Bored in school, failing classes, at odds with peers: This child might be an entrepreneur, says Cameron Herold. At TEDxEdmonton, he makes the case for parenting and education that helps would-be entrepreneurs flourish — as kids and as adults.

I have been blessed with a lot of friends. This is in part that I did my schooling, engineering, MBA, jobs in different states and countries and finally business associates. Every opportunity led to new friends. They enrich my life, never let me quit and share my joys and sorrows BUT most importantly they make life’s every moment FUN.

Here is why I believe they are my best asset.

1. Companionship - I have them around me – all the time. If I have worked too hard, they are open to come for a movie, picnic or vacation. If I am busy, without saying a word, they leave me. Funny! I feel they are still having a silent conversation. Most precious are their emails which are short notes reminding me of them and expressing their thoughts on what I can do better or stop doing altogether. This is valuable – afterall no one else gives a better feedback that you would listen to.

2. Humor – I think laughing is important. Not only does it have good health benefits, it has drastic impact on your mood. You always remember the times you laughed till you got tears in your eyes. They make you laugh at your failures and make them look insignificant and let you pick up life as if nothing happened. And when you succeed, they are there to celebrate with you.

3. Fun - Think of going through life without having any fun – No way. They add the element of fun when they show up unannounced, call you impulsively, send an unexpected gift, plan a surprise birthday and most importantly never mind you.

Enjoy with your friends!

Two days ago, I got up with sore throat and fever. I could not swallow anything and this was sure sign of flu. My body resisted every movement and I discovered body parts that I did not know existed.

So, I have been sick in the past few days. In the olden times, staying home alone, taking care of yourself and making your own food might have sounded pitiful. But I found that this is not the case anymore.

Here is what I found:

1. I can work from my bed. All I needed was my cell phone, laptop and internet.

2. Who say’s I was alone. I had all my friends on FB pinging me, wishing me get well soon and some even called and chatted with me. Infact it was good to catch up with a few friends who I had not spoken to in a long time.

3. All my business associates wanted me to take care of myself and settled for conference calls.

4. My mom was showering her love over internet telephone and yahoo messenger.

Well! yes the throat hurts, the body aches but I would have not been able to appreciate the power of health if not for this breakdown. And in the meantime, while I wait for the flu to takes its due course, I discovered the blessings of modern life, love of my family and friends and concern of associates – Alright FLU – I am taking you head on…

Can’t wait to back in Full ON Action…

Historically, men have been identified as the ‘bread winners’ and this is the first time in the history of United States that women have surpassed men in the workforce. This is a DRAMATIC societal shift.

I have been thinking about it. What does this mean? Was this our objective to succeed in the workplace?

President Obama declared that manufacturing jobs that are men-dominated will not be a huge part of the economic recovery. So, women will be the bread winners for some time.

To top it all, women are now increasingly pursuing careers in navy, as firefighters, in factories. And demanding more opportunities to pursue leadership positions in these male-dominated careers.

Even the gaming industry finds women on social networks as their primary target audience.

Many men are demanding support groups for themselves. They are struggling with this ‘invasion’ by women and how they are not anymore as respected in their households as ‘Breadwinners’. Moreover, they find themselves taking more responsibility of household chores and child raising…

But this shift didn’t happen overnight and its foundation is BASED on love men have for their wives, partners and daughters. No doubt, it is hard to give up ‘breadwinner’ status – a small percentage of men are accepting the new status quo and are open to friendly family policies that are essential for dual-income families.

The spotlight is on policy makers to encourage men and women to be BOTH Breadwinner and Caretaker.

New Post on my Column at ActiveGarage:

Social media is not for the weak of heart. It requires a certain level of risk taking and willingness to experiment. The success of social media is based on contribution, connections and community. There is no one way to identify what tools within social media are relevant to your business objectives. This has not stopped companies and individuals to adapt to these tools and some have successfully harnessed the raw power of social media. No doubt, there are many people and companies who are still resisting this new social phenomenon. Like it OR not – this is here to stay.

Continue Reading : Here is a link to the post:

Active Garage: The New Socioeconomy

My new column at Working Mother’s Mom blog is ready:

Career women who are childless in their 30s are often considered selfish. It is assumed that they are doing so for materialistic reasons or lack seriousness. This doesn’t make sense since most of these women are smart. There are many sound reasons for delaying a baby. Some reasons could be completing your degree, waiting to join your spouse who immigrated to a new country, qualifying for maternity leave, having a structure to support the kid – like finding a place to live, waiting to finish your expat assignment, or taking care of a health concern that might negatively impact your pregnancy.

Continue Reading. Here is a link to the post:

After Mommy wars? Is it Baby wars?

They are different from any of the generations ahead of them…It is important to know them and learn what motivates them.

Here are some less known facts about them:

1. They have a paying job and a passion: They might be working for making a living BUT they are constantly fostering a passion – painting, singing, writing, developing games or any other fun stuff.

2. They live on the internet BUT social networks are their playgrounds: On a plane and they will be facebook messaging a friend, in a conference and they will be twittering to find where their peers are…

3. Meaning is important: If showing up at Office for the sake of showing up makes no sense. They inhabit the virtual cyberspace – they exist even when they are not physically present.

4. They are NOT limited: Geography, time zones and physical limitations don’t come between them and what they wish to accomplish. Networks and technology is their ammunition.

5. Experience is GOOD but Execution ROCKS: They respect execution more than experience.

Tony Robbins discusses the “invisible forces” that motivate everyone’s actions. He makes it his business to know why we do the things we do.

Tomorrow, I leave for Bangalore to participate at the Advancement of women global conference in India. I started to work on programming this conference in Nov,2008. It was just an idea at that time. To realize what would be relevant to women in India, I started to have conversations with women from all industries and from different stages of their careers.

Since I am from India, I believed that cultural barriers would be the biggest barrier to women’s success. To my surprise, this was NOT the case. (this was a pleasant surprise). What showed up was that working women in India felt inhibited because of lack of infrastructure.

Primarily, they felt limited by the lack of ‘Day Cares’ where they can leave their young children.
Secondly, they wanted to cut down on their commute time and wished for better roads.
Finally, they wished that the companies would give them flexibility to work from home. Some of them felt that many of their managers were not open to this idea.

While talking to Carol Evans, who is CEO and Founder of Working Mother Media, I mentioned to her my findings. She was kind to share that this was the exact situation in the US thirty years ago when she founded Working Mother Media here. This showed up as an opportunity to lead the change in India.

It was clear to me that some changes in public policy were needed. E.g. Make the labor laws and infrastructure more supportive of working women e.g. providing more subsidies to day care centers or some, tax credit to incentives for companies with onsite day care centers.

I am excited about putting this event together and looking forward to leaving for India for the conference tomorrow.

Here is the copy of the report : Topic Analysis for conference in India

Many times people have come and told me “Boys will be boys and Girls will be girls”. The way I have been dealing with people who stereotype kids is by ignoring these statements. I would like to believe this but my own experiences while growing up have been quite different. I never liked playing with barbies and was always beating up little boys in cycling and running. So, it was great to discover TrueChild, an organization, helping all children, boys and girls, breaking stereotypes so that they can reach their maximum potential.

To raise awareness about their mission, they organized a cook off, where I met an Invincibelle, Soledad O’ Brien, She is currently the host of CNN Special Investigations Unit on CNN, and is best known for anchoring the CNN marquee morning newscast American Morning with Miles O’Brien; their common surname is coincidental.

She was champion of the day, Ms. O’Brien has shown the world tragedies of human conflict, natural disasters, chronic and infectious diseases. She is always leading the way on where we our efforts have fallen short and compels us to take an initiative that will change how we know to “be” in this world.

So the question is : Are Boys going to be Boys and Girls going to be Girls ? Or is it us who teach them what it means to Girls or Boys?