Why Play By The Rules?

Why play by the rules?

Rules. Who makes these rules? The society? The government? Our forefathers? While some rules are necessary for proper functioning of civilisation, while some are meant to be broken.

Centuries of civilisations have made their own rules, come up with new ones. Some for the betterment of humanity, while some that destroy the basic purpose of it. What if we lived in a world with no rules? No fixed followings to guide our thinking, no boundaries set up by society.

Some of the greatest visionaries of the world have been rule breakers.

Galileo was forbidden by the church to explore the universe, Einsteins theories were dubbed as ridiculous as they broke all notions of what science was based on. All of them were outcasts, all of them abandoned routine to delve what they believed in.

We’ve all been there, be it the smallest of things like bunking a lecture in school to breaking a traffic light, to even an imaginary one that would’ve labelled your current attire a fashion faux-pas . And let’s admit it, we’ve felt the most alive at that point, free with a rush of adrenaline. We’ve all broken a rule, we’ve all tried to be rebels. And yet, we find ourselves as claustrophobic and clustered in imaginary cages as ever.

It’s time we let ourselves out. We’ve been labelled as the generation that breaks the rules and makes new ones and let’s live upto it. This century has seen the craziest of ideas been turned into the most genius of inventions, the birth of unimaginable discoveries within the spheres of science and revolutions that have shook the basic way of life.

We have aspirations, plans for our future, not only ours but plans for a future where we want to live in and if achieving them involves breaking some rules laid down in front of us, what’s the harm?

After all, rules are made to be broken.

The Year that Was – India 2014

It takes timeless efforts to build a product, a building, a spacecraft, a story, a film, a moment, an event, an experience, a life.

And it takes only seconds for us to criticise and rush past them as if they never existed. Pretend that it was never ours, that it existed as the weakened pitiful state, of a certain other’s questionable actions.

True patriotism however, lies in the realisation that tomorrow is going to be better than yesterday. A flame of hope, passion and ownership that burns not only in our own hearts, but enlightens and ignites the whole community.

Ever asked yourself, what does our past really mean?

It’s only you who can ask this question, because the world is still short of time travelling machines and fortune globes that will allow a selfish little sneak peak. A little attempt to relive the year 2014 as one nation should be good enough, maybe? We’d like you to pause to watch India play on the ‘past forward’ button. Here she lies frozen in 3 minutes.

She lived. She learned. She led.

Credits mentioned in the video description. Inspired by Google Zeitgeist.

Happy Holidays

Give the gift of gratitude

Did you know? Giving gratitude and happiness is linked. Give thanks and warm wishes to those who have helped empower you to become the person you are today. It is in these special moments of peace and warmth where we can find joy and rekindled bonds that fuel us for the coming new year.

To start it off, we give our sincerest thanks to all of our tens of thousands of volunteers, employees, alumni and partners who enable us to create our impact on the lives of so many young people around the world. AIESEC is driven by passionate people who believe in making the world a more peaceful place and we couldn’t do any of this without you.

Send your appreciation to loved ones and make their day even brighter. We’ve left you a video on the science of happiness that brings a heart-touching message, prepare to tear up!

Happy holidays from AIESEC.

TEDx talks that inspire a different perspective on World Peace

We live in a world where seemingly small things like intolerance and misunderstanding of people’s differences have caused large-scale conflict, destruction and even wars. World peace can seem like an impossible thing, but we at AIESEC interpret it a little differently. ‘Peace’ should not be interpreted necessarily as absence of a major war. ‘Peace’ symbolizes a world that does not have conflicts that arise from cultural, religious, or other aspects of differences in humanity.

In short, we need to learn how to respect and understand these differences as human beings.

We’ve pulled together a series of TED talks for you listen and watch to inspire new ways of thinking on the roadmap to peace.

In the Road to Peace playlist on TED, “these speakers offer inspired ideas, practical advice and real-world examples from around the globe of how it just might be attainable.”

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 1997 for her work toward the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines advocates for society to have a more realistic vision of world peace. The talk focuses on rethinking world peace to human security, and enabling people to live dignified lives. Watch it here

Scilia Elworthy a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of Oxford Research Group that seeks to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics, talks about how to deal with extreme violence without using force in return. Exploring the themes of how to overcome bullies ranging from countries to individuals without any violence in return. Watch it here

Julia Bacha a filmmaker who produced Budhrus discusses the power of attention, and how we often media and audiences pay attention to the violence, but not the non-violent leaders and peacemakers of the Middle East region that may very well bring peace to the region. Bacha advocates for us to pay attention to nonviolence. Watch it here

Progress will come, when all of humanity is awakened, moved to take action and not idly sit by to wait for change. We must be brave, but also patient in seeking cross-cultural understanding amongst people and nations.

What actions will you take to make yourself a better person and be the leader who can help make the world a better place?

One of the best ways to gain a new understanding of the world is to live, volunteer or work abroad. Learn more on how you can get involved in our student programmes that offer global experiences to create positive change in communities and on yourself.

The Skills of 2020 and Changing Leadership

The societies we live in today are vastly different from what they were twenty, or even ten, years ago. The pace of the world is increasing exponentially, due to technology and its effects on the daily life of human beings. The most prevalent of these effects is no doubt the capacity for global connection.

TIME Magazine recently published an article with an infographic detailing the projected ten most important work skills required for the workplace in the year 2020 — which alarmingly, is only a little over five years away. Five years might feel a long way away for now, but in today’s fast-paced society, time flies.

2020 skills

Success lies in preparation, and so we must ask ourselves, what does this mean for today’s skills training and how we can keep up for 2020?

What may set the individual or leader apart is the ability to adapt and innovate, a keenness for learning, and zero tolerance for complacency.

There are a number of things expected to change by 2020, including increased longevity (longer life spans), the heightened role that technology and computation will play in our personal and professional lives, and intensified globalization. Simply put, the world is finding ways to do things better and to get more out of it. If we are optimistic, we can expect to live in an “improved” society by 2020.

For leaders, however, it is important to realize that this improvement begins right now at this moment, not five years later. When the skills of 2020 demands people to own a wider sense of social intelligence, computational thinking, cross cultural competency. In addition, it requires leaders to be capable of new media literacy, virtual collaboration, and transdisciplinary work — the learning curve begins now.

Those we deem worthy of leadership are those who are “one step ahead”, and who are “leading the way”. They are the ones who are willing to take risks and able to adapt to change, and in doing so, become role models for those who wish to follow.

Leaders in today’s world must have a solid knowledge of both the past and a future, and secure understanding of where they themselves fit in between or bridge the gap. The world is expanding, and people need to grow along with it — as the world becomes better, so must we.

Here at AIESEC, we also wanted to identify some of the top skills young people were wanting to develop today, and our YouthSpeak survey with 25,000 millennial respondents showed that leadership / team management, new languages, critical thinking and problem solving skills were still the most in-demand to help them get ahead over the next few years.

The skills you need today versus in the future are rapidly changing. Are you prepared for the skills of 2020?

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