I’m a Social Media Entrepreneur, Professor of Digital Marketing, Author of 7 books, Podcaster and an Organic Farmer.

I just finished hosting the 5th edition of Techspectations, Kerala’s largest digital summit. I’ve hosted all five editions since its inception. While it is a professional engagement (I am a professional speaker), I find anchoring Techspectations very fulfilling because it helps me to connect with some of the best brains in the technology and digital industry.

After every edition of Techspecttions, I come back home heavily energized to try creative stuff and inspired to be ambitious. At the same time, I also learned the importance of humility.

The next edition will be in two years, and I can’t wait to get back on stage.

At the beginning of every year, I publish my goals. I consciously make this list public for two reasons. 1) Helps me stay accountable to you. 2) It Helps me to connect with like-minded folks whose goals match.

Master Digital Selling: This year, I will invest time, effort and money in learning performance and RoI-based marketing strategies that directly impact the bottom line.

Re-Brand My Company: Breathe Digital is the new name for our Digital Consulting Firm. It is a name that I love. The name stems from ‘Eat Sleep & Breathe Digital’, my love for all things digital.

Publish Book and Launch Podcast on ‘Digital Selling’: A vital mechanism to master this subject is to learn from experts around the World who have effectively used digital to drive sales. I’m pretty excited about interviewing them and learning what strategies have worked best.

Support My Wife & Daughters Achieve Their Goals: We write down our individual and family goals every year. I want to support them in achieving their goals.

Build New Farmhouse: We have begun constructing a new farmhouse (called NEST) and hope to complete it in the next 90 days. Our goal is to have it ready to receive farm stay guests by April 3rd, 2023, the start of the summer holiday season, when the demand will be high.

Double the Farmstay Revenue: Introduce new earning opportunities. 1) Launch Day-Visit Program for families unable to stay overnight at the farm.  2) Launch and Host special workshops. 3) Offer additional services for farm stay guests such as Barbecue, Bonfire, Drone photography etc.

Get Farm Animals: Expand the farm’s menagerie of animals and birds. This year, I would like to create a happy space for the following: Turkeys, Chickens, Guinea fowl, Ducks, Swans, Pigs, Goats, Sheep and Donkeys. This is in addition to the animals we already have at the farm: Cows, Calves, Pony, Rabbits, Dogs & Puppies. This requires investment in building accommodation for each type, which can be expensive. But it’s a worthwhile investment.

Lose the Paunch: I want to get back to eating healthily and help lose the belly I have developed over the last year. With my shuttling between the city and the farm, I cannot join a gym or play badminton regularly. So, I have to get creative with my daily dose of exercise.

Develop a Second Brain: I want to master Notion and use it to capture the myriad of thoughts and new ideas I regularly get.

Journal Regularly: Capturing my daily experiences and jotting down my emotions is good for my mental health.

I will be writing down the monthly progress of these goals. Some may succeed, and some may not. I want to make an honest attempt and will pen my progress honestly.  Here’s to a successful 2023, and wishing you achieve your goals.

This is the largest gathering of HR professionals in Maldives. The MAHRP is the largest association of HR professionals in the archipelago.

It’s good to get back on the international speaking circuit. Always a pleasure to visit Maldives again. Very enthusiastic audience. The main auditorium was full to the brim with 350 HR professionals.

Am speaking on ‘How to Nurture Socially Engaged Eorkforce’.

More information on www.MAHRP.org

Last night, my family sat together to watch the documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. This was a story about how one man documented his journey back to good health and inspiring another guy (a very obese truck driver) to do the same.

The documentary was very inspiring. This was recommended by KG Sriram, one of the participants of the first edition of Bucketlist Bootcamp I organized.

Many of us commented on how healthy KG looked and he credited this documentary for changing his life. He recommended we watch it and the best piece of advice was what followed. “Watch it with your family” he recommended and what an impact it had.

Today, we begin our journey to better health. My family now has a new found motivation.

This documentary is available for free on YouTube and I strongly recommend you watch it. With your family.

Winning a gold medal at the Olympics is great. But there is something that sparkles better than a gold medal. And that’s fair play and sportsmanship. One such remarkable story is from the Turin Winter Olympics 2006.

The Cross-country skiing race at the Olympics was a highly contested game. There is very little to choose between Canada, Finland, Sweden and Norway. All of them were hot contenders for the gold medal. It was one of the most anticipated races.

As the race began, Sara Renner of the Canadian team took the lead. At the third lap of the six-lap race, disaster stuck for her. Her ski pole broke. She could hardly generate the thrust needed to push through the snow and slowly began to lose momentum. The rest of the contenders began to overtake her one by one. By now, she had slipped from pole position to fourth place.

One man rushed towards her and handed over a spare ski pole to Sara. This enabled her to power through and finish second, winning a silver medal for Canada. And who is that man? It’s the Norwegian Skiing team head coach, Bjørnar Håkensmoen. The sad irony is that thanks to his generosity, his own team was pushed outside of the medal position, coming in fourth.

A journalist asked the head coach that had he not helped, Norway would have won a medal. Bjørnar Håkensmoen’s answer? “If you win but don’t help somebody when you should have, what win is that?”
That answer epitomizes the Olympic spirit. He continued, “The Olympic spirit is the way we try to follow. Without that, we are in big trouble. Every skier, every staff member from Norway follows that.”

This act of sportsmanship captured the imagination of the World.  Canadians went wild, praising his sportsmanship, inviting him and his family for a long vacation in Canada, and even sending him enormous quantities of maple syrup. The Norwegian embassy in Canada received over 600 letters, telephone calls and e-mails of thanks.

While Bjørnar’s act of kindness might have cost his country a medal, he helped it earn the respect of the world making every Norwegian proud.

Hermann Maier, the Austrian skier, is a hot favourite for gold medals at the Nagano Olympics in 1998. He started off the Downhill race with measured aggression. He did all the right things and on track to ace the race…until the 8th bend. He lost his balance, lost control of his path, went over a mound that catapulted him dangerously 30 feet overground. He went flying over 100 meters treacherously and awkwardly crashed on the ground, narrowly missing injuring his neck. He crashed through two safety nets, the soft thick snow cushioning his fall, and came to a stop. He lay there motionless. After an agonizing minute, he slowly picked himself, much to the relief of those watching in horror. Miraculously, he came out with minor injuries.

Doubts loomed large over his continuation in the Games. Yet, three days later, he participated in the Super-G race, does a textbook perfect run and won the gold medal. Three days later, he claimed another gold medal in the Grand Slalom.

To make such a comeback from a confidence-draining and ego-deflating crash that was watched by millions of people live on TV, is a hallmark of a champion. The media gave him a moniker: ‘The Herminator’, a play on a fellow Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie, The Terminator.

Hermann is no stranger to such challenges since an early age. He started skiing as early as 5 years. It helps that his Dad ran a skiing school in Flachau, Austria. He showed early promise and he joined the Austrian National Ski Academy. However, he was sent home a year later as the Academy felt he was too short to make for a professional athlete. He continued to learn and train in his father’s academy. However, a growth disorder hampered his practice. After he graduated from college, he became a bricklayer. He continued teaching in his father’s skiing school.

He participated in small local tournaments and slowly but surely started to show his mettle. He started to win many races and eventually made it to the Austrian national team. Over the next few years, he began to dominate the sport with vengeful aggression as if to prove a point. Maier won his second and third overall World Cup titles in 2000 and 2001.

In August 2001, tragedy struck. Maier had a horrible, near-fatal, motorcycle accident. His leg was badly injured. The doctors considered amputating his leg. Instead, they undertook a complicated reconstructive surgery to save his leg. After the surgery, it took him over two years to recuperate and come back to normalcy. He felt really bad missing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Being an Olympian had always been his dream.

In 2003, he made a spectacular comeback to the sport. Even after meeting multiple accidents both in skiing as well on the road, his love for the sport and his competitive spirit made him practice hard. He went on to win his fourth overall World Cup championship which many considered a phoenix-like miracle. He took his form into the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy and won two Olympic medals, a silver medal in the super-G and bronze in the giant slalom. He had avenged his demons.

Maier story has a strong lesson for corporate professionals. We are bound to have major setbacks in our lives. But if our love for the work is strong enough and his will to succeed is powerful enough, we will prevail and prosper. Maier’s story is such an inspirational one for all of us to learn from.

Longevity in sports is such an underrated achievement. As one age, the body takes a beating. That’s why most Olympians are either in their twenties or thirties. That’s why it is remarkable to hear about Claudia Pechstein who will turn 50 years this year, competing in her 8^th Winter Olympic games. It actually should have been a record-breaking 9^th Winter Games had she not missed the 2010 Vancouver Olympics due to a ban.

At the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, she will compete with much younger athletes, many of whom were not even born when she won her Olympic medal at the 1992 Albertville Games. At the Beijing Olympics, she will aim to win her 10^th Olympic medal in her remarkable career.

Pechstein qualified in the mass start, a game that involves sprinting, jockeying for positions and clever tactics. This game debuted four years ago in Pyeongchang 2018 Games and features 24 skaters racing 16 laps at the same time.

Pechstein is a federal police officer in Germany and continues to train to keep her in top physical shape. To do this even at 50 years and competing at such competitive games is remarkable.

Age, after all, is just a number.

I adore people like David Attenborough, Clink Eastwood and Nammazhwar. They do what they love and never have to worry about retirement. This is a philosophy that I really like. And it’s a mindset am consciously developing.

Today, I came across a story of a man who worked for 70 years without taking a single sick leave. It’s a fascinating read.

Taking workaholism to a next level, an 83-year-old English man slogged for the same company for nearly 70 years and that too without taking a single day off sick. Coming from a poor background, Brian Chorley began working at the original Clarks shoe factory in #England in 1953. He was just 15 years old when he joined.

Chorley said his father was the one who encouraged him to work as they were poor. He worked in the #Clarks until the 1980s. The premises then were converted into a shopping centre and he got into its customer services. Brian, now 83, says David #Attenborough is his idol and says he does not intend to retire yet. He was quoted by Mirror as saying,

“I lost my wife eight years ago so at home I don’t see anyone. I want to be out, I want to see people and I just love working. I don’t want to sit down in an armchair all day – it’s boring. I always look forward to work…I go out of my way to help people. I’ve been told so many times what a wonderful service they’ve had and they feel so happy, and that’s all I want.”

Now, that’s a great guy with a great attitude.

This Australian Open was different for me. For the first time (atleast for me), I got to witness the pre-match warm up exercises of the players. These behind-the-scenes live footages were fascinating to watch how world-class athletes prep themselves before a match, both physically and mentally. 

What absolutely stunned me was the dedication of some players who would do post-match cool down exercises. 
Nadal’s epic finals was a case in point. He just finished a gruelling five setter with Medvedev, them went through a long presentation ceremony. After that and before the long post-match press conference, he hit the gym to do his routine cool down exercises. 

Any other person would have given higher priority to celebrating the victory. Not Rafa.
To have that level of commitment to take care of his body is remarkable. That’s why even at the age of 35, he has the physical stamina to outpace rivals 10 years younger to him. 

Rafa’s routine reemphasized the points from the book Atomic Habits and the importance of setting and following systems.