This time, it's personal

[edit 29/03: Guillaume, aka Guigui, aka Giyume... was there too!]

I started this blog to share some thoughts and start some discussions on the topics of leadership, entrepreneurship. It has embraced wider topics already.
I've received some feedback that some people don't like my blog. They say it's too serious. 2009 is the year in which I've learned that I can survive people not liking what I do. So far so good :)
I've received some feedback that my posts are too long. I agree. It is not the most convenient way to carry my message, plus I should really learn to synthesize my ideas more around here.I've tried to write everything (a bit) shorter.
I have NOT received ANY feedback on the fact that my blog is not personal at all, that I dont share anything about my life or almost nothing. Still, I think it is too big a limit, and my ideas and points of view cannot be understood if i do not say what I'm going through on my personal life.

I've moved in a new flat with 3 amazing people: Viviane, Abhishek, François.
International people : Brazil, India, France, but they've all lived abroad, as have I.
Crazy people: our "flat meetings" last 2 hours or more and are punctuated by the wailing of a toy hippopotamus from a McDonald's happy meal, supposedly impersonating the female hero from the hit animation movies Madagascar 1 & 2.
Beautiful people: since I've moved in, I have had total peace of mind as to the fact that we can work out any problem together, that we will grow & develop together, and that we all try to be as meaningful as we can in our daily lives.

Last saturday took place a semi-official House warming party. It was a great evening!! I had my high-school friends coming over, most of them visiting my new place for the first time. A couple of friends from 'classes prépa'. A few friends from business school showed up as well, and it was great to feel that the connection created from studying together for 3 years (and maybe, also, from working in aiesec together for 1 year :p ) was still here. Aiesec people of course, friends and friends-to-be,who I've met recently. My sister also came, who I've seen less since I moved in here, though she works in Paris too.
Thanks a lot for showing up Audrey (x2), Céline, Faïza, Irène, Maryse, Manon, Mélanie, Sophie, Abdo, Benjamin, David, François, Guillaume Pat, Tri.
They brought me the perfect gifts for my current stage of settling, among which: a Lonely planet pocket guide of NEw York City, which is gonna be soooo useful for my two weeks there this summer.... , and a cocktail shaker with a 150-recipe book.

It's not so often that I manage all those busy people at the same place & time, so that was a really unique night.

On the whole, life if pretty hectic now, with heavy work hours, yet work is (almost) always personaly rewarding . On average, one person is crashing our flat every week, so we always have the company of the usual flatmates and new, changing faces for one or two days. It's a great lifestyle so far, it's a bit the anti-habit life, as everyday something new and surprising happens. Like when we all try to find where the water main tap is, or when try to clean under the oven, in the kitchen, and find new forms of life no one suspected could exist ;)

That reminds me I have to go and cook something.

Good night world.

The Sunday Morning Factor

Have you noticed how many unusual things happen on Sunday mornings? Do you feel that there is something special about that precise time of the week, where everything seems better, simpler, where your mind is more relaxed?
Probably a lot of people just spend it sleeping, after coming home at 7 from an all-night-long hardcore party. It does happen to me from time to time!

A couple of things made this morning - and it's not even over yet! - different:
1. I got a new mobile phone last week, and I now have unrestricted, unlimited access to internet and 20 TV channels , 24/7, from anywhere as long as my mobile catches a signal.
2. some day in september 2003, soon after joining the business school I graduated from, I stepped through a door labelled "Aiesec" because I thought there might be something of interest.

Now let's look at the consequences:
1. as Thomas Friedman, world-reknown columnist & economy journalist, explains in book, "The World is Flat" (or on Amazon.com), the current trend is for increased connection of individuals to the global society & economy, and one of the things that individual can now do is "in-forming". He means that "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people". One of the consequences he describes a bit further in hte book is that every person with access to a computer and internet can be his/her own news reporter, can create his own information, comparing sources, relating events between each other, balancing perspectives coming from different places and build up his own opinion on a topic with a lot more foundation than ever before.
So I got this new mobile with internet, and as I rode the train back from my parent's place to my current flat, I was surfing on facebook (yes, they do have a mobile site). and one of the news caught my attention, it was an update about Janne Asmala.
That brings us to point 2.
2. Janne is a Finnish chap I met in 200...5 (I think?), at an Aiesec conference. It's amazing how much change in life has derived from my stepping through that door back in 2003. So in 2005 he was a student in Finland, aiming for a master in Knowledge Management. Meeting him was a striking experience for me because we were just 20 years old and he had already read an amazing lot about philosophy, the power of the mind, and education system. Within Aiesec, pushed simply by his strong inner belief, he started a move to change the education systems globally. I'm not sure how that move is now, but back then it resulted in discussion groups at several conferences, involving dozens of students from just about any country, and I'm sure it was a life changing experience for them. Witnessing this phenomenon made me understand better how a single person, just following his own path and inner conviction, can bring change and involve people into something bigger than just themselves.

So, surfing on facebook, i went to read his latest post, which led me, following the links at random, to learn about the book "Presence". As one of the amazon.com reviewed it:
"The authors' central question is "How do we individually and collectively bring about useful change in circumstances where the past, and established ways of thinking, are not good guides to the future?" If, as the authors believe, globalization, the exponentially growing impact of humans on the environment, and the overwhelming power and influence of a small number of global corporations have produced a situation in which accepted ways of thinking and acting are no longer appropriate, what are the appropriate ways of thinking and acting and how do we learn them, get them accepted and promote their widespread adoption? Is this an issue only for those in 'positions of power', or can all of us make a difference?"

I found myself looking at an excellent phrasing for a question that I have been focusing on lately: the challenge of change in environments that are not receptive to it. I think this is also a question that a lot of people are asking themselves at the moment, what with general climate change, economical slow-down (I'm an "anti-crisis"!), etc.
However this sentences poses quite a number of problems. Starting with the definitions of the words used :"useful change", and "established ways of thinking", are very much subjective. The very idea of "useful change" is extremely controversial", as differet people will see it differently. Also, what can be considered an "established way of thinking"? the average habit of the majority of the population? A statistical opinion at a given point in time?
I do not have answers for this, but I definitely intend to look into this topic. It is one of the questions that emerged from the Kitchen Discussion. But that is another story... that I keep for next time.

I hope you all make good use of your Sunday mornings. It is a time for extraordinary events, that will link your peaceful resting morning to places far away in space and time. It works if you read a book too :)
Long live Sunday mornings!