Team Verizon Media partnered with Trust Children for “The Great Build”, which is their company-wide, global day of volunteering when employees serve the society by giving back to their communities. This year we had the honor of having Guru Gowrappan, Verizon Media CEO speak with the staff and children of Gurukulam school on Wed, Sep 16th 2020.
The event started with Capt.Nandkumar sharing the vision of Trust Children and how the school started. In his own words, “Ideally we would love to start a school to reach out to every child in the world!”
Guru shared his inspiring personal story about how he started as a small-town kid, the challenges he faced while growing-up, and his entrepreneurial journey to becoming CEO of Verizon Media. His experience on how he landed up with his first ‘informal internship’ with a Tech Education Institute was a great lesson in passion, determination and perseverance. He reiterated that most things in life are simple and costs nothing. It’s all about our attitude and hard-work.
Guru also fielded questions from teachers ranging from managing stress and work-life balance to mental health awareness. He shared wonderful tips to manage stress and anxiety levels by focusing on activities that they can impact/control, by daily practice of meditation and personal journaling, and following “Three E’s” - Exposure to Sun, Exercise and Emotional wellbeing, which he learned after exchanging tips and tricks with a trusted acquaintance and friend. When asked if he always dreamt of being a CEO, Guru said that all he wanted was to make an impact globally. He always maintained a one-page vision of what he wanted to learn and followed it diligently that led him to where he is today. One of the questions was – “What should a teacher focus on in today’s day and age?” Guru had a very insightful message – Focus area should be to inculcate societal values and problem solving with perseverance, which is so relevant not only for students but also for anyone who wants to succeed. Finally, he gave all of us a framework on time management (The Eisenhower Framework) which helps him focus on urgent and important things and maintain balance between work and family life.
|
Time
Management |
Urgent |
Not Urgent |
|
Important |
Do it Now |
Schedule |
|
Not Important |
Delegate |
Drop |
On behalf of the entire Trust Children and Gurukulam staff, children and committee members, we thanked Guru for his valuable time and insights. Guru signed off by saying that he hopes to visit Gurukulam school students during his next visit to Chennai -- we deeply look forward to making that hope a reality, and we are excited to host additional inspiring events with Team Verizon Media.
