We shape the future...
...based on our vision and beliefs, both for ourselves and for others. Every one of us has the potential for greatness. If we can help each other find & realise that potential that lies within us, we can truly build an amazing future for everyone.
Purpose of this Website
The past decade of my life has been a very exciting adventure. Some parts of it were the execution of carefully planned multi-year strategies. Some parts of it were, like Jeff Bezos says, just experimenting, wandering, and learning. There have been many euphoric moments in my life filled with achievements, growth and international recognition. Similarly, there have been just as many moments of doubt, stagnation and failures.
I often wonder what is the meaning of life. Although there is plenty of literature about it, none of us conclusively have an answer to it. But we know two things. We all love to be happy. Things we create live beyond our existence, hopefully, making the world a better place.
There are two goals to launching and maintaining this website. First, it is to share what I have learnt from those experiences, and other learnings from books, videos & speeches. Secondly, I want this to be a medium through which I can connect with more like-minded individuals. Visionary, kind individuals who are passionate to grow and use that growth to create value that transcends our existence. Because only together, we can shape the future.
Also, I want to share what this is NOT. This is not a 'personal branding' attempt. NOR I am a 'motivational speaker', 'life guru' or any of those vague self-proclaimed titles. Most (if not all) people who tell you how to be successful on social media are scammers. Only people who become successful from that kind of content are those scammers, from your money. I will NOT at any part sell paid courses or workshops through this website.
Academic Highlights
I developed my first website when I was 11 years old. I was just curious about how websites worked and I wanted to develop one myself. Little did I know that this would accelerate everything in my life. After two years of developing websites as a hobby, I started my first bachelor's degree at the age of 13.
I graduated at the age of 18 with first-class honours from Coventry University (UK) with a BSc (Hons) in Computing. I was also at the top of the class. I was awarded the gold medal for best performance and admitted to the Dean's List. I also completed the exams of the CIMA (UK) while completing my first bachelor's degree. I completed the CIMA (UK) qualification at the age of 19, to be the youngest (in the world) to complete a STEM BSc & CIMA exams.
Soon after completing the said qualifications, inspired by the legal drama Suits and for some strategic reasons I enrolled for the LL.B. at the University of London. Currently, I am in the final year of my studies and on track to complete with second-upper class honours.
Professional Highlights
While following academic studies I made sure to gain experience. I started working at 17 as the Operations Coordinator for one of the largest social media marketing companies in Sri Lanka. A few years into my career I soon realised that I would be bored with a single job. This realisation was very useful to acquire skills from a myriad of job roles and industries. Since then I have gained 5+ years of experience in the industries of computer software, finance/consulting and education.
There were periods when I was a one-man software company, playing the roles of the business analyst, UI/UX designer, software engineer, QA engineer and CEO. There were periods when I was leading teams of 10-20 people who were much older than me.
There were periods when I lectured (and currently am lecturing) experience professionals much older than me. Incredibly proud of how I have been able to successfully carry out those serious responsibilities. Not to mention, being able to often overdeliver and make a difference.
Like Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking backwards. Looking back at my past experiences, they have helped me to become a tech start-up CEO and a lecturer for one of the most pragmatic professional qualifications in the world (CIMA).
Currently, I am the Founder/CEO of my early-stage tech start-up and a lecturer at the Wisdom Business Academy - the largest CIMA school in South Asia. I am also a recurring TV personality [link] on a national TV show by CharanaTV. I mostly appear for technology, economy/finance and youth-related topics.
Community (Clubs & Societies) Highlights
People around us define us. Since I was a kid I was passionate about meeting people. I joined the Colombo (Toastmasters) Gavel Club at the age of 14. I was a club member for 4 years. This period was a transformational phase in my life. The Gavel Club transformed me from yet another teenager (who followed a degree while schooling, however) to a visionary leader. For me, the Gavel Club brought out the leader in me. As I said in one of the speeches, it brought out the CEO in me. For me, the Gavel Club became the sandbox for me to apply the leadership lessons I learned in academics.
I remember delivering a 15-minute acceptance speech at the Annual General Meeting in which I became the President. This was perhaps the longest acceptance speech ever, where I outlined my plans to transform the club.
Both quantitatively and qualitatively it was the best year so far where we increased the membership count, member engagement, skill growth of every member, collaborations with other clubs and overall prestige/brand presence of the club (all documented in the Secretary's report for the year). Also, I made sure to build a clear plan of succession which was very helpful in some turbulent periods.
In hindsight, I led the Gavel Club less like a club/society and more like a start-up. Incredibly proud of what my executive committee (EXCO) and I were able to accomplish. I will share these on Thought Leadership [link] in future articles.
The next important society I was a part of was the CIMA Students' Society (CIMASS). How I joined CIMASS was by chance. I was at one of the events organised by CIMASS. I told my friends that I can do a better slide deck and that I want to host the event next year. On the way back I asked if I could join and I actually ended up doing both of it and more.
CIMASS took the learnings from Gavel a step forward and added a more professional essence to it. CIMASS is full of interesting, talented and kind individuals. I was a part of organising some exciting CIMA events and even hosted some of those, including international CIMA events. I was a member of CIMASS for 4 years and ended my tenure as the Secretary of the society.
I met so many amazing individuals in these organisations with whom I am still close friends. I even met so many CEOs of the top corporates & celebrities and was able to deliver speeches to audiences they were part of. I will publish an article in Thought Leadership [link] sometime soon on those experiences. There are so many lessons and so many individuals who deserve shoutouts.
