Seamless

4: Meeting with the mentor

The past is a full stop; the future is defined by smarter questions.

Opening hearts and minds

In 2005, my brother, then living at home in our parents' house at Färingsö outside Stockholm, gave me the most profound movie recommendation I have ever received — for the wonderful movie As It Is in Heaven. As an atheist, the title didn't inspire me. But my brother insisted. He even managed to convince my parents to watch it. I was living in Balmoral, Sydney, at the time and had the opportunity to eventually watch the movie at the nearby Art Deco Orpheum theatre in Cremorne on Sydney's North Shore, where incidentally it ran for 103 weeks straight, and (as documented in a 2007 Sydney Morning Herald article) beat Titanic in box office takings. The movie still gives me goose bumps just thinking about it, and anytime I hear ‘Gabriella's Song' from the soundtrack I start uncontrollably crying tears of joy and inspiration. Ew, I know. (If you have seen the movie, you will know exactly what I am talking about, though.)

I know from the times I have spent with clients in the United States that audiences there can be very appreciative and will occasionally break out into standing ovations. During my executive education in Bangalore, I also sat among Indians who clapped and expressed engagement throughout a Bollywood blockbuster. This wearing of hearts on the sleeves is not something that usually comes as naturally to Australians, but what emerged after the climactic ...