence3 Comments

 Can you give me some advice on how to stay peaceful, when very close people around me are  not supporting me at all? They can’t understand me and my mentality. This is a recent request for advice I received from one of my Facebook followers. There have been many such laments from people of various age groups and social situations and I felt it is good to share some thoughts on this for those who need the support.

The first attitude required when going through this challenge is to accept that everyone is ‘right’ from their point of view and conditions of life. When there is a gap or polarity in the points of views then one sees the other persons mentality, opinion, orientation, behaviours etc. ‘wrong’, ‘immoral’, ‘crazy’, ‘stupid’ etc. When there are billions of people living in this world with different mentalities, attitudes and points of view, if we try to make others understand that we are right and they are wrong, then we are on to a futile project that can damage relationships, create hostility and even wars!

So what is the alternative?

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