Many of us exist inside a tech-bubble. We have on demand pizzas, insta-styled food photos, taxi app, YouTube yoga classes, and ingredients for overpriced meals delivered to our mailboxes… all of it a product of convenience, but none of it that important. What makes us different as an impact venture capital fund is that we back people who build stuff that matters. Impact businesses disrupt the norm to create a better, more sustainable and more equal society (not just so you don’t have to walk 5 minutes to the pizza place).
So what does it really take to have a successful impact business?
A sense of purpose.
There is still a need to raise awareness that you can generate wealth and have a positive impact on people and the planet. They are not, as some would have you believe, mutually exclusive. Our society still needs to see more of the world’s brightest and most determined people from a variety of backgrounds choosing to set up their own impact businesses but instead people are choosing the “safe” route of being an employee or creating yet another photo sharing app. Yet being an employee is rarely a ‘safe’ option. It means having no control over your destiny, it means getting up each morning to dance to the beat of someone else’s drum. When you run an impact business you instead wake up in the morning and you know exactly why you get out of bed. When the going gets tough, you can cling on to the knowledge that you are changing lives and every sale/deal/partnership you nail keeps your passion burning brightly. You have a sense of purpose second to none.
S olve a meaningful problem.
We define impact businesses as those that are founded with a clear intention of solving a social or ecological challenge which threatens society. Social problem solving is inherent in the business model of these organisations and grows with the company, the aim being that
more sales = greater social impact.
(Side note: we are not philanthropists or a venture philanthropy organisation. Organisations in these fields subscribe to a different agenda and have a different investment thesis.)
When we talk about solving meaningful problems we’re looking at true systemic change, not sticking plaster solutions. So how do we do it? We do it by working with companies who place incredibly intelligent, smart autistic developers into banks to help solve big technology problems instead of using the top 5 consulting companies. Not only is this more cost effective (they are often quicker), but it can provide better solutions, because sometimes to solve an atypical problem you need a mind that thinks differently to a neurotypical one. Second, but no less important, this venture also provides much needed employment and social inclusion for people with autism. The more auticon grows its business the more impact it has on the autism community through the generation of employment opportunities and in changing workplace attitudes to autism.
We do it by changing the way mental health issues are understood, putting the patient at the centre of solutions, and viewing data differently. Mental health issues can affect every area of someone’s life and the impact goes beyond the individual to their friends, family and colleagues, and the experience of intervention is often disjointed and frustrating. Imagine if you could capture every single therapeutic interaction between a therapist and their patient, every response to the “medicine” administered at every point in time, at every clinical interaction then be able to visualise what works in an personalised way for each patient.
Imagine being able to take that collective knowledge, and use deep learning techniques, natural language processing engines and sophisticated artificial intelligence practices, to give every therapist a 360 view of their patient, collecting the whole from its individual parts. Imagine no more. Ieso Digital Health has done exactly this, and has demonstrated clinical effectiveness in over 15,000 patients they have treated to date. They have a proven track record of delivering better than average recovery rates with fewer missed appointments, and the more contracts they win with healthcare providers the bigger impact they will have on improving lives with their personalised approach to mental health services.
S eek markets with BIG potential.
What is big enough? Local, Regional, National, Global Impact? Here at Ananda we concentrate on growth businesses with a European reach and the scope and potential for Global impact. Systemic change requires an ambitious vision and relies on large investments to sustain that vision financially to create significant, lasting change.
But from tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow, and small is where most social innovation begins. So where do impact businesses go next? Scale is key. To be able to scale you need to demonstrate repeatable business. Select the market segment that’s easiest to access and big enough to be financially sustainable for your micro business. Work out your impact KPIs from the beginning and start to demonstrate how they are baked into your business, remember:
more sales = more impact.
Your business model makes a big difference. Choose a business model that makes it cheap to acquire new customers and delivers impactful results.
Build your brand first. Once your brand is built and one area is solid you can develop the business to cover a broader market. You can then start to demonstrate impact at scale. Don’t lose your vision in the process.
D evelop a first-rate value proposition.
When you’re speaking to investors it’s important you know how to position your company. At Ananda we love a first-rate impact value proposition supported by an underlying impact business model. For a value proposition to succeed with Ananda, it must:
How to structure your value proposition generally? If you’re starting out I strongly recommend that you do a business model canvas, then move onto a value proposition canvas. Even if you’ve had a business for years it’s valuable to do an annual business model and value proposition canvas session.
Example structure: Our (product and service) help/s (customer segment) who want to (job/activities to be done) by ( reducing/avoiding) and (increasing/enabling — this is the impact!)
Your value proposition should define your product development and sales proposition not the other way round.
“What’s my customer’s compelling reason to buy?”, rather than “what’s my compelling reason to sell them my product?”, Source: Octopus Ventures
H ave a strong, mission driven founder.
The impact of the drive and determination of a strong founder is well documented. At Ananda we recognise that impact entrepreneurs always have a special connection to the problem they are trying to solve. It’s essential to bring on board initial clients, employees and investors along the way and take them on your journey. We look for founders that live and breathe their business. An impact entrepreneur that sends mixed messages will convey lack of trust.
A strong intrinsic motivation predisposes many impact entrepreneurs to be fiercely attached to their business and they can struggle to separate themselves and their identity. They are strongly encouraged by all around them to focus on just one thing for a 10 year commitment. I certainly have found myself in this position, but to succeed you need to optimise resources and people’s contributions and abilities to reach your goals.
As with any company, an impact driven business will almost always outgrow the skillset which was originally important for the company. As investors, we ask ourselves; will the founder/team be able to attract additional talent and let go of their influencing role for the greater good? We will need to exit at one point in time. For impact to be truly huge and global it can sometimes require change in the form of the team or via an exit.
I write from both sides of the table. Time to flip to impact entrepreneur.
Impact entrepreneurs — Who are we and why do we do it?
As impact entrepreneurs, through our lens (life experience, character, ethics, desires, frustrations — which is why diversity is crucial in the impact space) we spot opportunities for fundamental change. We use our networks (or create them from scratch) to create groundswell from grassroots to government influence, and our knowledge (tech, activism, marketing, supply chains etc.), and we are like a dog with a bone.
We understand we have to work with the status quo to create that change even though this frustrates us and we seek and establish business models that sustain our vision for this systemic change. This can take a long time. You get good at making many allies and maybe a few enemies too. Your vision is not everyone else’s and change is always difficult. But you don’t give up.
Ananda have backed some amazing impact entrepreneurs and are incredibly founder friendly (speaking from experience here) but attuned to the realities of scaling an impact business.
Perfect partners to get you and your business where it needs to be for optimal impact.
Written by Zoe Peden, Proud Impact Entrepreneur and Investment Manager @Ananda Impact Ventures
Life is short do stuff that matters
Life is short, as everyone knows. When I was a kid I used to wonder about this. Is life actually short, or are we really complaining about its finiteness? Would we be just as likely to feel life was short if we lived 10 times as long?
Since there didn’t seem any way to answer this question, I stopped wondering about it. Then I had kids. That gave me a way to answer the question, and the answer is that life actually is short.
Having kids showed me how to convert a continuous quantity, time, into discrete quantities. You only get 52 weekends with your 2 year old. If Christmas-as-magic lasts from say ages 3 to 10, you only get to watch your child experience it 8 times. And while it’s impossible to say what is a lot or a little of a continuous quantity like time, 8 is not a lot of something. If you had a handful of 8 peanuts, or a shelf of 8 books to choose from, the quantity would definitely seem limited, no matter what your lifespan was.
Ok, so life actually is short. Does it make any difference to know that?
It has for me. It means arguments of the form «Life is too short for x» have great force. It’s not just a figure of speech to say that life is too short for something. It’s not just a synonym for annoying. If you find yourself thinking that life is too short for something, you should try to eliminate it if you can.
When I ask myself what I’ve found life is too short for, the word that pops into my head is «bullshit.» I realize that answer is somewhat tautological. It’s almost the definition of bullshit that it’s the stuff that life is too short for. And yet bullshit does have a distinctive character. There’s something fake about it. It’s the junk food of experience. [ 1 ]
If you ask yourself what you spend your time on that’s bullshit, you probably already know the answer. Unnecessary meetings, pointless disputes, bureaucracy, posturing, dealing with other people’s mistakes, traffic jams, addictive but unrewarding pastimes.
There are two ways this kind of thing gets into your life: it’s either forced on you, or it tricks you. To some extent you have to put up with the bullshit forced on you by circumstances. You need to make money, and making money consists mostly of errands. Indeed, the law of supply and demand insures that: the more rewarding some kind of work is, the cheaper people will do it. It may be that less bullshit is forced on you than you think, though. There has always been a stream of people who opt out of the default grind and go live somewhere where opportunities are fewer in the conventional sense, but life feels more authentic. This could become more common.
You can do it on a smaller scale without moving. The amount of time you have to spend on bullshit varies between employers. Most large organizations (and many small ones) are steeped in it. But if you consciously prioritize bullshit avoidance over other factors like money and prestige, you can probably find employers that will waste less of your time.
If you’re a freelancer or a small company, you can do this at the level of individual customers. If you fire or avoid toxic customers, you can decrease the amount of bullshit in your life by more than you decrease your income.
But while some amount of bullshit is inevitably forced on you, the bullshit that sneaks into your life by tricking you is no one’s fault but your own. And yet the bullshit you choose may be harder to eliminate than the bullshit that’s forced on you. Things that lure you into wasting your time have to be really good at tricking you. An example that will be familiar to a lot of people is arguing online. When someone contradicts you, they’re in a sense attacking you. Sometimes pretty overtly. Your instinct when attacked is to defend yourself. But like a lot of instincts, this one wasn’t designed for the world we now live in. Counterintuitive as it feels, it’s better most of the time not to defend yourself. Otherwise these people are literally taking your life. [ 2 ]
Arguing online is only incidentally addictive. There are more dangerous things than that. As I’ve written before, one byproduct of technical progress is that things we like tend to become more addictive. Which means we will increasingly have to make a conscious effort to avoid addictions — to stand outside ourselves and ask «is this how I want to be spending my time?»
As well as avoiding bullshit, one should actively seek out things that matter. But different things matter to different people, and most have to learn what matters to them. A few are lucky and realize early on that they love math or taking care of animals or writing, and then figure out a way to spend a lot of time doing it. But most people start out with a life that’s a mix of things that matter and things that don’t, and only gradually learn to distinguish between them.
For the young especially, much of this confusion is induced by the artificial situations they find themselves in. In middle school and high school, what the other kids think of you seems the most important thing in the world. But when you ask adults what they got wrong at that age, nearly all say they cared too much what other kids thought of them.
One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters is to ask yourself whether you’ll care about it in the future. Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. That’s how it tricks you. The area under the curve is small, but its shape jabs into your consciousness like a pin.
The things that matter aren’t necessarily the ones people would call «important.» Having coffee with a friend matters. You won’t feel later like that was a waste of time.
One great thing about having small children is that they make you spend time on things that matter: them. They grab your sleeve as you’re staring at your phone and say «will you play with me?» And odds are that is in fact the bullshit-minimizing option.
If life is short, we should expect its shortness to take us by surprise. And that is just what tends to happen. You take things for granted, and then they’re gone. You think you can always write that book, or climb that mountain, or whatever, and then you realize the window has closed. The saddest windows close when other people die. Their lives are short too. After my mother died, I wished I’d spent more time with her. I lived as if she’d always be there. And in her typical quiet way she encouraged that illusion. But an illusion it was. I think a lot of people make the same mistake I did.
The usual way to avoid being taken by surprise by something is to be consciously aware of it. Back when life was more precarious, people used to be aware of death to a degree that would now seem a bit morbid. I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t seem the right answer to be constantly reminding oneself of the grim reaper hovering at everyone’s shoulder. Perhaps a better solution is to look at the problem from the other end. Cultivate a habit of impatience about the things you most want to do. Don’t wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother. You don’t need to be constantly reminding yourself why you shouldn’t wait. Just don’t wait.
I can think of two more things one does when one doesn’t have much of something: try to get more of it, and savor what one has. Both make sense here.
How you live affects how long you live. Most people could do better. Me among them.
But you can probably get even more effect by paying closer attention to the time you have. It’s easy to let the days rush by. The «flow» that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that prevents you from pausing to savor life amid the daily slurry of errands and alarms. One of the most striking things I’ve read was not in a book, but the title of one: James Salter’s Burning the Days.
It is possible to slow time somewhat. I’ve gotten better at it. Kids help. When you have small children, there are a lot of moments so perfect that you can’t help noticing.
It does help too to feel that you’ve squeezed everything out of some experience. The reason I’m sad about my mother is not just that I miss her but that I think of all the things we could have done that we didn’t. My oldest son will be 7 soon. And while I miss the 3 year old version of him, I at least don’t have any regrets over what might have been. We had the best time a daddy and a 3 year old ever had.
Relentlessly prune bullshit, don’t wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That’s what you do when life is short.
[ 1 ] At first I didn’t like it that the word that came to mind was one that had other meanings. But then I realized the other meanings are fairly closely related. Bullshit in the sense of things you waste your time on is a lot like intellectual bullshit.
[ 2 ] I chose this example deliberately as a note to self. I get attacked a lot online. People tell the craziest lies about me. And I have so far done a pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say «Hey, that’s not true!»
Thanks to Jessica Livingston and Geoff Ralston for reading drafts of this.
Life is Too Short Quotes and Sayings to Make You Appreciate It
Life sometimes feels very long, and sometimes a day feels like seconds. It’s the days spent in joy and happiness that give us the hope and strength to see through another day. Seek inspiration from these profound words of wisdom, and unleash your inner longing to live a happier life.
Life sometimes feels very long, and sometimes a day feels like seconds. It’s the days spent in joy and happiness that give us the hope and strength to see through another day. Seek inspiration from these profound words of wisdom, and unleash your inner longing to live a happier life.
“Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly.” ― Paulo Coelho
Our time on earth is fleeting, and as we grow older, we become increasingly aware of this fact. Although it may be easier said than done, all the hurt, troubles, and disappointments of the past or present should not stop us from living our next moments in our pursuit of happiness.
Each day is a second chance to make a change for the better, and we should use this opportunity to express ourselves in a more positive manner. On this note, we at Quotabulary have compiled some quotes on life being too short.
Famous Life is Short Quotes
“Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” ― Phillips Brooks
“Life is too short to work so hard.” ― Vivien Leigh
“Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.” ― Benjamin Disraeli
“Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it’s business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you can’t give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You’ll be an old man before you know it.” ― Al Lopez
“Life is too short to harbor any hostilities towards anybody.” ― Peabo Bryson
“Life is too short to have anything but delusional notions about yourself.” ― Gene Simmons
“Life is too short to do the things you don’t love doing.” ― Bruce Dickinson
“There’s not enough time to be disrespecting… Life is too short.” ― Mary J. Blige
“Life is too short not to experiment.” ― Jamelia
“The span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters.” ― Mary Astell
“Life is too short to live on low-fat everything.” ― Kristin Scott Thomas
“Life is too short to be a boring company.” ― Andrew Mason
“Life is too short to spend in negativity. So I have made a conscious effort to not be where I don’t want to be.” ― Hugh Dillon
“Life is too short for a long story.” ― Mary Wortley Montagu
“I believe that if you don’t derive a deep sense of purpose from what you do, if you don’t come radiantly alive several times a day, if you don’t feel deeply grateful at the tremendous good fortune that has been bestowed on you, then you are wasting your life. And life is too short to waste.” ― Srikumar Rao
“Life is too short to be doing work that doesn’t make you feel happy and fulfilled. I’d rather wait for the right project, as opposed to just taking whatever is handed to me.” ― Amanda Crew
“Life is too short to worry. Life to short to be sad. Life is too short to ponder on things you will never have. Life is too short for sadness. Life is too short for tears. Never count the day, never count the years. Life is too short for falling out. Life is too short for war. Life is a gift, don’t waste it. Life is so much more.” ― John F. Connor
“Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about those who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it.” ― Harvey MacKay
“There comes a time in your life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.” ― Karl Marx
“Life is too short to spend hoping that the perfectly arched eyebrow or hottest new lip shade will mask an ugly heart.” ― Kevyn Aucoin
“Life is too short to dance with ugly men.” ― Christina Dodd
“No regrets … just lessons. No worries … just acceptance. No expectations … just gratitude. Life is too short.” ― Jesse Joseph
“Life is too short to waste on bullshit.” ― Steph Campbell, Lengths
“If you want something, don’t wish for it. Life is too short to wait.” ― Stephen Hines
“I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. Made a lot of hard choices. For honor, for King, for country. Do you know what I’ve learned, boy? Hard choices and sacrifices do not keep you warm at night. And life is too damn short and too damn long to go through without someone at your side. Don’t end up like me. Choose the woman. Fight for love, D’Artagnan. France will take care of itself.” ― Athos, The Three Musketeers (2011)
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma ― which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” ― Steve Jobs
More Quotes and Sayings
“Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life.”
“Life is too short to be anything but happy. So kiss slowly, love deeply, forgive quickly. Take chances and never have regrets. Forget the past, but remember what it taught you.”
“Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.”
“Life is too short to walk around angry! So be happy and sing it out loud!”
“Life is too short to be serious all the time. So, if you can’t laugh at yourself, call me … I’ll laugh at you.”
“Life is too short to hide your feelings. Don’t be afraid to say what you feel.”
“Life is too short. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can’t change. Love deeply and forgive quickly. Take chances. Give everything and have no regrets. Life is to short to be unhappy. You have to take the good with the bad, smile when you should, love what you got and always remember what you had. Always forgive but never forget. Learn from your mistakes but never regret. People change and things go wrong. But always remember life goes on.”
“Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.”
“Life is too short to start your day with broken pieces of yesterday, it will definitely destroy your wonderful today and ruin your great tomorrow!”
“Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.”
“Life is short, live it. Love is rare, grab it. Anger is bad, dump it. Fear is awful, face it. Memories are sweet, cherish them…”
“Life is too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn’t appreciate or value you.”
“Life is too short and unpredictable not to live it exactly as you please.”
So, fret not, and make the best of each day as it comes; and know this that if time does not wait for anyone, why must you hold yourself back from living your life to the fullest?
36+ Life Is Too Short Quotes To Inspire You And Appreciate It
Sometimes, we get stuck with a lot of problems and find it hard to overcome the challenges. Do you feel the same? Every morning opens up with new challenges, hurdles, and pressures. But, it also brings pleasure. Have you ever been thankful for all the countless happiness you celebrate?
Life is too short to wait. Never diminish the pure beauty inside you by the daily problems. We often waste the glorious days of our lives in chasing things that are not as important as we imagine. To achieve certain goals, we usually omit the moments of joy and love.
My friend, you know that your desire to achieve more never accomplish unless you wish to do so. One day life has come to an end and you’ll regret that you didn’t live the life. It’s better not to wait for the perfect time and live the moment right now. We have to take immediate actions to pursue a happy life. It could be short entertainment projects, little moments of joy and a crystal clear heart. To live the amazing life, you need to remind yourself that life is too short and the action is to be taken now.
Following are life is too short quotes to help you understand that your life cannot wait for the perfect moment and you’ve to enjoy every day.
Life is too short quotes, saying and pictures
“Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life.” – Michael Leboeuf
Life is too short not to say how you feel to the people you love. – Kristina McMorris
Life is too short to be around someone that says they love you but doesn’t show it. – Elizabeth Bourgeret
“A day once gone will never return again. Make sure you make the best of each day.”
“Don’t worry about what others think of you because in the end, none of that will matter. Just live
“Life is too short to let someone make you miserable. Remember, someone can only make you unhappy if you give them the power to do so.”
“Life is too short to be anything but happy.”
“Since we don’t know when our last day is, your life can be much shorter than you think.”
“Don’t waste your time. Whatever it is you want to do with your life, do it now, before it’s too late.”
“Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember ‘Life is too short to be little’” – Dale Carnegie
“Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.”
“Life’s too short to waste on hating people.”
“Don’t wait. You never really know when too late is too late.”
your life how you want to live it.”
“When we were young, we couldn’t wait to grow up. As we got older, how we wish time would slow down just a little.”
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.” – Charles Richards
“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.” – Wayne Dyer
“As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret are the things you didn’t do.” – Zachary Scott
“Life can come and go by pretty quickly. Take the time to take it all in every now and then.”
“The wise man is one who figures out what’s most important to him in life, and then invests most of his time in whatever that is.”
“Life is too short. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can. Apologize when you should and let go of what you can’t change.”
“Life is too short to worry about anything. You had better enjoy it because the next day promises nothing.” Eric Davis
“Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” – Phillips Brooks
“Expect an early death – it will keep you busier.” – Martin H. Fischer
“Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying.” – Christian Gellert
“Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.” – Stephen Vincent Benét
“Live every day as if it were going to be your last; for one day you’re sure to be right.” – Harry Morant
“As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret are the things you didn’t do.” – Zachary Scott
“There comes a time in your life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all life is too short to be anything but happy.” – Karl Marx
“We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.” – George M. Adams
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.” – Charles Richards
“I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.” – John Burroughs
“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Live every day as if it were going to be your last; for one day you’re sure to be right.” – Harry Morant
“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.” – Wayne Dyer17
“If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.” – Larry McMurtry
I know you’ve absolutely loved the motivational life is too short quotes. We all need striking quotes every day to live the moment.
Want to add more life is too short quotes to the list? Awesome! We would love to have your favorite quote about life is too short.
Life is short. Do Stuff that Matters.
Small Talk with Former Incoming Global Entrepreneur Vice President, AIESEC Colombo North, Pasindu Pathirana about volunteering.
Q: Hey Pasindu, how are you doing? It’s good to have you here? Tell me something about yourself?
Hi…. First, Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I’m Pasindu Pathirana. 26 years old. I graduated from the University of Kelaniya with a bachelor’s degree in Peace & Conflict Resolution. Currently, I am working as a project manager in a community service organization. I’m a straightforward, optimistic individual who is open-minded to new ideologies and diverse cultures. I am passionate about volunteering, the community service field, and language teaching.
Q: Pasindu, you’re a passionate volunteer, right? What do you think about volunteering?
Volunteering is a great platform that allows people to engage in productive activities to serve the communities in different ways. It also gives you the space to develop your own skills and leadership qualities. Volunteering provides people the opportunity to work towards the betterment of the world through engaging in decision making, planning, and implementation of various initiatives at the grassroots level, national and international level. With globalization, volunteerism has been widened its approachability to a large scale, hence you can engage in volunteerism through any field you like. For instance, if you are a social media influencer, there are plenty of volunteering opportunities in social media itself where you can use your own social media account in a productive manner. Thus, volunteering is a great way to serve the world through any field you like, while enhancing your set of skills and qualities.
Q: You got a chance to volunteer in a foreign country. Could you tell me about that experience?
Back in 2017, I got the opportunity to join an international exchange program as a global volunteer through AIESEC. Under this exchange program, I went to Vietnam for a volunteer project named “Hope for Children.” It was a six-week project where I taught English to children from economically disadvantaged families. This volunteer opportunity was designed to achieve SDG no.4, Quality Education.
This volunteer program was indeed challenging and beyond my comfort zone since it was the first time I traveled overseas all by myself. Yet it was a lifetime experience for me where I was able to shape myself into a better version while enhancing my capacities and skills. Most importantly, this volunteer opportunity gave me the chance to contribute towards achieving SDG Goal Number 4, Quality Education by enhancing the language skills of children and raising awareness on the true value of celebrating diversity & unity.
During this volunteering program, an international cultural festival was organized named “Global Village” where I was able to showcase the culture, lifestyle, values, and heritage of Sri Lanka to an international audience.
Joining this global volunteer program is one of the best decisions I made in my life.
Q: What are the key things that you learn from that program?
While working as a volunteer in Vietnam, I was able to gain new learning opportunities and improve my set of skills. For the time being, I always experienced emergency situations where I had to come up with quick and effective solutions. Thus, this volunteering experience taught me how to be solution-oriented in many instances.
As for the first time being in a foreign country, I was having a huge cultural shock during the first couple of days in Vietnam. Nevertheless, this volunteering experience taught me the importance of being adaptable and tolerant when you step into changing & unfamiliar environments.
In addition, this experience enabled me to have self-reflection. It gave me the chance to have a self-assessment of my own where I could assess myself in order for me to enhance my strengths and overcome my weaknesses. This volunteering program provided me with many practical learning opportunities to develop leadership skills and learn the true value of diversity, unity & harmony.
The skills and learnings I gained through this volunteering experience still come in handy to organize my lifestyle in a productive manner.
Q: Okay, finally tell me, what kind of advice would you like to give for the younger generation in our country regarding volunteering?
Youth are the ones who should take up spaces to make this world a better place. The young generation has the potential to make changes in their own ways.
Youth are proactive in nature and always looking for opportunities where they can play a role in decision-making and implementation mechanisms. Due to the radical traits inherited by youth, we can see how different groups are targeting youth and using those young people to fulfill their agendas. Especially, terrorist groups play a vital role in pushing youth towards wrongdoings. Thus, many youths are being used to promote violent extremism, hate speech, and another sort of wrongdoings in order to harm others physically or mentally.
One of the main reasons for such devastating phenomena is the lack of knowledge among the youth about productive opportunities. As the backbone of society, youth should think wisely when it comes to choosing their future goals and paths. Youth must ensure whatever the path they choose, it would never harm anybody physically or mentally. Youth can surely use their own radical ways to make a positive impact in society without causing harm to anybody.
Volunteering is a great thing to do in your life. It will fill you with lots of happiness and satisfaction. Because volunteering can bring a smile to many faces in the community. If we can do good things while we live, that’s all matters.
