We Are More Alike Than We Realise

I’ve been away for a while during which time I attended an internet bootcamp which saw participants from several countries as far away as New Zealand and the UK.

It was a very intensive and high energy week with lots of hands on learning. During this time new friendships were made and group participation enhanced rapport building and team work. My group comprised 15 members hailing from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.

One of our projects was to make sure that each member of the group was able to market his offer to the online community outside the walls of that camp. We had to record a video interview as well on our offer and why we were doing it. This project would run for 48 hours only.

We were selling our reports ( all individual reports ) for the princely sum of USD1.00 ( just testing the market ) and our group decided that the proceeds of all sales would be donated to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fund to help the Japanese in their hour of need.

Out went emails to friends and relatives. Our trainer said that this exercise will also reveal who your staunch friends and relatives are, who will support you no matter what, without questions asked.

It was most interesting to note there was an element of truth in this as some of us found that our emails had been fruitless while others had their friends calling up and asking whether this was spam! We also realized that the lack of interest could have been due to the fact that some folks hardly open their emails. It makes one wonder why they bother to have an email address then, if they do not open their inbox.

Our group managed to raise USD113.00 and our leader, a lovely lady from Thailand, forwarded the money to the Singapore Red Cross which would send it on to their counterpart in Japan.

One of the highlights of the week was the “Breakthrough” where our negative issues were brought out into the open in our small groups of five, within our larger group. Emotions ran high and the compassion that flowed through each group helped the healing process. I believe this exercise brought members closer to one another.

It was an exhausting week with late nights but we parted ways with a lot more than when we first stepped into that large hall. No matter which country we come from, we are more alike and have more in common, as human beings, than we realize.Do you agree?

Please click on the title to see one of the activities in the boot camp. Thanks.