Learnathon 2013 – My Personal Learning Journey.

Learnathon 2013 is too important a project to allow it to blow over without reflecting upon it.

The more I thought about the experience, the more I realized there were powerful lessons – just for me.

Some of the lessons might have been known to me but I needed to re-learn them again.

During the event, I was initially told that we had raised barely above $100,000.

By all count, it was a credible achievement. After all, we had only ten days to turn a dream into a reality.

Still, I felt sad.

It was lower than what we had achieved in Learnathon 2011. While the economy had progressed, it seemed like we had not improved.

More importantly, it was way below our target of $150,000.

I made an appeal to the audience. Thankfully, some kind souls came forward with more donations.

I was informed that we had reached about $141,000 – a much better achievement but we were still short of our target.

I went up the stage again. I knew I had to hit our goal and I had a plan in mind.

I wanted to appeal to 20 persons to donate $500 each and our target would be reached.

I’ve always believed that if you have a dream, there would be people who would buy into your dream – but you had to sell it.

You didn’t need money to fulfill your dream. You needed to have a passionate dream and money would chase after it.

I sold – and we hit our target.

Imagine my shock when I came down the stage and our team mates told me a shocking news. I was given a wrong financial report.

I had announced the wrong figure. We were hitting way below the target.

At that point, I became very upset.

The concern was not just about missing our target. I had made a wrong report.

There was no question in my mind that the audience had entrusted us.

They expected us to always tell the truth under any circumstances.

I didn’t take the trust lightly. Our credibility was at stake.

I literally bulldozed my way back to the stage. I had to explain to the audience.

As a leader, I took full responsibility for the mistake. I was prepared to pay restitution to restore the situation.

Integrity was first and last in my life.

If there was any question about it, I had to set it right.

After I had done that, I was back to focusing on achieving our goal.

If a goal was set, it MUST be achieved. My honor and esteem were on the table.

I asked for ideas but there were hardly any that was forthcoming. It was game over for many people.

At that point, my mind went into an over gear. The synapses were being fired and neurons were being connected.

We have oftentimes underestimated our God-given potential.

In times of needs and when we were willing to stretch ourselves, we would discover our vast reservoir of energy and creativity.

There were many ideas running across my mind. I was all set to leverage on them.

I was prepared to stay on and on even if I was the last person in the Auditorium. I had to achieve the target.

I would fight till the last light was off.

My wife was prepared to break the piggy bank. If I had accepted the kind gesture, I would be missing the point and taking an easy way out.

I wanted others to buy into the dream. It was not my cause, it was everybody’s cause.

We started as a team. We pressed on as a team. We finished the course as a team.

With an effective team, we would be unstoppable. We could reach our star.

And…

We Did It!

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There were many more lessons from Learnathon 2013. Coming to your screen soon.