Building your Brand Series

– 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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

The Philip Twins

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The The Philip Twins

The war had just got over and daddy opened a Steak House on the main boulevard next to the Opera House. Business was great as everyone coming out of the Opera was nice and hungry and the thought of a juicy steak and mash potatoes was very appealing. That year Tim and I were born. Twins, squealed my grandma when she saw us first, how very wonderful. 

Tim and Jim, we were two peas in a pod.

Mama was elated by us twins and made us similar looking clothes and when we pranced down the street, everyone would say, hey look at those two smart young boys, the Philip twins, are they not a handsome lot? Daddy would be very proud of us and take us in his convertible Ford T up and down the boulevard while we sat on the back seat with the hood down letting the breeze go through our hair.

We were inseparables, we would play together and all the boys and girls on the street would look at us with envy.

When we joined school, they would say, keep away from picking trouble with the Philip twins, they take care of each other. No one would dare bully us because we were two strong young boys growing up.

In the summers, we would go to grandma’s cottage in the country. We built ourselves a tree house and used to spend our days there reading comics and talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up.

Tim wanted to be a pirate and he would sail off into the ocean and return with booty of gold and precious stones. He said he would bring me whatever I wanted when he would grow up and be a pirate. 

I on the other hand, wanted to be a fireman. I would rescue people from burning buildings and cats from high trees. I would drive my red fire engine up and down the streets and ring the siren as I would pass by. Those were happy summer days growing up at Grannies.

 

One day while running back to the cottage from our tree house, I found myself all alone, where was Tim I thought and looked back down the path. Nowhere in sight, my heart began to beat harder and I ran back down the lane. 

I found Timmy, lying next to the big oak tree clutching his chest and gasping for breath. Tim, Tim, what’s wrong I yelled and picked him up in my arms and ran back to Grannies.

They called the doctor and soon the ambulance came and Tim was taken away. No one told me what was wrong but that evening my dad and mum arrived and were very white in the face. I asked them what was wrong and they finally told me. The doctor would like you to come to his clinic for some tests.

Over there they took some of my blood for testing and had me run through some other tests.

The doctor then told my parents that the rare infection had only affected Tim and that I was all clear. 

Then I was told, Jimmy, your brother Tim has a rare blood disease that is slowly affecting his heart. They say that he needs regular blood transfusions and that I was one in a million who had a similar type of blood group. That would keep him alive but for how long they were not sure. We have to look for a new heart but to find one for Tim will be a difficult task they said with little hope.

Tim grew weak and was soon restricted to the hospital bed; I would spend hours with him there every day talking and reading stories to him.

Once a week they would take blood from me and transfuse that to Tim. Months went by like that and all we were looking for a miracle.

I went on the computer every day to put out pleas looking for some solace when I discovered this website called www.iwishihad.com

When I contacted them I found that they were concerned with the terminally ill and helped to make their last few days with us better. I gave them our address and requested if they could make Tim happy in his last few days here.

That day, I had just given blood and was lying in the next bed to Tim, feeling a bit weak and drowsy when these three men in long black coats came in. No one else was around except Tim and I. 

They came up to Tim and were talking with him in low tones that I could barely hear. They told him where they were from and then I heard Tim whisper, “I wish I had a heart as strong as…..”

And all I remember was…........... chloroform does taste sweet.

-     The End -

One of my short stories

Our Planet

My young days were spent at my Grandpa Christopher’s farm. We would spend all summer there my brother Daniel and I while we had school holidays.

There was always a lot to do from early morning till late in the evenings. We would milk the cows, feed the chickens, and ride the tractor while grandpa would till the land. In the afternoon, we would go swimming in the little pond down in the forest and play cowboy and Indians in the barn. 

Being on the farm kept us close to nature with all sorts of flying insects and crawling bugs and Grandpa used to always say, “learn to share your planet”.

Then we grew up and went to college and earned our university degrees and joined the corporate world.

It was a rat race and we soon forgot all about nature and were immersed in the daily routine of city life. No space for anyone in this life, no animals, no pets and not even a fish aquarium. 

We were so very busy earning our living, fighting the corporate politics and traveling to and from work that we had little time for anything else.

Our apartments were fumigated regularly as the kids were afraid of bugs and the wives would raise merry hell. Parks were no longer safe as muggers and drug addicts had taken over. There were no more zoos after the last incident of some drug crazed maniac feeding substance to the animals and killing half the population.

Weekends at the farms were a thing of the past as our children had the least amount of interest and would rather spend time on their computers and internet and hi fi gadgetry.

We truly were living a mechanical life almost as good as robots.

We had no time for others and others had no time for us. Life was one big highway to office and back and we forgot all issues like kindness to animals, partying with friends, days out with the family and get-together with relatives. 

The corporations began to dump their waste into the rivers and seas and soon with the chemicals and nuclear waste, a change was being noticed. 

Our bugs became more and more resistant to the insecticides and the fumigation companies began to use more and more lethal chemicals. These too ultimately reached the oceans and mutated our fish making them inedible. 

The food chain began to get affected, and soon our poultry and livestock supply began to die. They became affected by the feed and there after we moved to genetically grown animals and this created all sorts of other issues that people stopped eating meat.

But as if that was the least of our problems, nature has its funny ways and soon the oceans began to evaporate causing the harmful particles to go into the atmosphere and upon condensation converted to acid rain on our fields of agriculture contaminating our food supply. Man started fighting for food and countries went to war for uncontaminated food stock from the godowns built under the earth.

Then one day, the bugs came, swarms of locusts started from the south and meticulously covered miles and miles of land as they moved up the countryside devouring all in their way. Reproducing furiously, they grew in size as the days went by and people had nowhere to hide. Soon the black ants joined the wave along with carnivorous cockroaches and there was a dual land and air attack and the globe was being run over.

All telecommunications were down, no army forces could do anything, the bugs had eaten into all the wiring of the nuclear bombs and eventually mankind had no chance. 

The darkness is coming they said that morning, and soon the skies turned black and there was this strange clicking sounds coming nearer and nearer.

And as the darkness came upon us, I remembered Christopher, my grandpa and his words, “learn to share your planet”.

-     The End -

Musings

It’s a Brand New Year

- Building Your Brand Series XII -

It’s a brand New Year

Welcome to 2013, you made it – alive!

See it was not so bad, think back of all the new things that you managed to do in 2012 and how each of these experiences have made you a better person.

Thank you to all my readers who sent me greeting cards over the holidays, I have personally written to all those who did enclose your business card or write in your address. Those of you who were thinking of sending me a card but never got down to it, it is never too late and no time is a bad time to reach out to people to say hello and to spread the warmth.

We had quite a doozy of a holiday season, a short trip to the US, Chicago was brilliant and we have vowed to go back in the summer. Three days and we made half a dozen new friends. Then we had lots of time with the family here in Toronto and celebrated all the good things that we enjoyed in 2012 and took out time for prayer too.

Now we put 2012 behind us and are all energized and looking forward to our time in 2013.

For some - new beginnings, for others same old same old but for everyone, a renewed vigor and re-energized efforts to make sure that all your dreams come true in this, the Year of the Snake.

Volunteer, network, blog and get 100% complete on LinkedIn. 3 out of 4 isn’t bad but all four and you are already brewing up your concoction for success.

They say 2013 is Canada’s year in the sun, many new things are being planned and Corporates are feeling more positive about investing in the future. Interest rates will remain steady and FDI is slated to grow. All this gears itself towards a bright year ahead and job opportunities. 

Embracing Diversity will be the new mantra. Diversity is now accepted as Canada’s given and Diversity will be the platform that Canada will use to take itself to the next level. We are all part of this new awareness, this new and energized approach to life forward and this new Canada. I look forward to becoming a Canadian Citizen this year and to play even a greater role in bringing us New Canadians on the map.

Each one of us, citizen or future citizen will play our part and have our hand holding up the flag proudly and with honor. 2013 here we come.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----

Born of Czech and South Asian lineage, Gautam Nath now lives in Toronto. He is the Managing Director of Multicultural Marketing Solutions Canada and serves on several Boards and Committees in the city. Gautam is also one of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants of 2011.