Experience Rundle
"An insightful discussion with an alumni:
What is your secret to success?"
"An insightful discussion with an alumni:
What is your secret to success?"
October 19, 2014
Last Friday, October 17th, I had the opportunity to visit on of our Rundle Alumni at his place of work, a brewery. On this occasion, Mr, Hauk, Mr. Goettel and I had the opportunity to travel to Calgary's largest producer of beer and spirits, Minhas Brewery to visit Rundle College's alumni Ravinder Minhas ('00). Mr. Minhas is the founder and owner of Minhas Brewery and is involved in numerous side projects in Calgary and around the world.
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During our visit, Mr. Minhas gave an extensive tour of his beer production facility as well as his video production studios. That's correct, not only is Mr. Minhas running the fourth largest brewery in Canada, he is also running a film production studio and partnering in building houses on the side. The tour and conversation with Mr. Minhas drove me to wonder about two things: 1) How does he manage to stay on top of everything? 2) What is your secret to success?
As we neared the end of our visit, I took the opportunity to ask Mr. Minhas these two questions. Both answers were enlightening and affirming.
Mr. Minhas responded simply, "You need to care about what you are doing and you need to put in the hours."
Mr. Minhas is clearly a modest man, and I'm certain it's not that simple, but when he said it I truly believed the answer was at the heart of his success. The answer is affirming as these are two attributes we ask of our students at Rundle. We ask them to care about their studies - or for that matter whatever they are involved in - and we ask them to put in the hours. Over the years these two elements have created exceptional graduates and citizens of the world.
The answer to this question was not as short or straight forward. I will attempt to summarize and do justice to Mr. Minhas' sentiments on success. The two secrets had to do directly with his background in engineering. Mr. Minhas attributes much of his success to being able to see problems differently than others and to being able to understand the numbers so deeply that they speak to him.
Mr. Minhas' third and final secret to success is the one that has really stuck with me. Mr. Minhas said that during his time at Rundle he was exposed to many friends having interesting parents with very diverse careers. Mr. Minhas went on to to say that from Rundle parents he learned about politics, business, engineering, science and the arts. These lessons and insights have shaped his approach to business and life ever since.
For me, this was a spectacular 'Ah Ha' moment. Over the past years I have been closely studying and following the principles of 'Design Thinking' and in particular David M. Kelley from the IDEO Lab at Stanford University.
To really simplify the concept of design thinking, one might say that 'Design Thinking involves bringing together talented and diverse perspectives to solve problems in a collaborative and creative fashion.'
I believe that Mr. Minhas's 'secret of success' is really one of the many Rundle Advantages. In our community we have a tremendously talented parent body who are always willing to share their expertise and points of view. We have programs like 'Career Mentors,' 'Fine Arts Day' and 'Volunteer Day' that bring our communities expertise to Rundle to infuse our academic program with exceptional and diverse points of view. Our program and our students benefit from simple proximity of these diverse thoughts and ideas.
During our visit, Mr. Minhas gave an extensive tour of his beer production facility as well as his video production studios. That's correct, not only is Mr. Minhas running the fourth largest brewery in Canada, he is also running a film production studio and partnering in building houses on the side. The tour and conversation with Mr. Minhas drove me to wonder about two things: 1) How does he manage to stay on top of everything? 2) What is your secret to success?
As we neared the end of our visit, I took the opportunity to ask Mr. Minhas these two questions. Both answers were enlightening and affirming.
1) How do you stay on top of everything?
Mr. Minhas responded simply, "You need to care about what you are doing and you need to put in the hours."
Mr. Minhas is clearly a modest man, and I'm certain it's not that simple, but when he said it I truly believed the answer was at the heart of his success. The answer is affirming as these are two attributes we ask of our students at Rundle. We ask them to care about their studies - or for that matter whatever they are involved in - and we ask them to put in the hours. Over the years these two elements have created exceptional graduates and citizens of the world.
2) What is your secret to success?
The answer to this question was not as short or straight forward. I will attempt to summarize and do justice to Mr. Minhas' sentiments on success. The two secrets had to do directly with his background in engineering. Mr. Minhas attributes much of his success to being able to see problems differently than others and to being able to understand the numbers so deeply that they speak to him.
Mr. Minhas' third and final secret to success is the one that has really stuck with me. Mr. Minhas said that during his time at Rundle he was exposed to many friends having interesting parents with very diverse careers. Mr. Minhas went on to to say that from Rundle parents he learned about politics, business, engineering, science and the arts. These lessons and insights have shaped his approach to business and life ever since.
For me, this was a spectacular 'Ah Ha' moment. Over the past years I have been closely studying and following the principles of 'Design Thinking' and in particular David M. Kelley from the IDEO Lab at Stanford University.
To really simplify the concept of design thinking, one might say that 'Design Thinking involves bringing together talented and diverse perspectives to solve problems in a collaborative and creative fashion.'
I believe that Mr. Minhas's 'secret of success' is really one of the many Rundle Advantages. In our community we have a tremendously talented parent body who are always willing to share their expertise and points of view. We have programs like 'Career Mentors,' 'Fine Arts Day' and 'Volunteer Day' that bring our communities expertise to Rundle to infuse our academic program with exceptional and diverse points of view. Our program and our students benefit from simple proximity of these diverse thoughts and ideas.
All the best,
Jason B. Rogers
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