About
Hello, Here I am, and this is my Journey !!!
About Me
I was born in a small village called Mithe Bethe (don’t worry..you find it on any map) in Mangalore, Karnataka State, India in 1960. At 9 months my father decided he wanted to raise me in the city, and off we went to Bombay (n/k/a Mumbai). Mumbai is a metropolitan city like any other city in the USA. There are skyscrapers, modest homes, and slums. I lived in one of those slums called Chunabhatti (loosely translated “Lime Powder Furnace,) Santacruz (why would there be a place with a Spanish or Portuguese name in India, you ask. Yes, the Portuguese colonized us for 450 years). It wasn’t all that bad. They made us Catholics, thought us how to drink alcohol, eat pork, and party like the Westerners.
At the age of 6 I declared that one day I will leave this place (oh yes, they all called me a dreamer) and go to the land of opportunities called America. I kept my promise and in 1982 I arrived in Miami with 4 pair of under wear, 1 shirt, 2 t-shirts, tooth brush, 2 pairs of pants, 1 pair of shoes, and yes I also had $50 in my pocket. I had never heard of the thing called deodorant. Body odor is an acceptable thing in India. I still never understood. The British ruled India for almost 250 years. Why they did not teach us anything about deodorant is a mystery to me.
I worked on cruise ships, owned and operated Dunkin Donuts’ restaurants, Baskin Robbins, and Precision Tune Auto Care Centers (details to follow), got my Bachelor’s in Human Resource Management, Masters in International Business, and a Law Degree. I am a lawyer and have my own law firm. Can you believe it…from the slums of Mumbai to lawyer in the USA. What a great Country this is. Indeed, it is and always will be a Land of Opportunities. Everything is within your reach. Opportunities didn’t always knock on my door. That didn’t stop me. I just kept on building new doors.
I have traveled around the world to at least 25 countries, eaten strange foods (live monkey brains, raw pig ears, and bull testicles) climbed volcanoes, jumped into waters from a 200 ft high cliff (could not swim and almost drowned). More details to follow soon.
I have a sister who is 2 years younger than me, and a brother who is 5 years younger. Amazingly, my father who had no formal education kept our family quite small (it is not uncommon in India for a woman to bear 12 or more children). He must have known something that I could never understand. My immediate neighbor in the slums had 9 children. I will talk more about life in the slums in details later.
I have been married twice (yeah, I know it doesn’t sound that good..does it..but now single again and living the loca vida). I have 4 children who are now young adults each accomplished in their own way.
And, yes, this blog is about My Journey. At age 58 I am just grateful for everything that life has offered me, including the not so pleasant things and events because it is those unpleasant little events (like getting suspended from practicing law while in the prime of my career) and happenings that has shaped my life, and I am still living it to the fullest with no regrets whatsoever. I want to inspire and motivate every human being that I come across to live powerfully and a life they love with infinite possibilities, bold and totally unhinged. After all, we only have one life to live. Ok, we will discuss Eternal Life in another blog soon.
Ditch the To-Do List for “Stuff I need to do Now List”
Life experiences have only led me into primarily advising my mentees on Time Management. Time is money and there is no better wealth than having ample productive time to spend and great health to be able to live life King size!
As per Dictionary.com,
procrastination
[proh-kras-tuh-ney-shuh n, pruh‐
noun
the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention. Example:She was smart, but her constant procrastination led her to be late with almost every assignment.
Procrastination is a major Time Management problem that majority of us are dealing with. There are several tips and tricks to get off the habit. The one off many solutions that most of the masses take resort is to making several types of “TO-DO” lists. These to-do lists work very well with some people but most of us only end up end up exacerbating the feeling of being extremely overwhelmed.
So, I have noticed everybody has a “Things To-Do List,” and that list keeps on growing and growing, and hardly anything ever gets done.
I have never had a Things to Do List. I have a list also, and I call it “Stuff I need to do Now List!!!” Yes, it sounds drastic.
The week has seven days, however, “someday” is not one of those days of the week. You see, despite the great health and the medical advances there is no later or tomorrow. The only thing that is guaranteed to us is “now.” Tomorrow is not given to us. Nobody knows if they are ever going to wake up tomorrow. In fact, everyday almost 150,000 people go to bed and set their alarms to wake up the next day, and they don’t wake up. We are the lucky one who get another opportunity.
Tomorrow never comes. It’s always tomorrow, and then tomorrow, and then I will do it tomorrow. There is no tomorrow, folks. The time is now. Learn to enjoy the moment. Right now is the perfect time to do the things you have on that list.
There are two days in a person’s life when you cannot do anything. One is yesterday and the next one is tomorrow.
Exhaustive To-Do lists can cause Anxiety attacks, stress, feeling unaccomplished and demotivated. There are side effects and your plans only end up backfiring. So ditch that to live in the present and make a list of what you could do now, in the next couple of hours instead.
As the famous Gautam Buddha quote says- “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
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Just “Showing Up” translates to 80% of Your Success”
Elias Dsouza
I was working at the front desk of the Hotel Al Falaj in the Sultanate of Oman and, one day, my Greek General Manager Mr. Papayannis comes to the front desk and asked me some complicated questions regarding the percentage of occupancy we were expecting to have the next week and month. This was in 1982. I was a 22-year-old kid. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I gave him an honest response. “I am sorry Sir,” I told him, “I am a just a front desk clerk.” His response was “you f***ing Indian,” and my immediate response to him was “you f***ing Homo* (details of Homo in another blog. It’s a great story, I promise) Greek.” Needless to say, I was fired or “packed” as they called it. This was 2 months before my contract was up.
By March of 1982, I was back in Bombay. While my Mother was happy that I was home, it didn’t take long for her to start bugging me to get a new job. My Dad was already dead by then, so I was the breadwinner of the household and I resented her nagging but understood her concerns. I did not know what I was going to do.
Where does “showing up” come into play? Well 2 months later, I was in Miami. Showing up got me to the land of opportunity, these United States of America (details of how I got here in my next blog). Showing up got me through four years of undergraduate and law school. All of the positive things that have happened in my life are a direct result of being getting out of bed when I didn’t want to or introducing myself to a stranger when I didn’t think it would amount to anything.
Showing up is about creating opportunities for yourself. It is about putting yourself in the best possible position to succeed. You cannot succeed from the couch (unless you are a YouTube star). You MUST put yourself out there or opportunity cannot find you!
So, no matter how tired, frustrated, or resigned you are; no matter how much you think the world is out to get you, get up in the morning as if everything in life is possible because it is! Shave, shower, sh*t, wear your finest suit or dress, and show up no matter what it takes. Don’t worry about the traffic, the general worker’s strike, the heat, or about anything else. Stay focused on the task. Just show up and you will see and smell SUCCESS. If opportunity does not knock at your door, build a new door, damn it. But don’t ever give up. Don’t stop. Don’t let anything stop you. Just show UP!