"I think all leadership starts with self leadership", so in that respect we are all natural born leaders. In most areas hard categories can be confusing and rarely as useful as those who like to put people in boxes like to suggest.
Truly great/inspirational leaders rarely fit any particular model of "the leader" and often start out as the most unlikely candidate... check out recent history, where more people feared for Barracks life than how hard it would be to maintain his positive opinion rating. also check out -attributes-of-inspirational-leaders
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Friday, July 02, 2010
True to your Art
The foundations of the strongest buildings are sure because they can move, within limits!
The strongest tree bends in the storm to become the oldest tree it can be, it's roots do not move!
The effective person changes his path on the journey to remain true to the destination, one destination!
Perfect balance is perfect and never ending movement, around one point!
Your [He]art is your source of peace in the midst of the chaos that is life, be true to your [He]art!
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Primary Purpose
Many years ago, there was a lighthouse keeper who was given sufficient fuel to keep the light going for a month until further supplies would be delivered.
On the first night of his watch, a mother with young children asked if could he spare her some fuel as her family were frozen and they had no money until her husband came back from sea. He helped her out with a small ration of fuel.
One week later he had a similar request from another family.
One week later he had a similar request from another family.
The same thing happened with a different family the following week and each time the lighthouse keeper helped with a small donation of fuel.
At the end of the third week he ran out of fuel for the light.
The following night there was a storm and in the darkness a ship ran aground killing all of the twenty crew on board - including the husbands and fathers of the families he had helped.
At his trial the well intentioned lighthouse keeper was found guilty of manslaughter.
At his trial the well intentioned lighthouse keeper was found guilty of manslaughter.
He'd made the mistake of taking his eye of his primary objective, with tragic consequences that caused devastating harm to the very people he'd tried to help.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Monday, June 07, 2010
Adebayo Ogunlesi, owner of Gatwick Airport
Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners, said he is going "to make Gatwick a truly first class experience".
However he cautioned it would take "somewhere between 12 and 18 months" before passengers started noticing a difference at the airport.
GIP agreed a £1.51bn deal with Gatwick's current operator BAA last week, which represented a "good price", Mr Ogunlesi said.
However he cautioned it would take "somewhere between 12 and 18 months" before passengers started noticing a difference at the airport.
GIP agreed a £1.51bn deal with Gatwick's current operator BAA last week, which represented a "good price", Mr Ogunlesi said.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Speak softly
It's not the destination that is important, nor the path we take, it is not even the journey that matters, it is the conversation we share with those we meet on the way that gives meaning to our lives.
"My Friend speak softly for your words are footsteps and you are walking on my heart" Anon
"My Friend speak softly for your words are footsteps and you are walking on my heart" Anon
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Scintillating on the home stretch
The Haberdashers’ Adams’ Federation
Adams’ Grammar School
A Member of the Family of Haberdashers’ Schools
Newport, Shropshire
Founded 1656
Headmaster’s News
Summer Term Issue 2
14 May 2010
Athletics
Our Year 11 athletes competed in the
Telford and Schools District Athletics meets
at Oakengates, pitting their skills against the
best in the area across the range of activities. The event
was kicked off in style with the boys 800m, which saw Ned
Rutty storm to victory, leaving at least 20 metres of
daylight between him and his nearest rival. Following this
initial success Michael Walsh lined up for the 80m hurdles
and put in a good performance, managing second place.
Despite a slow start Duncan Morrison came close to
winning the 200m but was just beaten into second on the
line. Despite being three places back in the 400m William
Wallace kept up the good work with a blistering last 100m,
winning in style before Aquile Smith stuttered out the
blocks but once again came in a credible second in the
flagship sprint event, the 100m. Ryan Cattle prefers even
longer distances but, despite trailing three others going into
the final lap in the 1500m, he glided round the course and
was bearing down on the leader as he crossed the line in
second.
In the field events Adams' were no less successful, with
Morrison claiming 2nd in the Long jump, Smith was also
2nd, but in the javelin. Walsh came in 2nd in the discus
and also 3rd in the high jump, with Josh Webster 2nd in
the shot and Cameron Roberts 2nd in the triple jump. The
final event of the evening was the 4x100m. Roberts lead
the way, passing the baton onto Morrison, who stormed up
the back straight. A slight stutter as Webster took over on
the bend, before passing onto Smith, who was scintillating
on the home stretch, cruising in a mere 20m ahead of the
nearest rivals. The results meant that we were certainly in
the top two. Depending on how Thomas Telford did in
certain events when the points come out, it could quite
possibly be a victory. The boys were great and the effort
they put in all evening was superb. Well done Adams'.
Mr Armstrong
Adams’ Grammar School
A Member of the Family of Haberdashers’ Schools
Newport, Shropshire
Founded 1656
Headmaster’s News
Summer Term Issue 2
14 May 2010
Athletics
Our Year 11 athletes competed in the
Telford and Schools District Athletics meets
at Oakengates, pitting their skills against the
best in the area across the range of activities. The event
was kicked off in style with the boys 800m, which saw Ned
Rutty storm to victory, leaving at least 20 metres of
daylight between him and his nearest rival. Following this
initial success Michael Walsh lined up for the 80m hurdles
and put in a good performance, managing second place.
Despite a slow start Duncan Morrison came close to
winning the 200m but was just beaten into second on the
line. Despite being three places back in the 400m William
Wallace kept up the good work with a blistering last 100m,
winning in style before Aquile Smith stuttered out the
blocks but once again came in a credible second in the
flagship sprint event, the 100m. Ryan Cattle prefers even
longer distances but, despite trailing three others going into
the final lap in the 1500m, he glided round the course and
was bearing down on the leader as he crossed the line in
second.
In the field events Adams' were no less successful, with
Morrison claiming 2nd in the Long jump, Smith was also
2nd, but in the javelin. Walsh came in 2nd in the discus
and also 3rd in the high jump, with Josh Webster 2nd in
the shot and Cameron Roberts 2nd in the triple jump. The
final event of the evening was the 4x100m. Roberts lead
the way, passing the baton onto Morrison, who stormed up
the back straight. A slight stutter as Webster took over on
the bend, before passing onto Smith, who was scintillating
on the home stretch, cruising in a mere 20m ahead of the
nearest rivals. The results meant that we were certainly in
the top two. Depending on how Thomas Telford did in
certain events when the points come out, it could quite
possibly be a victory. The boys were great and the effort
they put in all evening was superb. Well done Adams'.
Mr Armstrong
Monday, May 10, 2010
Adults! Time to Say No!
"Rather than being paralysed by the scale of the problem, we need to think about what time and skills we could use to make a difference." ...
And by aiming blows at victims' arms they can argue they were acting in self-defence.
The alarming new evidence is outlined in a chilling book by Patrick Regan, who has spent almost two decades trying to rescue youngsters from a life of crime. It also reveals how:
He was stunned to be told by one community worker in Birmingham: "A gun is easier to get than a mobile phone." The revelations in his book are sure to alarm the new Home Secretary.
Horrifyingly, Regan quotes the chairman of a police advisory body who said: "We'd have had a lot more deaths on our streets if it wasn't for the fact that the youngsters firing the guns are such poor shots."
While shootings remain comparatively rare, police report a 500 PER CENT increase in youngsters taking some form of weapon to school.
One former gang member, rescued by Regan's ground- breaking campaign group XLP which operates across London, explained how his mum gave him this tip: "She recommended I stab the person in the arm in defence and not the stomach, as it's less likely to cause major harm."
John Poyton, director of charity Redthread which works with young crime victims, added: "It appears to be the current trend for people to stab someone in the butt.
"They're not trying to kill their victim but leave them needing a colostomy bag so they have to suffer the degradation of the attack for life."
The report also highlights a worrying increase in girls involved in gangs, as casual sexual partners and "honey traps", drug and weapon handlers.
"The boys would treat us as their bitches, phone whoever they felt like f***ing, order them over, and most girls would drop everything and do whatever was wanted," said one girl ex-gangster.
Regan reveals how a girl will be phoned by a gang member and asked for sex. If she agrees she will then be asked if their "brethren" can join in.
"This they refer to as a line-up, where one girl performs sexual acts on a group of men in turn," he explains.
"Their justification is that if the girl doesn't respect herself why would they respect her?" He adds: "In some cases initiation into a gang involves raping someone first."
Family breakdown has exacerbated the problem. And so-called "Tinies", kids of seven and eight, are increasingly used because they're less likely to be stopped by cops.
"There are now even younger children getting involved known as Babies," says Regan. "Police know of gangs led by a 14-year-old boy."
In London, doubts have been raised over the widespread use of stop and search powers by police. One study showed that, despite 9,437 searches in six months in Southwark, knife crime rose by 8.6%. And last year FOURTEEN youngsters were stabbed to death in the capital.
This week's murder of Nick Pearton, 16, stabbed repeatedly in a playground brawl, brings this year's toll so far to TEN.
Regan's book, published by Hodder & Stoughton next month, tells how in North London police found boys of 13 or 14 who had been stabbed up to FIVE times.
One 15-year-old admitted wearing a bulletproof vest beneath his school uniform. The researcher told Regan: "We found him a mentor but six weeks later he was stabbed when leaving school."
Despite the grim picture he paints, Regan believes the situation is reversible.
In a passionate plea, he concludes: "Rather than being paralysed by the scale of the problem, we need to think about what time and skills we could use to make a difference."
Trained to maim at age 7
The alarming rise of Britain's 'baby' gangsters
CARVE-UP: Crafty young gangsters use broken CDs instead of knives to slash victims
KIDS as young as SEVEN are slashing their way up the gangland ladder - using shards of broken CDs as vicious weapons.
Young hoodlums use the sharpened plastic to fool cops and avoid being jailed for having a knife, we can reveal.And by aiming blows at victims' arms they can argue they were acting in self-defence.
The alarming new evidence is outlined in a chilling book by Patrick Regan, who has spent almost two decades trying to rescue youngsters from a life of crime. It also reveals how:
- GANG members, including a new group of under-sevens called Babies, are taught how to stab rivals in the BACKSIDE so they need a colostomy bag;
- NEW recruits are ordered to RAPE as part of their initiation;
- THOSE who fear reprisal attacks even wear BULLETPROOF vests beneath school uniform.
Horror
Official estimates which suggest there are 20,000 gang members across the UK hugely under-estimate the problem, says Regan.He was stunned to be told by one community worker in Birmingham: "A gun is easier to get than a mobile phone." The revelations in his book are sure to alarm the new Home Secretary.
Horrifyingly, Regan quotes the chairman of a police advisory body who said: "We'd have had a lot more deaths on our streets if it wasn't for the fact that the youngsters firing the guns are such poor shots."
While shootings remain comparatively rare, police report a 500 PER CENT increase in youngsters taking some form of weapon to school.
One former gang member, rescued by Regan's ground- breaking campaign group XLP which operates across London, explained how his mum gave him this tip: "She recommended I stab the person in the arm in defence and not the stomach, as it's less likely to cause major harm."
John Poyton, director of charity Redthread which works with young crime victims, added: "It appears to be the current trend for people to stab someone in the butt.
"They're not trying to kill their victim but leave them needing a colostomy bag so they have to suffer the degradation of the attack for life."
The report also highlights a worrying increase in girls involved in gangs, as casual sexual partners and "honey traps", drug and weapon handlers.
"The boys would treat us as their bitches, phone whoever they felt like f***ing, order them over, and most girls would drop everything and do whatever was wanted," said one girl ex-gangster.
Regan reveals how a girl will be phoned by a gang member and asked for sex. If she agrees she will then be asked if their "brethren" can join in.
"This they refer to as a line-up, where one girl performs sexual acts on a group of men in turn," he explains.
"Their justification is that if the girl doesn't respect herself why would they respect her?" He adds: "In some cases initiation into a gang involves raping someone first."
Family breakdown has exacerbated the problem. And so-called "Tinies", kids of seven and eight, are increasingly used because they're less likely to be stopped by cops.
"There are now even younger children getting involved known as Babies," says Regan. "Police know of gangs led by a 14-year-old boy."
In London, doubts have been raised over the widespread use of stop and search powers by police. One study showed that, despite 9,437 searches in six months in Southwark, knife crime rose by 8.6%. And last year FOURTEEN youngsters were stabbed to death in the capital.
This week's murder of Nick Pearton, 16, stabbed repeatedly in a playground brawl, brings this year's toll so far to TEN.
Regan's book, published by Hodder & Stoughton next month, tells how in North London police found boys of 13 or 14 who had been stabbed up to FIVE times.
One 15-year-old admitted wearing a bulletproof vest beneath his school uniform. The researcher told Regan: "We found him a mentor but six weeks later he was stabbed when leaving school."
Despite the grim picture he paints, Regan believes the situation is reversible.
In a passionate plea, he concludes: "Rather than being paralysed by the scale of the problem, we need to think about what time and skills we could use to make a difference."
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Logos, Pathos, Ethos and
POWER Leadership is the ability to develop a PURPOSEFUL relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with YOUR vision. - e.g. The Corporate Leader [Logos]
Power leadership has nothing to do with morality or empathy. This leader persuades people to follow him by any means necessary. Napoleon led the French to catastrophe, and they followed him almost to the end. Marlborough and Wellington were masters of Power Leadership, unfortunately for the world so was Hitler. Al Capone was a Power Leader in a criminal context.
SERVANT leadership is the ability to develop a LASTING relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with THEIR vision. - e.g. The Political Leader
[Pathos]
The archetypal Servant Leader was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who while wielding tremendous personal and political power practised and advocated non-violence and truth, even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organising an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha—he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Nelson Mandela was born and raised to be a Power Leader as a tribal chief, his 'long walk to freedom' sees him arrive in power as the first President of a united South Africa and the most significant Servant Leader of the modern era. Dusé Mohamed Ali an influential Pan-Africanist, a supporter of Islam. He traveled widely throughout the African Diaspora. He founded the African Times and Orient Review in 1911, which spread the call for African nationalism, and later founded The Comet in Lagos, Nigeria.
GREAT leadership is the ability to develop a LASTING relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with A SHARED vision. - e.g. The Spiritual Leader
[Ethos]
Servant Leader Martin Luther King moved into the Category of Great Leader when he crystallised a nation's [and perhaps the World's] vision with a speech that captured the 'Dream' shared by all races, creeds and colours. Julius Kambarage Nyerere was one of Africa's leading independence heroes (and a leading light behind the creation of the Organization of African Unity), the architect of ujamaa (an African socialist philosophy which revolutionized Tanzania's agricultural system), the prime minister of an independent Tanganyika, and the first president of Tanzania. Kwame Nkrumah was the motivating force behind the movement for liberation of Ghana, and its first president when it regained independence in 1957. His numerous writings address Africa's political destiny. In 1999 BBC world service listeners in Africa voted Kwame Nkrumah, "Man of the Millennium".
Typically Power Leadership is short lived and the power leader is dethroned by a rival or disillusioned followers. The nature of the Power Leader is such that they will continually strive to return to power
The Servant leader will normally step down once the task is completed and be reluctant to return. Servant Leaders who serve for extended periods can evolve into great leaders... if they survive the twin threats of the corrupting effects of power and the correcting actions of the men in shadows!
Power leadership has nothing to do with morality or empathy. This leader persuades people to follow him by any means necessary. Napoleon led the French to catastrophe, and they followed him almost to the end. Marlborough and Wellington were masters of Power Leadership, unfortunately for the world so was Hitler. Al Capone was a Power Leader in a criminal context.
SERVANT leadership is the ability to develop a LASTING relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with THEIR vision. - e.g. The Political Leader
[Pathos]
The archetypal Servant Leader was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who while wielding tremendous personal and political power practised and advocated non-violence and truth, even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organising an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha—he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Nelson Mandela was born and raised to be a Power Leader as a tribal chief, his 'long walk to freedom' sees him arrive in power as the first President of a united South Africa and the most significant Servant Leader of the modern era. Dusé Mohamed Ali an influential Pan-Africanist, a supporter of Islam. He traveled widely throughout the African Diaspora. He founded the African Times and Orient Review in 1911, which spread the call for African nationalism, and later founded The Comet in Lagos, Nigeria.
GREAT leadership is the ability to develop a LASTING relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with A SHARED vision. - e.g. The Spiritual Leader
[Ethos]
Servant Leader Martin Luther King moved into the Category of Great Leader when he crystallised a nation's [and perhaps the World's] vision with a speech that captured the 'Dream' shared by all races, creeds and colours. Julius Kambarage Nyerere was one of Africa's leading independence heroes (and a leading light behind the creation of the Organization of African Unity), the architect of ujamaa (an African socialist philosophy which revolutionized Tanzania's agricultural system), the prime minister of an independent Tanganyika, and the first president of Tanzania. Kwame Nkrumah was the motivating force behind the movement for liberation of Ghana, and its first president when it regained independence in 1957. His numerous writings address Africa's political destiny. In 1999 BBC world service listeners in Africa voted Kwame Nkrumah, "Man of the Millennium".
Typically Power Leadership is short lived and the power leader is dethroned by a rival or disillusioned followers. The nature of the Power Leader is such that they will continually strive to return to power
The Servant leader will normally step down once the task is completed and be reluctant to return. Servant Leaders who serve for extended periods can evolve into great leaders... if they survive the twin threats of the corrupting effects of power and the correcting actions of the men in shadows!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Game Changer
Bright young thing - Technology - ArabianBusiness.com
Meet Suhas Gopinath; the 23-year-old CEO of technology company Globals Inc turning over $25m a year.
The world's youngest CEO is not what you'd expect. A diffident, slight 23-year-old, who stutters lightly when he talks, Suhas Gopinath has none of the brash front you'd expect from someone who hit the pinnacle of corporate job titles when barely into his teens.
He is, in fact, about as far from a Richard Branson-style teen tycoon as you could imagine. So what, at age fourteen, spurred him to set up his own technology firm?
As it turns out, basic materialism.
"I wanted my own PC," Bangalore-born Gopinath admits in his lightly accented English. "The internet shop across the road charged $4 an hour, which was very expensive for me. I thought I could monetise my skills and buy my own computer to use at home."
Strictly speaking, then, his first deal was with the owner of the internet store, whom he persuaded to let him watch the shop in exchange for free surfing hours. Fast-forward six months, and Gopinath had taught himself how to build websites and was pitching cut-price portals to bricks-and-mortar firms in the US.
But business contacts, recoiling at the cockiness of this fourteen-year-old web whizz, didn't respond well.
"There was a lot of frustration and humiliation. Firms would say; ‘I see you're still in high school,' and ‘so, no moustache yet?'" Gopinath recalls. He later confesses he spent years trying to coax a moustache along, in the hope of cultivating an air of gravitas. "The rejections really were the spark for me to start my own company - I knew I needed to formalise my set-up."
At fourteen, however, Gopinath was four years short of being legally able to establish a firm in his native India. So he did what any other tech geek would do and turned to the net, in search of a US partner who was old enough - and willing - to put his name to an unknown dotcom start-up.
His search turned up a Silicon Valley resident who offered his home address as a base and, on August 1, 2000, Globals Inc was born, courtesy of a few hundred dollars saved from Gopinath's freelance web work.
As corporate launches go, it sounds unfeasibly simple. He really launched a firm with someone he had never met?
"Of course," he says, frowning slightly. "There are matrimonial sites that organise arranged marriages without either party even seeing the other person. Why can't I start a company with someone I haven't met?"
Now, at 23, Gopinath's gnat-sized start-up has morphed into a $25m-a-year technology firm, with a 250-strong staff and offices in India, the US and Germany - and all without a modicum of venture capital. It's enough to make even Bill Gates, legendary founder of Microsoft Inc, sit up and take notice. Gopinath met him while mingling with the top brass at a recent World Economic Forum in Davos.
"The first thing he said was, ‘I should be afraid of you. When I started Microsoft, I was already at university. I was eighteen. You started at fourteen - I should be worried,'" he grins. Gates is his self-confessed hero. "He is amazing, so modest."
We are talking on the sidelines of an entrepreneurship conference in Dubai where Gopinath, with all the confidence of nine years of CEO-dom, is about to preach the virtues of going it alone to Emirati high school students. Flanked by property moguls, biotechnology bosses and financiers he is, by some two decades, the most junior member of the panel.
In the course of the day, a trio of Emirati girls will scoop $25,000 in prize money after winning a nationwide hunt for the best student entrepreneurs. Afterwards, they talk of the need for seed money and venture capital to turn their invention into a reality. The contrast with Gopinath - who ran his business out of his family home, without borrowing any money - is sharp. His parents, I say, must have been very proud.
He looks faintly embarrassed. "Actually, I didn't tell them."
This is incredible. He started a firm in secret? He rushes to explain. "I come from a very orthodox, non-business family. My dad is a scientist. The feeling is, if you don't have a nine-to-five job and a monthly salary, you're not settled in life and you can't get married. To them, entrepreneurship is a sin.
He pauses. "So I just didn't tell them. I lied and said I was working as a freelancer for an American firm. Which I was - it was just my own company. I'd go to school during the day, and then work on the business in the evening. The time difference helped - in my evening, US firms opened for business."
Gopinath kept the deception up for four years, until he was eighteen. At which point Globals Inc was employing some 40 staff in the US and generating $1m a year in revenue.
He must be the only CEO on record who, when his firm turned over its first $500,000, was still getting pocket money from his dad: the princely sum of $0.50 a month.
Global Inc's success is testimony to the game-changing power of the internet, which allows any go-getter with a smart idea to hit the ground running.
Meet Suhas Gopinath; the 23-year-old CEO of technology company Globals Inc turning over $25m a year.
The world's youngest CEO is not what you'd expect. A diffident, slight 23-year-old, who stutters lightly when he talks, Suhas Gopinath has none of the brash front you'd expect from someone who hit the pinnacle of corporate job titles when barely into his teens.
He is, in fact, about as far from a Richard Branson-style teen tycoon as you could imagine. So what, at age fourteen, spurred him to set up his own technology firm?
As it turns out, basic materialism.
"I wanted my own PC," Bangalore-born Gopinath admits in his lightly accented English. "The internet shop across the road charged $4 an hour, which was very expensive for me. I thought I could monetise my skills and buy my own computer to use at home."
Strictly speaking, then, his first deal was with the owner of the internet store, whom he persuaded to let him watch the shop in exchange for free surfing hours. Fast-forward six months, and Gopinath had taught himself how to build websites and was pitching cut-price portals to bricks-and-mortar firms in the US.
But business contacts, recoiling at the cockiness of this fourteen-year-old web whizz, didn't respond well.
"There was a lot of frustration and humiliation. Firms would say; ‘I see you're still in high school,' and ‘so, no moustache yet?'" Gopinath recalls. He later confesses he spent years trying to coax a moustache along, in the hope of cultivating an air of gravitas. "The rejections really were the spark for me to start my own company - I knew I needed to formalise my set-up."
At fourteen, however, Gopinath was four years short of being legally able to establish a firm in his native India. So he did what any other tech geek would do and turned to the net, in search of a US partner who was old enough - and willing - to put his name to an unknown dotcom start-up.
His search turned up a Silicon Valley resident who offered his home address as a base and, on August 1, 2000, Globals Inc was born, courtesy of a few hundred dollars saved from Gopinath's freelance web work.
As corporate launches go, it sounds unfeasibly simple. He really launched a firm with someone he had never met?
"Of course," he says, frowning slightly. "There are matrimonial sites that organise arranged marriages without either party even seeing the other person. Why can't I start a company with someone I haven't met?"
Now, at 23, Gopinath's gnat-sized start-up has morphed into a $25m-a-year technology firm, with a 250-strong staff and offices in India, the US and Germany - and all without a modicum of venture capital. It's enough to make even Bill Gates, legendary founder of Microsoft Inc, sit up and take notice. Gopinath met him while mingling with the top brass at a recent World Economic Forum in Davos.
"The first thing he said was, ‘I should be afraid of you. When I started Microsoft, I was already at university. I was eighteen. You started at fourteen - I should be worried,'" he grins. Gates is his self-confessed hero. "He is amazing, so modest."
We are talking on the sidelines of an entrepreneurship conference in Dubai where Gopinath, with all the confidence of nine years of CEO-dom, is about to preach the virtues of going it alone to Emirati high school students. Flanked by property moguls, biotechnology bosses and financiers he is, by some two decades, the most junior member of the panel.
In the course of the day, a trio of Emirati girls will scoop $25,000 in prize money after winning a nationwide hunt for the best student entrepreneurs. Afterwards, they talk of the need for seed money and venture capital to turn their invention into a reality. The contrast with Gopinath - who ran his business out of his family home, without borrowing any money - is sharp. His parents, I say, must have been very proud.
He looks faintly embarrassed. "Actually, I didn't tell them."
This is incredible. He started a firm in secret? He rushes to explain. "I come from a very orthodox, non-business family. My dad is a scientist. The feeling is, if you don't have a nine-to-five job and a monthly salary, you're not settled in life and you can't get married. To them, entrepreneurship is a sin.
He pauses. "So I just didn't tell them. I lied and said I was working as a freelancer for an American firm. Which I was - it was just my own company. I'd go to school during the day, and then work on the business in the evening. The time difference helped - in my evening, US firms opened for business."
Gopinath kept the deception up for four years, until he was eighteen. At which point Globals Inc was employing some 40 staff in the US and generating $1m a year in revenue.
He must be the only CEO on record who, when his firm turned over its first $500,000, was still getting pocket money from his dad: the princely sum of $0.50 a month.
Global Inc's success is testimony to the game-changing power of the internet, which allows any go-getter with a smart idea to hit the ground running.
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