Whilst celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has had his fair share of critics over the years, I’ve always been a big fan. Not necessarily because of his culinary skills, but because of what he stands for.
Jamie has worked tirelessly to give young unemployed people an opportunity to become chefs and transform their lives through his innovative Fifteen restaurants. He’s campaigned to change the way schools and the government feed children to turn around the obesity timebomb.
So I was delighted to see that his work was rewarded last week at the TED talks, where was awarded the 2010 Ted Prize and gave the inspirational talk above about his wish to educate children on food and so eradicate obesity and dietary illnesses.
So how does a celebrity chef win such a prestigious award and be invited to speak in front of such an auspicious audience?
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.
1. Play to strengths
2. Do work that you enjoy
3. Work in an environment that suits your style and values
4. Make your work compliment your overall lifestyle
5. Do something of value instead of just chasing the money Click here to read the rest…
“Every adversity carries within it the seed of equal or greater benefit”
- Napoleon Hill
In 2005, when I ran a half marathon for the first time, I tore my calf 8 weeks before the race and was advised to pull out of it. But I kept telling myself that it was a hurdle to overcome and not a brick wall. So I found an amazing physiotherapist who I visited twice a week, radically changed my diet and started visualising daily so that I was mentally prepared to complete the race.
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody” - Bill Cosby
I’ve recently returned from spending a week in Colombia (South America) for a friend’s wedding. It was, of course, a lovely sunny place to spend the new year whilst the UK was experiencing the worst winter weather for 30 years.
Before returning to ice-cold London last weekend, Ispent an afternoon volunteering with an amazing NGO in Colombia’s third city – Cali.Forming Futures (Fundación Formación DeFuturos) is a charitable foundation which helps 16 – 20 year olds make the transition from state-funded foster homes to becoming successful, independent adults.
Crisis is a charity that runs centres each Christmas to provide London’s homeless people with food, shelter, entertainment and companionship through the Christmas period. In fact they ran the biggest ever volunteer event in the UK, with 9,000+ volunteers over a 10-day period.
I’d never done anything like this before but, having read about the record numbers of people becoming homeless last year due to the financial crisis, I thought I would volunteer my time on the 23rd and 24th December – after all it was just two days.
I was part of the “Learning and Skills” team of volunteerswho helped the homeless ‘clients’ improve specific skills such as literacy, numeracy, language skills, computer skills, artistic skills etc. Given my background, my main focus was to offer advice and help to people about finding work. After all, finding work and earning money has a knock-on effect on being homeless. Helping a homeless person find work could literary change their life.
But in reality, most people that come into the shelters are looking for a warm meal and people to chat to rather than for advice on how to improve their skills. So on Christmas Eve I found myself and a fellow volunteer (Carol), chatting to a homeless 60-year old Irish man over a cup of tea in the canteen of the school that was hosting the shelter.
1. The person who made you redundant. It may not seem like it now, but in the long run, they may have done you a huge favour. (You just don’t get to find out why until much later… )
2. The recruiter who offered you genuine help and advise, even though they couldn’t provide solid opportunities for you
I recently came across a fun and inspiring talk given by the TV talk-show host and stand-up comedienne Ellen Degeneres. Ellen was speaking to the so-called ‘Catrina Class’ of graduates’ at Tulane University in New Orleans earlier this summer.
The 10-minute talk was peppered with Ellen’s trademark humour coupled with some sage advice for the new graduates. Below are 7 career lessons I picked out from the speech along with how they apply to you and your career:
1. “Stop trying to please everyone else” One of the biggest reasons people don’t pursue work and careers they are passionate about is because they’re overly concerned about what everyone else thinks. In trying to please their parents, partner, friends, boss, colleagues and the next-door neighbour’s dog, they succeed in pleasing everyone but themselves. Trying to please everyone else is the fast track way to failure and frustration. So quit trying to please everyone and instead focus on what’s most important to you. You’ll find that the people that really care about you will support you through thick and thin.
2. “The most important thing is to be yourself”
When you stop trying please everyone and take off the ‘mask,’ life and work become far easier and less stressful. When you focus on being the best version of you instead of trying to be an imitation of someone else, some people (including some employers) won’t appreciate you. But in time, the right people and the right opportunities will be drawn to you effortlessly.
3. “Follow your own path, not someone else’s”
At the age of 14 I decided I was going to be a pharmacist. Or rather, my family decided I would be a pharmacist (after all, it’s a good Indian profession – lots of status and pretty lucrative). Whilst I had little interest in pharmacy or studying sciences, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so I settled on the pharmacy career path. But then at the age of 16, I failed all my science exams whilst passing everything else. I realised then that trying to do what everyone else wanted me to do would never work. And it will never work for you either. Take advice yes, but listen to yourself, follow your passions and the things you’re instinctively motivated to do. You’ll be far happier and far more successful.
4. “The most devastating things that happen to you, will teach you the biggest lessons” Many people who have been laid off in the current economy are learning the importance of having a strong network well before they need one. Some people are realising that they need to take much more responsibility for their careers by thinking and acting like freelancers instead of being wholly reliant on one employer. Most people are learning that it’s not sufficient to just ‘do a good job’ – to succeed, you need to be able to market yourself and develop a distinct personal brand. Whilst sometimes painful, learning these lessons now and implementing the learning in the coming months and years will in fact make you far more successful in the future.
So remember – everything is a stepping stone to somewhere else. The thing that may seem like a disaster right now, could be the very thing that teaches you the lessons you need to really thrive in the future.
5. “Your definition of success will change over time”
We often find ourselves climbing the ladder of success only to find some years later that the ladder is, in fact, leaning against the wrong wall. What you were striving for 3 or 5 years ago is very likely different from what you want now. So ask yourself: what’s your current definition of career success? Are your actions and behaviours focused on achieving what you want today or what you wanted in the past?
6. “Contribute in some way”
You can focus on accumulating ’stuff’ – money, fancy job titles, cars, houses – but ultimately your success, your reputation and your legacy will be measured not by what you accumulate, but by what you contribute. In the modern world we live in, there are more ways to contribute than ever before: mentoring, volunteering, blogging, campaigning, fund raising, doing charity runs, lending money to the poor via micro finance schemes. Whilst these are not all directly related to your career, your job makes many of these possible and so, by contributing, you can make your career that much more meaningful.
7. “You’re gonna be ok……so just dance!”
No matter how bad things may seem today, you will be ok. If you’re out of work – you will find a job. It may take longer than you would like, but you’ll get there. If you’re stuck in a career you hate – things will change. Maybe the job, the organisation or you. It won’t happen overnight – but things will work out and you’ll be ok. So instead of stressing too much about what may happen tomorrow, enjoy today and just dance….
To see the 10-minute clip of Ellen talking through these lessons with far more humour than my commentary, click here
For a brief period as a child, my dream was to be a professional footballer (soccer player) when I grew up. My childhood hero was the Scottish and Liverpool footballer, Kenny Dalglish (pictured here). In my eyes, ‘King Kenny’ was a genius with a football at his feet and I wanted to be just like him.
But then one day when I was 9 or 10, a school friend called John Ryan (wow, I still remember his name) told me “hey Sital, you can’t be a professional footballer, Indian people aren’t allowed to! That’s why there are no Indian footballers in the league – they’re not allowed. You’d better do something else.”
There was no malice or racism in his comment. It was just what he believed, based on the fact that there were no Indian footballers in top-flight football.
He was right. There were no Indian footballers on television so maybe Indian’s weren’t allowed to play professionally. I was devastated. (Well OK, devastated for about a week before deciding I’d become a pilot instead!).
The Early 1990s Recession
Talking of pilots, let’s fast-forward to the recession of the early 90’s when I worked for British Airways for 12 months.
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