attitude you develop and bring to the table. To me, everything comes down to the energy and the attitude you bring. If you bring the right attitude to whatever you do, everything else can fall into place. I talk about three habits in my book (confidence, attitude and recognition).
Whatever the problem is, if you look at it in a positive and a constructive way you will find a way to solve the problem.
Attitude and energy combined creates a great platform for teams to perform. Sometimes you see it in teams where people are bright and smart but if they bring negative energy or attitude, that can drag everybody else in the team down.
Jack Welsh was asked in an interview what he would look for when he hires people. His response was: “I look to see if the person brings the right attitude and positive energy, if they don’t, no matter how smart they are, I don’t hire them”.
What’s next for you? What’s your next challenge?
There’s a lot I would love to do. My eldest son is now in his third year of university and my youngest son has finished high school. So I’m hoping my wife Kali and I will be able to do some travelling together as empty nesters!
As a family we have started a foundation (letkidsfly.org) to help children in need with our mission being “A world in which every child is empowered to realise their full potential”
All proceeds from the book is going towards helping to build the palliative care hospital in Sri Lanka (shanthi-foundation.org) and to helping children in need through letkidsfly.org.For me personally, I want to complete a 100km ultra marathon as my next milestone in running. The longest run I have done so far is an 83km race last year. So a 100km ultra is on the list as one of the challenges. All my official running events will count towards my current challenge of running a series of runs totalling 500km to raise $100,000 to help the hospital project.
Finally, from a work perspective there’s a lot happening in Asia as we see huge potential for growth in the business. I want to see people in my team go on to achieve their big dreams in the next 18-24 months and I look forward to playing a coaching and supporting role for them.
These are some of the things that will keep me going and I hope it will give me plenty of opportunity to make mistakes, learn and grow!
• You can see the details of Vajira’s book here https://motivatingmavericks.com and you can either purchase the book or donate to his charity work.
15