Kindness is highly important. Regardless of what your kids decide to do with their lives, and whatever path they decide to walk to follow their dreams and to land the jobs they always wanted, if they are kind to themselves, their peers, and everyone else around them, they will reach higher levels of success, happiness, accomplishment and acceptance.
One can think that in the world of technology and in big innovative companies such as IBM, Apple or Google there is no space to work on your kindness and increase your levels of social and emotional intelligence. Those who think this way are wrong!
In this article, we hope to inspire you and your children with the story of a fantastic man. A man who changed the way Google works. A man who put the importance of kindness on the table and understood that only by being kind, connected to yourself, and practicing mindfulness, can you ever be successful.
Let us introduce you to the phenomenal Chade-Meng Tan, a former software engineer who during his outstanding work at Google became widely known as Google’s “Jolly Good Fellow”. Are you ready to see how technology and kindness are connected? Are you ready to see how your children could improve the world we live in, through technology, only by being kind and caring? Let’s see!
Mindfulness and kindness: Highly compatible with hi-tech!
As seen on Chade-Meng Tan’s website, he describes himself as “an award-winning engineer, international bestselling author, thought leader, movie producer and philanthropist. His work has received eight nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize”.
When he began working at Google, he was hired as a Software Engineer, but throughout the years at this giant company he became the co-founder of the “Search Inside Yourself” Leadership Institute. This idea was conceived while at Google, as a course for the employees of the company mindfulness-based emotional intelligence.
Meng, as he likes to be called, is also the co-chair of One Billion Acts of Peace, which has been nominated 8 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, and everything started from trying to do software engineering from the heart, in peace, and in balance.
A funny story of his time at Google, a company from which he retired at the age of 45 in 2015, is when he requested a new title on his business card. He didn’t want the “Software Engineer” title anymore, because it didn’t describe to the core of his essence what he really was, or wanted to be. Therefore, he got new business cards printed with the unique and praiseworthy title of “Jolly Good Fellow (which nobody can deny)”. And what started as a joke became one of the most prosperous realities both for Google and for Meng.
Mindfulness in technology: How?
In one of the books Chade-Meng Tan has written, he answers this question with the very title of his literature piece: Search Inside Yourself. Besides being a clear joke that’s associated with his job at Google, it is actually a mantra Meng plays with to make all kinds of people understand what they are made of, and what they can become when reaching the best version of themselves.
In this old-ish and long-ish lecture he gave in the frame of “Talks at Google”, Meng explains in a deep, holistic way how it is so important to practice mindfulness, even – or especially – if you work in the fields of technology and innovation.
Watching this fun, deep, and engaging talk can be a life-changing experience. Don’t be surprised if you start smiling more often, if you shift your perspective on a number of topics, or if you all of a sudden start succeeding more often… by being kinder, and more aware.
One of the keys Meng talks about is improving your awareness, and mainly knowing everything about yourself: Your strengths and weaknesses, your deepest motivations and desires, and what you are good at. This can help you in ways you haven’t experienced just yet.
Chade-Meng Tan’s Books!
But he isn’t only an expert in programming, and an exceptional coder. He is much more than just a software developer and engineer. Besides all of these questionless abilities, Meng is a person who knows how to give you the right tools to comprehend what makes you happy by having a deep knowledge of yourself.
To do that, he wrote 2 spectacular books that have become international bestsellers. CEO’s of the main technological companies are reading these books and taking their lessons as rules for a better, more productive, and more peaceful way of interacting with their teams.
As promoted on Meng’s website, two of the most influential personalities of our century have read his books and given incredible feedback. Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States said, “This is a book offering much good advice. I most appreciate Meng’s insight that expressing compassion for others brings happiness to oneself as well”.
But it doesn’t end there. The Dalai Lama himself said about Meng’s books, “As human beings we are capable of positive change. Google engineer, Chade-Meng Tan’s book, Search Inside Yourself, creatively blending the ancient meditative practice of mindfulness with the contemporary field of emotional intelligence, shows that to avoid certain kinds of results, you need to change the conditions that give rise to them. If you change the habitual patterns of your mind you can change their resulting attitudes and emotions and find peace and inner happiness”.
The books Search Inside Yourself, and Joy On Demand, are most likely available at your local bookstore, as well as on Meng’s website, and on Amazon. Read it, and change the perspective you used to have about software engineers.
Compassion, kindness, and coding to your kids!
By learning how to code, your kids will begin to understand what their deepest dreams and desires are. To create something from scratch, they’ll have to connect with themselves to then use all the tools they are going to receive to build an app, software, video game, or animation that is unique and responds to their own personality.
In the live online coding courses offered by Tekkie Uni, your children will learn in a supportive, encouraging and fun environment that will boost their skills and show them that anything is possible if they believe in themselves, and if they know how to actually use all the tools they gather together.
The time is now. Enable them to experience how it feels to create something of their own, and in the meantime, increase their level of self-esteem.
