Happy 2012

Another year has come and gone. 2011 has been a fabulous year, where I have been able to connect with some old friends and make new ones. I have been truly blessed to have such great people in my life. 

I then moved to Madrid for my masters at IE Business School. I arrived. I looked outside. The tree in front my living room was bare with no leaves to cover it. This year started off as that tree, empty with no expectations. At the beginning of the year I was able to challenge myself, with some good friends and my girls to complete a duathlon. Got to watch the whole Middle East men and women stand up for what they believed. 

Throughout the year the experience transformed. My experiences started to fill up my tree. From observing and understanding cultural differences, to appreciating various life stories and to understanding everyone suffers with some sort insecurities with themselves. To meeting some great friends and family (miss you Jonathan and Evy so much already). I got to celebrate some life changing experience with Amy, Hazem, Lina, Ismail, Heba, Selma and Markus. As well as to welcome the beautiful new people who have joined the world Adam, Ismail, Mia, Hayden, Isabel Britt and Daniel. I was happy to see a bigger Gone Cyclin' expedition take place and was honored to be awarded AIESEC top 40 alumni under 40.

My tree got full and eventually blossomed. But like every good book, its end and my tree looks bare again waiting to start at a the beginning. For my friends and professors from IE, thanks for making this year interesting. For my other friends around the world, Im sure our path will cross again, as our playground world gets smaller. I will be in Madrid for another year, please drop me a line if you are in town. I will continue to coach people to come closer to their goals and grow to their potential.

Dream of the forests we will create and I hope all your dreams come true. 

A little message I thought to circulate:

"Missing someone?....Call

Wanna meet?..... Invite

Wanna be understood?...Explain

Have question ?.....Ask

Don't like it?......Say it

Like it?.......State it

Want something?....Ask for it

Nobody will know what's going in your mind.....

Its better to express rather than to expect.....

If you already have the NO...Take the risk of getting the YES!!!

We just have ONE LIFE

Keep it Simple ☺

Happy New Year 2012"

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I carry you in my heart

This is something not written by me, but I had a hard felt conversation 
with an old friend. I wanted to dedicate this to all the people who have 
made a difference in my life, you know who you are. 

I carry your heart with me
by E.E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, 
my dear; and whatever is done by only me is 
your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) 
i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

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We couldn't be any luckier

We can not change the past, the present and the future however is in our hands. When I was growing up my mother drilled into us a story of being grateful. We were in the car on the way to school when my little brother wasn't looking at the cars around and complaining because he wanted us to have a bigger and better car.

My mother one day looked at him and said, instead of looking up at the better car you would like to have. Have you considered looking and things below this car? 

The driver beside us, who has a car that doesn't have air-conditioning and in the midst of the heat of summer of the 40 degree heat waves of summer, and looks at cars that does. 

This driver never looks at the person beside him, who has a motorbike where he gets catch up in the dirt, mud, and rain. All he wants is to one day own a car that will give him shelter.

The motorcyclists never looks at the guy who is on a bike, who in the midst of getting around sometimes wishes he could have a motorbike so he could be there fast.

The cyclist never looks at the person walking, and sometimes has to run to where they need to be because he doesnt have a faster means of transports.

The walker never looks at the person who is in a wheel chair who doesnt have the limbs to walk.

The person in the wheel chair never looks at the people who lie on their beds hoping to one day have the  mobility to move around.

Everything is relative, we have so much to be grateful for.

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Black Swan

"Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature." -Bodhidharma

Today we discussed in class the  Black Swan theory refers only to unexpected large events which has played a dominant role in history. The chance of the Black Swan taking place is like the outliers in a study.

The theorist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, defined the criteria as below:

1. The event is a surprise (to the observer).
2. The event has a major impact.
3. After its first recording, the event is rationalized by hindsight, as if it could have been expected (e.g., the relevant data were available but not accounted for).

This made me reconfirm that the recent natural disasters and climate change which is a sign we are not sustainable. Now we are wondering why some of these Acts of God are happening? 

I was out camping in the mountains this weekend and I wondered how much more of this will I get to enjoy before a Black Swan come's along to destroy it?

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