Leveraging the third culture.

Have you heard of the TCK phenomenon?

The term Third Culture Kid (TCK) was coined in the early 1950’s by American sociologist Ruth Hill Useem “to refer to children who accompany their parents into another society”.

Other terms, such as trans-culture kid or Global Nomad are also used.

More recently, American sociologist David Pollock developed the following description for third culture kids:

“A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of their developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK frequently builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership to any. 

Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background.”

TCKs are typically the sons and daughters of diplomats, ambassadors, traveling businessmen, military officers, missionaries, and people of other professions whose job requires living in different parts of the world for years at a time.

TCKs therefore have quite a different childhood and upbringing than children who grow up in one place.

Growing up in 7 different countries, my passports look a lot like this:

Because of their first-hand experiences living in different cultures and adapting to each, TCK’s develop certain talents and strengths that enable them to play a valuable role in society.

Here are some of the attributes TCK’s typically display:

• They are often multilingual.
• They tend to get along with people of any culture, and develop a chameleon-like ability to blend into other cultures.
• They have an accepting mindset and tolerate differences.
• They have a well-rounded understanding of the world, and often grow up with the mindset of global responsibility.
• TCK’s often choose careers that keep them on the move, they have a thirst for change and travel.

Julian Assange - Wikileaks Founder.

Isabel Allende - Writer

Viggo Mortensen - Actor

Barack Obama - USA President

Kobe Bryant - NBA star

Julie Christie - Actress

I strongly feel that my life’s been enriched by my TCK experiences, and these first-hand experiences have unlocked many exciting doors of opportunity!

Bigfoot Guitars!

For die-hard musicians with a passion for tailor-made guitars, options in India have been virtually non-existent so far. 

My good friend Karan has recently launched an awesome venture that I’m excited about: Bigfoot Guitars, a one-stop-shop for guitar repairs and custom guitar building.

Nestled in the middle of DLF 1 (Gurgaon, India), he’s set up a workshop in the cozy basement of his home, where he handcrafts custom-made guitars!

Each day after work (in a training company) he typically spends 1-2 hours in his home workshop (on weekends, 5-6 hours); measuring, cutting, planing, sanding. Turning chunks of maple and rosewood into the familiar shapes of guitar pieces which will eventually be assembled into custom-made instruments.

He has become the third person in India to hand-craft guitars, and is currently working on orders from two clients.

One of his goals is to bring the personal, caring touch into the world of guitar servicing, which is often monopolized by instrument/music shops whose only motive is profit, regardless of the quality they provide or the relationships they (don’t) build.

Bigfoot Guitars runs on Karan’s personal passion and love for guitars, and his commitment to provide a service which brings value to India’s expanding guitar scene.

Get in touch with him HERE.

Anonymous asked: What's the difference between a sports/fitness coach and a life coach?

Hi, thanks for your question.

I understand where you’re coming from. Many times the first thing people think when they hear the word ‘coach’ is a sports coach.

While there is a little bit of an overlap in some ways (developing strategies, providing motivation and encouragement, etc.), a life coach operates quite differently than a sports coach.

Many times the sports coach assumes the role of a teacher or instructor; passing on knowledge, direction and techniques and making sure the athletes are competition-ready.

A life coach on the other hand, takes a very non-directional approach.

The whole idea behind life coaching is that you are the expert on your own life, and when you see the way forward clearly, you’ll be able to make leaps and bounds of progress.

A life coach’s whole goal then, is to help those moments of insight to happen, and we do this by asking effective questions which help you to clear up your thinking.

Then, we help you to create an action plan, with goals and deadlines, based on the insights that you have come to (through the questioning process).

Awesome, isn’t it? :)

Anonymous asked: What kind of training programs does your organization conduct? I've seen photos of some life skills workshops, etc.

Thanks for asking!

Family Vision is a training and development organization devoted to building better people, through training workshops and personal growth programs.

We specialize in fun and relevant workshops for parents and teachers, life skill classes with high school students, and team-building workshops for teams of all kinds.

We’ve had the privilege of impacting tens of thousands of individuals all across India, and have developed workshop modules that combine entertainment, introspection, and lots of participation.

The theme running through each of our programs is that the key to true success in today’s fast-paced world lies in aligning each of our lives with timeless, often forgotten, principles.

Hope this answers your question. 

Thanks again for asking. :)

When does business coaching have high impact on employees?

Coaching of any kind is successful if it has helped an individual to reach a new level of insight, self-awareness and self-responsibility.

That’s really the starting point for all positive personal change, having a new insight for yourself!

I think that will all the ‘business’ and ‘executive’ coaching that’s going on (especially here in India, the majority of the coaches are executive coaches, because that’s where the money is), I think we need to remember that all real coaching comes back down to life coaching.

For example, it’s been shown very often that when someone is having trouble at the workplace, and they receive coaching, the real issue is actually a dilemma in their personal life.

By contrast, when a person’s personal life is good, and they’re making personal progress, etc., their work performance tends to be much better. 

Very often, when someone receives business coaching, they realize that the true root of the obstacle they’re facing lies in their personal life.

In fact there’s a saying in the coaching world, “All coaching is life coaching”.

I think business coaching is high-impact when it can drill down to the real core of the issue that an individual is dealing with, provoke new insight in the individual, and empower him/her to take positive action in the right direction.

It’s about shifting our thinking, seeing things in a new way, empowering, encouraging, creating an environment where the best part of a person can come out to play.

That’s when any kind of coaching becomes high-impact. :)

Excited about Gary Vaynerchuk’s book excerpt!

I’m a huge Gary Vee fan.

The following excerpt from his book The Thank You Economy has just made me a bigger fan.

Check it out, and tell me if this is not exactly the role of a certified coach:

“I predict that one day every company will have, along with a CEO, CFO, COO, and CSO, someone with a title like CCO - Chief Culture Officer - whose job will be to keep track of the needs of every single employee at the company. (could be Chief Coaching Officer too)

Keep track of their needs, and meet them to the best of the CCO’s ability, not through empty pep talks and token gifts but through individualized goal setting, strategizing for the future, and constant confirmation that the employee is satisfied.”