Gilgamesh and the Restless Desires of Your Heart

I have a couple of goals/projects that I would like to tackle. Stuff I have been thinking about for a long time, but have not done anything about yet. I often find that I am second guessing myself . . . it’s too difficult . . . where do I start . . . it’s a crazy idea . . . you get the drift. And yet, deep in my soul, I have always felt that God would not have given me these ideas if I was not capable of executing them. Call me crazy but I really feel that conceiving the idea in your head is the first step to success. That you can think it means you are capable of doing it.

Last night, I was reading the “Epic of Gilgamesh” (for the first time) and I have to admit that I felt validated that the great hero Gilgamesh felt the same way too. When Gilgamesh feels very strongly that he has to conquer Humbaba, he calls out to the god Shamash for blessings. Shamash asks him why he feels the need to take up this challenge. Gilgamesh responds, “If this enterprise is not to be accomplished, why did you move me, Shamash, with the restless desire to perform it?”.

And so it is with all of us. If you have goals that are swirling around in your head and filling your dreams at night, if you have a restless desire to do something then listen to your mind and soul and take the first step. That you thought about it means that the hard work is already done. The rest you will figure out along the way, one step at a time.

Thought For The Day—Success

Is Your Natural Personality Sabotaging Your Success?

This is the last of my nuggets from the conference last week—I think I have milked it long enough. Back to my favorite speaker who also talked about what it takes to succeed. Though he gave the example of professional success, this applies to all all areas of your life.

A few years ago, he realized he had to make some changes to save his business from collapse. His business was successful because he was a successful sales rep. However, when he lost several key accounts, he realized that the business he had built could not survive without him.

He had built the wrong business. Instead he needed to build his business in such a way that he was not the "star revenue producer". He had to take a step back and develop his employees, train and support his sales reps to be successful.

Once he realized what he had to do, he rose to the challenge and tried to do exactly that. However, he wasn't making any progress. It took him awhile to realize that who "he was naturally was very different from who he was required to be professionally".

Naturally, he is individualistic, very competitive, not a team-sports-kind-of-guy. That kind of personality was responsible for his success as a sales rep. It did not serve him well when he tried to build a company.

For him to build a successful company he had to adopt a "different" personality. He has had to learn: to be a team leader, to delegate, to rely on others, to watch others on his team fail and learn from their failures instead of stepping in to fix the problem. Now he sees himself not as an individual but as the team leader of the greatest company in his niche.

There is a an important lesson here for all of us. Many times we hide behind our natural personalities even when they do not serve us well. If you are an individualist you may need to learn to be a team player. And if you are a team player you may need to learn to be an individualist and not always hide behind the team.

To be successful as an adult, a spouse, a parent, an employee, sometimes requires that we have to work against our intrinsic nature to develop the qualities that will make our personal lives richer and our professional lives more successful.

What We Can Learn from Jean-Marc Dedeyne

Never Forget Your Dream
Jean-Marc's dream to come to the United States began when he was 18 years old. One of his cousins gave him a brochure of a US College; he fell in love with it and decided he wanted to come here. He started researching the possibility of coming to study in the United States in 1993 but it was not affordable at the time. Therefore Jean-Marc opted for studying in France, where he attained a Masters degree in Sales and Infrastructure. He started his career in the software industry where he did infrastructure sales for various companies in France. All the while he tried to convince several employers to send him to the United States. This dream was not realized until 2006.


Turn Potential Disappointment into Victories
In 2006 HP France was going through a workforce reduction while Jean-Marc was working for them. He saw this as an opportunity to take the severance package and pursue his dream. By this time the dream had grown from coming to study to starting a business in the United States.


Take Charge of your Journey
In helping his dream to become a reality, he decided to network with Americans in France. He finally connected with an education agent who helped him find and apply to UCLA. Jean-Marc says he spent his first two years on a mission to learn two things; the language which would enable him to understand the culture; and the system which would enable him to thrive in business.


Sometimes the Dream is Veiled by Challenges
Jean-Marc experienced many challenges on his journey to the USA. The most difficult being

• The Immigration process
• The language barrier
• Finding a program and school

The greatest challenge was starting over and proving himself. He had to lay down all his preconceived notions and past experiences and retool based on his new set of circumstances. He realized the fact that nobody cared about his background until he could prove that he could add value.

Everyone Needs Cheerleaders

Jean-Marc spent a lot of time with his teachers and classmates his first year as he learned English. He also credits his Filipino-American friend and his American roommate for teaching him how things work in the US and also helping him learn how to get around. Jean-Marc joined organizations that students do not typically join to network with other expatriates and the business community. He says, "What helped me the most was living off-campus surrounded by a wider community of people who had similar experiences."

You Can Realize your Dreams

Jean-Marc started U in the USA while he was still in school. Realizing that he was surrounded by people who faced similar challenges, his goal was to provide foreign students and expatriates a service to help them adjust to life in America and also provide opportunities to interact with Americans. He wanted to inspire a global mindset and simplify life for them. For some of the services offered by his company visit U in the USA.


Sometimes the Stars line up
Jean-Marc started the process of applying for an investor visa because he was determined to stay in the US and run his business. While he was still working with his lawyer, he applied for the DV lottery and got the green card. Until then he was running his business on his temporary work visa (OPT). In order to increase his chances of success, he pursued more than one avenue to reach his goal.

Jean-Marc's Nuggets for People who want to Immigrate to the USA

• Visit the US before making a permanent move if you can
• Start making connections and reach out
• Spend some time as a student. It will help you learn the culture
• Understand why Americans do things the way they do
• Spend some time researching your market if you want to start a business and work on a business plan
• Have a year of savings
• Do not be afraid to lose yourself in the culture
• Visit different places
• Go beyond the conventional
• Above all---BE VERY CURIOUS!

Jean-Marc Dedeyne is the President and CEO of U in the USA. Originally from Martinique, a French island in the Caribbean, he is also an accomplished International Sales Professional with an outstanding record of success selling enterprise solutions with $43 million of revenues generated at SAS France and HP France. He also has expertise in international business with an aptitude for transitioning foreigners to the United States. He acquired international experience by working and traveling in 25 countries around the world. He has a Masters Degree in Sales & Infrastructure Technology Services from Euridis Ecole and a Certificate in General Business Studies - Entrepreneurship from UCLA.

What Inspires Us?

We are inspired by people’s stories....how did they get where they are? how do they do what they do?

Every month we will bring you stories of people, fellow immigrants like you and me, who are doing remarkable things.

Let their stories inspire us to reach for the best within ourselves.

Artist Unknown. Source: www.mymodernmet.com

Share your stories with us at: themakutilounge@gmail.com.

Do you have what it takes to succeed in 2011?

Courage, chutzpah, guts….whatever you call it, you need it big and you need it now more than ever. Many of us are at a major crossroads in our lives. Here in the USA, the country is still reeling from the recession and the recovery is slow and painful. Many of us have felt the effect in lost jobs and opportunities, most of which the pundits say will not be coming back. We need to learn new skills or even move to new towns to take advantage of the new opportunities that will develop as the economy recovers. That’s tough to do, even in good times.

On an individual level, many of us feel our personal lives are also lacking in one or more areas: family, career, financial, happiness, spiritual. But most of us fail to realize that our own actions are responsible for the lack that we feel. We are too scared to go for what we want. We settle for less because we are afraid to take the risk.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, courage is the “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty”. It is this strength that we are lacking when we give up too quickly. It is this same lack that makes us walk away when we encounter difficulties in our work, in our relationships, and in our search for meaning in our lives. It is this strength that we lack when we take the easy way out instead of the doing the right thing and standing by our principles.

Courage takes work, it is not for the faint-hearted or those looking for easy wins. This strength is like a muscle that you have to train every day. Exercise your courage every day in the little things, and when you are faced with major decisions you will find yourself prepared to tackle them. Let us resolve to be courageous in the pursuit of our likes and equally courageous in relinquishing our hates so that we can expand our lives.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
-Anais Nin.

With the New Year there is a need to move forward, to put the tough year behind us. We usher in the new year with hope that 2011 will be better than 2010, but hope is not enough. What we really need is courage to fight for the things that are important to us, to make the changes that are important to us.

When you need courage, take a deep breath and remind yourself how important the action is to you, and how your life will shrink or expand depending on what you decide to do. Regardless of where your courage meter lies right now, think back to a time when you tackled something fearlessly. Channel that energy to other areas in your life where you might be afraid to do something.

This blog is a leap of courage for us. Our individual dreams of writing remained unfulfilled until our decision to move forward together. And our lives have been greatly enriched by this step. So this New Year’s day we invite you to join us on this journey and hope that you in turn invite us to share in your own journeys. By sharing what we have learnt, by learning from you our dear readers, we hope and trust that knowledge and inspiration will strengthen us individually and collectively so that we may all expand our lives.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
-e. e. cummings

If you make one resolution today, resolve to develop and exercise your courage every day in both the little things and the big things. Please share with us your own stories of courage and the difference it has made in your life.

We wish you a wonderful New Year, filled with all the courage and chutzpah you need to follow your dreams.