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Building Your Brand VIII-
All
work and no play makes Gautam a dull Boy
Summer was here and this was when Toronto city transforms
itself. And like every good Canadian, we too did soak in the sun.
Building your brand is not only about resumes, not only
about networking or even not only about volunteering.
One big part of building your brand in Canada is to get
to know Canada.
This is now our mothership and we now have to take the time,
the energy and the effort to learn about it.
Summer brought many events, activities and shows. Many
are free and some cost so cut your coat according to your cloth.
Toronto was full of weekends when streets were blocked off
to traffic and transformed into a carnival like setting – a bounty of food
stalls, trinkets for sale and entertainment where large crowds gather.
Imbibe, that is what we did, visiting at least half a
dozen such street fairs in the city every year.
Watching, listening, eating and
enjoying the ambiance. The variety of ethnicities and culture is amazing – that was Toronto and I expect that was also Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary as other big
cities in the country.
Then came the parades - a jamboree of floats, dancers,
music and color exhibiting the diversity of our cities and our people.
All in the learning curve, different from back in the
home country but essential learning’s for every New Canadian striving to
acculturate in this new country of choice.
This makes us proud of our new home, this brings
appreciation of the multitude of cultures and people and who knows perhaps your
next boss, your peers or your juniors at some point of time in the future. We
cannot live without them and they cannot live without us, we are all living
happily together.
You cannot build your brand in this environment unless
you know and appreciate the environment so while it looks like play, mind you
me, it is an integral part of your strategy to move forward.
Summer brought long daylight hours and several
opportunities for long weekends too - which we used to explore the country outside our
city.
Day trips or overnight trips and you will be amazed at
what you learn.
The African Jungle Safari was not a long flight away in
South Africa but a 90 minutes drive from Toronto.
Cottage country had so many options to relax and enjoy
a glass of wine under the stars sitting on a lake-shore far from the maddening
crowds listening to the wail of the loon.
Ontario Parks offered camping
facilities for the family and kids, learning all about living a rustic outdoor
life for a few days - what great family bonding in this otherwise period of
stress.
And the sports - baseball, basketball, swimming,
jogging or merely walking along the Lake-shore – wonderful activities that come
with the sun and the long daylight hours of the summer.
For those lucky enough to have some land to call their
own - growing flowers in the front yard and a small vegetable patch in the back
brings so much joy to the eye and the kitchen table.
This was summer - we learned to live a bit, live beyond
networking, netgiving and worrying about tomorrow: live life today and
tomorrow will take care of itself.
If you are motivated, recharged and
experience the new things around you, your next steps will have that much more
energy and bounce. You deserve it, every bit.
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Born of Czech and South Asian lineage, Gautam Nath now lives in Toronto. He is
the Vice President at Balmoral Multicultural Marketing and serves on several
Boards and Committees in the city. Gautam is also one of the Top 25 Canadian
Immigrants of 2011.
