Don't ever let somebody tell you… You can't do something!!

I love these words from the movie ‘Pursuit of Happiness’, by Will Smith to his son.

There are times when we want something, dream something and people discourage us or may tell us, “You can’t make it”. That should never drive our thoughts and our efforts toward our dreams. We should not let other decide what we can do or can not. It is we who should go for it, try our best, no matter what! Listen to our heart, take steps and all actions necessary towards making our dream come true, we should not be scared or confused by others.

And as it says in the movie we should always remember:

Don’t ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something, not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. You want something, go get it!!

Here is the clip from ‘Pursuit of Happiness’:

http://www.youtube.com/v/MEGSiX0JA-s&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1

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California :)

Last few months I have been hearing this song, a song full of life and energy and I added it to my youtube favorites (Here is the You Tube Link)

If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re goin’ to San Francisco ………………..

Well, guess what?? I had no idea whatsoever that this song will become a truth for me so soon 😀 Is it called destiny?? Anyway, I came to California (San Fransisco) yesterday to look for jobs. I am staying with my Grad School Indian friends, amazing people, made things very easy and simple for me, I very much feeling like at home here.

The weather here is amazing and right now I am living in the heart of Silicon Valley. Every step I take here I see one company! I went to watch a movie and when I looked around there was Yahoo, McCafe, Cisco and hundred others 🙂 I am really excited seeing so many companies together in one shot!!!!!

Given current economic condition the job search is going to be pretty hard for me, but somewhere I have to start and I think the best place to start looking for is California!!

And so here begins my (another) new journey in USA…

Happy Anniversary!!

On July 19th, 2008, Lipna finished one year at her work. I am feeling sooooo happy!! I still remeber the day when she got a call from the recruiter. Informing her of the long waited news….the DREAM job!!! I have kind of waited my whole life for this one news for Lipna…..I knew the smile it would bring to Lipna’s Parents and her sisters. I knew how it would change her while life and  it did!!!

I was scared and hesitant of how would she mange to work, become successful. I was scared if she would lose in between. This one year has been a wonderful learning process for her, I can’t believe the amount of things she has learned. I could never imagine she would know so many stuffs, expertize in so many things. When she attend meetings, response users …I get amazed seeing her 🙂 Is this the Lipna I saw a year back??? I sure see many lacks till now, I surely want Lipna to improve more, and expect much better performance! However, whatever she has achived so far, I thank her for those,  I know, all she has achieved till now was hard for her and I know she’ll do much better in the long run!!! I congratulate Lipna for completing her one year as a Technology Analyst at GS and I wish her best of luck with all future efforts and success!!!!!

Happy Aniversary Lipna and I want to see you touching the SKY one day 😉

Back again with Purpose of Life :)

I took 15 days leave of absence from my blog 🙂 Actually I was a lil frustrated with life 😛

Am doing relatively better now 🙂

Well, the article that motivated me to write again is one by my very favorite Steve Pavlina

 

I was reading the article “How to Discover the purpose of your life” by him and am quite inspired.  I am always moved and inspired by his writing. To discover the purpose of life he suggested to do the following:

Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
1. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
2. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
3. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

So, who ever is reading this should try finding the purpose of their own life !! I am still working to find out mine 😉

Painting!!

Looks like being a regular blogger is very close to impossible for me 🙂 I have promised myself that I would write regularly yet I am not very frequent 😦

Well, better late than never!! So here I am !! What should I write about today? How about some personal stuffs?? Sounds interesting!!

These days I am trying to paint/draw. I have never done this before! May be its kinda too late to start this kind of things…but I believe there should not be any time constraint for things you are passionate about and you love to do..unless you have any physical constraints…..so I have started drawing like kids with a lot of excitement….everytime I draw something I look at it and burst into laugh…..even a 5 year kiddo will do better than that…but then again…who cares…its all about my passion…am not planning for any exhibition 😀

I have started with crayons. But mostly I want to do oil painting, I need time to reach that stage. Its too early for that. The painting I have put above is not mine 😛 its Thomas Kinkade‘s Painting.

Its really soothing doing the things you always wanted to do, you are always passionate about but never got a chance. We all have something we are passionate about but never got the chance either because of other priorities or some familial constraints. And when we have time and flexibility we think its too late to start over. I think we should always give ourself some time, we should look into ourselves when we have some relax moments in between our responsibilities and formalities. We should find some time for ourselves and do the things that we really enjoy doing. Be it spending and hour listening to your favorite music closing your eyes, or joining yoga class which you never could manage to do.

I always feel, this is one life I am living and I should try my best to live it. Like Bon Jovi sang

” It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive”.

We all should some how manage some time just for ourselves and do something we like. That way we can stay more refreshing and will be able to manage this life more properly.

So believing in these I have become a kiddo now and drawing abstract things 🙂 – this is something new happening in my life 🙂

Randy Pausch: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I would like to share a speach given by Randy Pausch , a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon. In Sept. of 2006, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and it is the most deadly of cancers, with only a 4% 5-year survival rate.

As of December, 2007, as Randy Pausch mentioned, the chemo therapy is working, and the doctors’ best estimate is that it will continue to work for another 2-4 months. Which means he is alive just next few months. Before he leaves this planet he gave a wonderful lecture called “Last Lecture”, it is one-of-a-kind university lecture that moved an overflow crowd at Carnegie Mellon – and is now moving audiences around the globe.

I am so amzaed and inspired seeing this lecture given by this wonderful brilliant man with a lot of sense of humor and creativity!! If you watch the video you would see: how a person can be so much lively and full of spirit while standing in the edge of death. Its one of the most inspiring and lively speech I have ever heard.

Here is the youtube video link of the speech: 

Behind The Scenes – My Job…My Dream!!

The place where I work in – Goldman Sachs – is the place where I always dreamed of working – the responsibilities, the work environment, the views around – everything feels so  awesome. Just in front of my office is the awesome Manhattan views and on the right is the Statue of Liberty!! On the top picture you can see the tall building is my office and in the bottom pic the Manhattan view 🙂

Today I will tell you the story of how I got this job and how I started my journey here…

I started doing my MS at SUNY Binghamton in September 2005 and in August 2006 when I saw all students around me had internship/job experiences, I found no reason for myself not try to get a decent  job. Everybody was happy with their internship experiences and all my friends around were talking about their already accepted full time offer a year ahead:( I found myself completely lost and frustrated… An intersting thing I have always noticed about myself is when I have no or the least hope I suddenly get a  lot of energy and start over 🙂 So, what I did was that I made a nice resume (as poslished as possible :P) with all my skills and eperiences described nicely:P  (be it even in one class of Matlab). Once resume was done, I started applying through all channels possible.

I applied through monster.com and Yahoo jobs (not  a good idea at all, consultancy firms keep calling and irritating :() Then I searched 100 best companies through web and tried to apply to as many companies  I could. The story just began….I found many professional Bangladeshis in US through different groups or google search snd contacted them about it if they  can help some way. As I expected many of them responded and some took my resume to refer to their companies …some helped me update my resume to make it look  more professional 🙂

After doingall those, the last thing I did was apply through our Career Center in our school. Generally what happen is, each year many companies come to  visit our school and take on campus interviews. If they are satisfied they will call those students for on-site interview in their office. So, once  thats done, I got a call from Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg and Microsoft for the on campus interview. I was scared to death at this moment as I don’t have full  time technical experience of any kind so I saw no chances 😦

But then again, my life’s first interview ever in USA….so there is nothing to lose but to give my best try….So I had three of those interviews…all went  ok…and then I got a call from Goldman Sachs next week for the on-site interview, it was a whole day interview with 6 people independently. It went quite great. I can’t help explaining that particular day. I took the flight from Binghamton and reached New York around 9.30. I was all dressed up and was a  lil nervous – that was my life’s first on site intervirew ever in USA (I know I sound funny by saying life’s first over and over again…but that’s how it was  🙂 Then I reached the office around 11 and was immidiately asked to take the ferry to go to the other side of the river to our other office building. I was really scared at that time, completely new in the place…not sure if I will take the right ferry or not…and if I’ll make it on time….but then I realize thats a part of interview itself…how well managed and smart you are handling unexpected situations…well…I think I managed it well..When I reached the other building in new Jersey I was so amazed seeing our building…it was awesome with the exceptional nice view of Manhattan ….I reached on time …had my interviews till lunch then again took the ferry back to New York on the first building for the rest 3 interviews…it went very very well… but then again… with life’s first on site interview in USA….all i could think is “God ….just give me the chance” and He did!

And here I am now! I joined on July 19, 2007 and enjoying every little bit of it….trying to work hard as much as I could…I am sure and very hopeful that things will improve more and I will get chance to improve myself more…

The moral of the story that I would like to mention: “Whatever condition you are in, never ever give up!!! You always have chance no matter what….just believe and go ahead and work on it… Dreams always come true, you just need to keep working on them!”

I thank all the people who were there beside me in the process of this journey!!!

Amra Shopne Bachi…

 I really liked the song “Amra shopne Bachi” by Yaatri. The lyrics is very impressive. Specially the phrases.., “Amra shopne bachi shopno gori….Shopno buke dhore debo pari ..Bohudurr….”

The most motivating character that most of us has is: Dream. We mostly live on dreams and hopes and these are the background force that drive our life and future.

The point I am trying to bring here is: Bangladesh is going through a changing phase now, situations are improving, people are improving and I believe that very soon we will be doing very good. The improvement of economy will definitely take some time. But its more important that our people are improved, more educated and technology oriented, which I can see they are on their way. Every time I see different groups and blogs created by thousands young people of Bangladesh who are trying to put their thoughts and trying to make a difference in the society, I feel so proud and good. I know all these are coming with the cost of drugs and some wrong activities. Because the society is becoming more open there will be definitely some bad impact which we have to prevent, but we should not be frustrated. I personally see a very good future for Bangladesh. I can see its changing…changing rapidly…our people are changing and I am so hopeful about the whole thing.

The creativity has increased a lot. More and more people are involved in media, more and more people are now giving education priority than money and status, more and more people are getting involved in many different social activities both inside Bangladesh and from abroad…. So, I am sure we are on the right…..

We have dreams for a better Bangladesh and I am sure we are on our way makinig our dream come true. And I want to sing like Yatri now: “Amra shopne bachi shopno gori….Shopno buke dhore debo pari ..Bohudurr….”