My 21/30!

In the formative years of my childhood, I grew up in a house that had two massive walls on which were mounted two large dark brown wooden shelves from the floor all the way up to the ceiling, stacked with a variety of books. My dad had read them all, some even more than once. He was a gifted and eloquent journalist, loved and respected at home and at work. My mom, an English teacher adored by her students, cared for them beyond the curriculum she was teaching. She committed herself to help the children become a better version of themselves and did so relentlessly with compassion and love.

Between those two remarkable people, it was only natural that I developed a passion for learning that kept snowballing unto this very day. Suddenly, I discovered that opportunities for learning and growth seemed to be all around, not restricted to academic sources alone, books, articles, movies, nature, friends and family… life is rich with learning.

Since my teenage years, life in all its glory had made sure to send me every possible experience to test my beliefs, question my values, everything I knew to be true, and not all of these were pleasant. In every crisis, is an opportunity waiting to be unleashed. In retrospect, each of these experiences in life came at a moment it had the greatest possible effect. It’s like what the Dalai Lama said “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck”. I needed to learn fast, learn well. This eventually helped create RISE, the company I head today.

Here are my 21/30 – Twenty-one observations from the last Thirty years of my life...