Unwinding at the Grand Canyon

The Fellowship that started a little more than one month ago has a purpose – to experience and have the ability to come together with your co-fellows and share those experiences. So it was natural for all of us to look forward to the half way point of the fellowship experience to be able to come together and share.

My co-fellows are wonderful people who have literally worked their hearts out into making the most of every minute of every day during the past 4 weeks of their stay in the United States. They have pushed their limits and personalities to the hilt; demanded more of their individual Program Officers than any other generation of fellows; and have managed to meet more people and attend more receptions than ever before.

I think the group of 24 of us represents a unique combination of people and talents. As Rafael Bundoc from the Philippines smiles and says, “there are people who are quiet, those of us who enjoy parties and those who don’t, those who are here with the ambition to change the world and others who are here with the intention of learning what they can manage to fit into these 10 weeks – we have a very well balanced group.” And a well-balanced group indeed.

However it is amazing how closely-knit the group is when it wants to unwind and share its energy with one another. It would be unfair to say that the group enjoys a party despite the fact that they can rock the pebbles out of the Canyon, but it’s something more than that.

It’s about being together and drawing from one another. It’s about talking through the successes and resolving the frustrations of meetings that work or don’t. it’s about addressing issues from different perspectives and angles. But yes – it is largely about being together, which is why each member of the group was just so eager to assume a role in making this trip such a blasted success.

Thankfully, what happens amongst the Eisenhower Fellows, shall remain amongst the Fellows, and I am certainly not at liberty to divulge the details, but I can tell you this much about the character of each of my co-fellows – these people are amazing and are made up of some of the most fantastic energy that brings all the exciting karma into this world. They are an unbelievably inclusive group of some outstanding individuals that know how to share and how to give back. Regardless of race, ethnicity, background or creed, these guys are off to take on the world and stitch it back together… bit by bit (of course with a bit of that technical support provided by me) –

Rejuvenated, revived and recharged, the fellows take off today to different states and locations to continue on with their journey of the Fellowship.

More details from them as I hear from each one, later on!

Fatin, Farith, Piesecki and the small world

You know the theory of six degrees of separation? It is said, that there chances are extremely high that you will establish some link with every 6th person you come across. Sure I believed it to some extent. When I'm in Pakistan. it's not surprising to know that someone you know, knows someone else, who knows someone else who knows you. But when that happens half way around the world, it tends to open your mind to a whole new level.

Here I was sitting on the train from Philadelphia to Radnor with Rafael (Philippines) and Fatin (Saudi Arabia) when we got talking about our backgrounds. Only namesake fellows until the time when you sit down and share a cup of Dunkin Donuts Ice Coffee on a train, I mentioned that I had lived in Saudi Arabia and promptly began to describe a dear friend of mine I had grown up with. Not wishing to invade her privacy, but suffice to say that this woman (this friend of mine) is perhaps the only Saudi Woman to have been sent to Oxford to complete her PhD. I said this much, when Fatin broke into a smile and yelled out her name. "You know her!!?? I know her too!!!" and there. The link had been established. A few moments later, it turned out that Fatin had regularly interacted with two cousins of mine, and I thought I would have a heart attack. Could the world really be that small? The answer to that question obviously doesn't end there...

The first evening I was there at the Doubletree Hotel in Philadelphia, I met with Farith (Malaysia) - Turned out I had interviewed Mr Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim a year earlier on his brief trip to Karachi - Mr Ibrahim was the ex-deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia until the problems in Malaysia broke out. Farith's father worked with Mr Ibrahim. Perhaps not as direct a link as with Fatin, but we had SOMEONE in common.

But the incident that almost pulled the floor from under my two pretty feet, was this one - At the Trustees Dinner, last week in Philadelphia, there would have been about a hundred people filling up that room. I met with people from all over, and then decided to turn around to meet a very dignified woman. Without paying attention to her name, I shook her outstretched hand and introduced myself. When she introduced herself, I focused on her name tag and asked her if she knew of a Nicole Piaeseki. "Why yes! She is my daughter!" I couldn't help but laugh and then said, "I don't believe this..." I had interviewed Ms Nicole Piaeseki during the MAP Conference in Karachi, Pakistan as the VP Marketing of Boeing, as a leader and one of the team of people who helped to turn Boeing around.. I had met with her, chatted with her and caught her interview on tape and made it a part of my Image Building video. Do you see the reason I am so excited?

The moral of this brief bloggy (a blog-story) is simple: there is someone out there who knows you... or has a link to you. I disagree with Thomas Friedman's title "The World is Flat" - I believe that the world is just tight, small and deep. The deeper you dig and explore, the more links and commonalities you find.

More later!