All Work and No Play Makes Gautam a Dull Boy

Source: Gautam Nath, Vice President – Balmoral Multicultural Marketing

Contact: (416) 364-0046 Ext. 234; [email protected]

Summer’s here and this is when the city transforms itself. And like every good Canadian, we too have to soak in the sun.

Building your brand is not only about resumes, not only about networking or even not only about volunteering.

One big part of building your brand in Canada is to get to know Canada.

This is now our mother-ship and we now have to take the time, the energy and the effort to learn about it.

Summer brings many events, activities and shows. Many are free and some cost so cut your coat according to your cloth.

Toronto is full of weekends when streets are blocked off to traffic and transformed into a carnival like setting – a bounty of food stalls, trinkets for sale and entertainment where large crowds gather.

Imbibe, that is what I do, visiting at least half a dozen such street fairs in the city every year. Watching, listening, eating and enjoying the ambiance. The variety of ethnicities and culture is amazing – that is Toronto and I expect that is also Vancouver, Calgary as many other big cities in the country.

Then comes the parades – a jamboree of floats, dancers, music and color exhibiting the diversity of our cities and our people.

All in the learning curve, different from back in the home country but essential learning’s for every New Canadian striving to acculturate in this new country of choice.

This makes us proud of our new home, this brings appreciation of the multitude of cultures and people and who knows perhaps your next boss, your peers or your juniors at some point of time in the future. We cannot live without them and they cannot live without us, we are all living happily together.

You cannot build your brand in this environment unless you know and appreciate the environment so while it looks like play, mind you me, it is an integral part of your strategy to move forward.

Summer brings long daylight hours and several opportunities for long weekends too – use them to explore the country outside your city.

Day trips or overnight trips and you will be amazed at what you learn.

The African Lion Safari is not a long flight away in South Africa but a 90 minutes drive from Toronto.

Cottage country has so many options to relax and enjoy a glass of wine under the stars sitting on a lake shore far from the maddening crowds listening to the wail of the loon. Ontario Parks offers camping facilities for the family and kids, learning all about living a rustic outdoor life for a few days – what great family bonding in this otherwise period of stress.

And the sports – baseball, basketball, swimming, jogging or merely walking along the Lakeshore – wonderful activities that come with the sun and the long daylight hours of the summer.

For those lucky enough to have some land to call their own – growing flowers in the front yard and a small vegetable patch in the back brings so much joy to the eye and the kitchen table.

This is summer – Learn to live a bit, live beyond networking and net-giving and worrying about tomorrow, live life today and tomorrow will take care of itself. If you are motivated, recharged and experience the new things around you, your next steps will have that much more energy and bounce. You deserve it, every bit.

Born of Czech and South Asian lineage, Gautam Nath now lives in Toronto. He is the Vice President at Balmoral Multicultural Marketing and serves on several Boards and Committees in the city. Gautam is also the recipient of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award of 2011.