Gwendolen Noronha has been witness to the unfolding of a vast canvas to express herself and emerge successfully. All this, while still managing to do afine balance between societal responsibilities and career pursuits.Young leaders like her epitomize the power of belief and execution, thus setting an example to the youth across the globe.
Gwendolen is a person with a dream, originality, daring and one of the important segments of economic growth and mental sports development. She started her career at the age of 17 while she began pursuing her graduation. She established a franchise based educational business set-up which spread across India and moved out to other countries. Gwendolen is a management student with additional degrees in phonology, graphology and currently is studying literature and anthropology from New York.
Gwendolen is currently the Managing Director of CIA Pvt. Ltd, Public Speaker, Chief Coach at the Mental Sports-Indian Team for the upcoming Olympics-2016, Chairperson of Indian Mental Sports World Federation, An author of three co-curriculum books, Event Director at Wiz World, Social Campaign Initiator at Break Free, Movement Initiator of Inspiring My India and Director at iDiscover and she has several awards in her name.
Mental Sports Coach and World Mental Sports Olympic Federation (Memoriad) National Board Chief for India, Entrepreneur, Private Pilot, Philanthropist, Author, Humanitarian, Brand Ambassador, Fashionista and Franchisor. With a charming face, relatable esteem, indefatigable effort and abundant grace, Youth Incorporated interviews Gwendolen:
Eight years back you sprouted as a young entrepreneur. You have seen a lot of highs and some lows. What do you suggest the college students who are looking at being future entrepreneurs?
Being successful often means learning from those who have already achieved their goals. Having a mentor is an amazing blessing to an entrepreneur, I had my father into corporate world to lead me but not everyone can find one in person.Aspiring young entrepreneurs or students interested should closely follow the strategies of their icon of the industry they are looking to work in. But at the same time it is necessary to stay original, build your own principals, and develop the skill of deciding what is right and being able to be quick at decisions and capable of calculative risk. There’s no doubt that running a business takes a lot of time and effort but the only way to be satisfied in your life is to do work that you truly believe in and to be well aware that as much as you are likely to succeed at anything, you are likely to fail too but learning from failures are more important.
You head Break Free Foundation. What are the key objectives?We hear a lot of student suicide cases now days. How do you’ll help students overcome the academic pressure and other such issues that stress them?
Break Free started at a small scale in the year 2007 keeping the increasing suicidal ratio among high school and college students in mind. At Break Free we conduct day long sessions, not in a boring seminar way but as a very interactive live chat show. I am not saying that I can change the scenario 100% but I can make a start somewhere. Most of the time suicidal tendencies develop when people don’t have someone to talk to especially when they cannot build confidence in a person. It also develops when one believes that there are no more options available. When it comes to students, most of the time the pressure is built by parents. Not that parents are completely responsible or to be blamed but the way they neglect the feelings and pressures that their children face is something to be looked into. Therefore, when we keep sessions, we invite parents, principals and teachers too. So that through us the bridge is built between them. Maybe it might make a difference. At places where we have conducted such sessions previously, we have got a feedback telling us that there has been a decrease in the number of suicides. Since then I have felt that making it large is the need of the hour. Apart from this Break Free educates the youth about maintaining a healthy brain to prevent possibilities of memory loss and diseases like Alzheimer’s, Dementia and illnesses like Chronic Depression.
How do students approach Break Free? Do you’ll go to colleges for counselling?
Yes we do and since you have asked me, I would like to use your interview as a platform to tell all those reading it, that we are here to listen and they can reach out to us at contact@breakfreefoundation.com. Due to the heavy amount of mails we receive daily, we might be late at replying but there is a team that looks into it and they promise to reply within 48 working hours.
What kind of cases do you’ll come across more commonly?
It never ceases to amaze me how much time people waste searching endlessly on how to work on their body and make it look beautiful rather than dedicating the same focus at maintaining a healthy brain. The most common cases we come across is related to memorization and anxiety towards subjects like mathematics. Luckily we are well versed with both the topics and are capable at providing right guidance. The other issues are relationship problems because of which most youngsters seem demotivated and that reflects onto their studies and work. Therefore we keep mass programs, because we all need to be responsible towards everyone around us and it has become very necessary to tell the youth to stop being insensitive and deal with relationships patiently and stay caring and never treat someone the way you wouldn’t like being treated. It’s not right to shut people out, it is right to discuss and reach a conclusion that is acceptable to both people in the situation. Fragile trust and ego are the most common reasons for problems.
World Mental Sports Olympic Elimination has come to India. Can you please tell us more about it?
Yes and I am very excited about it. India has been performing really well internationally since the past two years and during all the major championships, it secured eighteen world records too. We all are aware about the physical sports but not much about the mental sports which involves various feats and games where the mind is more responsible and put to test. We would be inviting participation from across the country in order to select the best contestants to represent India at the upcoming finals. The Eliminations will be staged at Mumbai marking it as one of the biggest events.
Is organising the eliminations a big challenge in our country?
We have many talented people in all fields. There are nearly two million people practicing the sport. But the problem lies in the fact that importance is given to one sport mainly cricket. Of course we should encourage cricket but at the same time we should give equal importance to other sports also. We can’t forget or neglect. Six Billion and One Bronze, these five words speak the current condition of India during commonwealth games. And also I think lack of coaching cent res in India is the main reason for this, therefore I personally took up the sport and stood up as the coach for mental sports within India. I have done my bit of providing the best coaching and after winning an award in the category as a Best Coach. I am sure I am doing some good work there. Getting onto the global federation was another milestone and today organising an event of the Olympic standard in the country is a challenge especially when companies seem slow at funding the elimination in comparison to when it comes to supporting cricket or Bollywood events. While slowly Kabaddi and Football seem to be receiving support, I am being optimistic too. Nevertheless, in the past two years I have catered to the sport on my own terms with much help from my father and I shall continue to do so. Since I was questioned last time during a television interview as why don’t I associate with companies in India, that time many showed interest, I have decided to wait a while and see where does it lead to after a couple of meetings with a few renowned companies. Nevertheless, the global federation head, Mr. MelikDuyar support towards India is beyond just mere appreciation.
To know her more visit her official page on www.gwendolennoronha.com
