The world is transforming at a pace that is faster than our capability to realize & our actions and intentions now will soon become a consequence in the future, for good and unfortunately bad too. I am not a pessimist by nature, but sometimes it’s quite astonishing to see the direction the world is moving ahead. In the midst of rising personal needs, competition in every walk of life, recognition of achievements and also how some of the achievements are defined, it’s leading us to compromise on some of the most basic and sustainable elements and making us live a somewhat delusional lifestyle. Just to ground the above assumptions and thoughts, events in the past like the Global Financial crisis, Rising Corruption across governments, Lack of initiatives taken up by youth and as a matter of fact ignorance towards taking a stand for the right or wrong – for instance the number of responsible citizens who vote is quite a scary fact. And little did I say that all of these are immense possibilities and opportunities towards a better world, a better ecosystem to live, work and have a purpose while doing that.

The problem starts with lack of awareness and transcends to not knowing what’s the right action. Most of the time the environment around us also just guides us in our actions, and they become reactive over being proactive. Have you ever thought how does it feel when you actually stand up for what you believe in? Yes, it’s quite a rare feeling, but perhaps it’s a good time to learn this as the youth since this will most definitely define how the world will look like in the coming 3-4 decades. What we all stand up for now, will become a consequence in the future for our future generations to deal with. What are the principles you are guided by in your life? Well, that seems like a solid and tough question for an average to think about, leave aside finding out the answer.

Fortunately, after spending a considerable time in an organization like AIESEC which believes in discovering and developing leadership potential for anyone who wants to engage with it, I feel satisfactory about my learning’s, for AIESEC, through my various experiences working with 4-5 different teams of completely diverse individuals, being lead by 4 different leaders and having to learn what is right and what is wrong myself, has been quite empowering. Today, after knowing people from more than 45 different nationalities and having met young people from more than a 100 countries, talking and sharing with them about leadership, world issues & management, not only have I become more aware about the world and myself but also have defined my own value system and principles which guide my thoughts and actions in life now. So from my perspective, something as simple as Ethical Leadership is now the most powerful belief and hope for the world, which earlier, about 4-5 years back would be like rocket science for me to figure out!

“Be aware, have a hunger for learning and contributing more, purposefully” A common motto for all the youth today!