 Our three most respected guests, resource persons for today, Lysen Eyer, who's an educator and founder of Reset 2020, Patricia Zimomi, also an educator and the vice principal of one of the most successful schools in Naveland Christian Higher Secondary School, Dimaapur, and also co-founder of Reset 2020. And of course, Zubeno Mojoe, who is an entrepreneur and founder of Hope Center for Excellence. I warmly welcome all three of you to the Denso family and to this program. We thank you so much for taking out your time to be with our students and interacting address them this morning. We really look forward to hearing from three of you. Our faculty, our support staff who are here to present a song for us, our students. Welcome to this program. We are very excited to celebrate International Women's Day, a day in advance with our Denso community to honor women all over the world. I'd like to take this opportunity though at the very beginning to briefly introduce you all to Denso College and also to remind the students here of why we choose to do what we do every day. And if you can see up on the screen, I've just presented to you the mission and vision of Denso College and our values. Just a reminder to every one of you that we believe and hope that our students here will continue to empower yourself towards lifelong excellence so that you can all create a positive impact in the world. And we hope that you will do this through the values that we believe in, which is of course putting our students first in all our decision making, valuing time, adhering to ethical and moral principles and achieving excellence in everything that we do and as well as being professional and respectful in all our actions and deeds. I also want to share a quote with you all by W. E. B. Duboy who says, there is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained. In honor of International Women's Day, I'd like to request all the females in this hall to kindly rise from your seat so we can see you all. We have a mix of male and female. If all the females can just rise from your seats, thank you and give yourselves a hand. Let's all celebrate women, the women in this hall today for who you are. Thank you so much, you can all have a seat. We take this day to celebrate women in our society and of course women all over the world and as W. E. B. Duboy has said, we cannot chain down the determination of a person who wants to rise. These three accomplished women in our midst this morning are testimony of the impact that they are creating in our society and their intention to rise. Rising with intent and I say this, rising with intent is not an easy task, especially when one lives in a patriarchal society with set norms and practices that may not overtly devalue women in our society but also sometimes do not always provide the conditions necessary for gender equity which is our theme for today, embrace equity. So today as we observe International Women's Day at Ditzel College, it's an honor for us to be observing it in accordance with the theme of embrace equity, innovation and technology for gender equality. I'd like to encourage us all to continue to rise with determination and embrace our capability and worth and to not allow anyone to let you think of yourselves as any lesser human being. I'd also just like to, before I conclude, share three points which I hope will remain with you this morning and I will leave the rest of the time to our three resource persons to educate and to share with us this morning. The first one, advocate for more opportunities for women. I don't think my pointer is working if the technician could just move on to the next slide. Is it working? Yeah. Advocate for more opportunities for women. This is for the men and this is also for the female. Let's start advocating for more opportunities for women because there's so much out there that can be done. Women are a powerful force but in most times, oftentimes we see that they don't get enough opportunities to raise their voices or to even be seen or be visible. The second one very quickly is challenge in equity. Let's know the difference between equality and equity and where we see equity, let's challenge it and let's try to speak out for one another and support one another. And the last one, please recognize and understand your privilege, all the women here. We must support one another, be confident of ourselves and know that we have the power to change things in our society if we all work together and continue encouraging each other. So whether we are male or female sitting in this hall today and I'm very happy to see a mix of both genders. Let's all learn this morning and learn how to be more tolerant, learn how to be more supportive as we deliberate and think about what we can do to uplift our women and to embrace equity for us all. I'd like to thank the IIPR cell of the Zoologies as well as the Women's Cell for organizing this program and I wish everyone all the very best. Students, please feel free to interact with the resource persons, ask questions, feel free to just clear your doubts and to share your opinions as well. Okay, so once again, thank you so much. Welcome everyone to this program. Come to the most important part of our program now, that is to hear from our guest speakers. This year, we are very happy to have with us three leading Naga women here who have so graciously agreed to celebrate Women's Day with us. Before we hand over the dais to them, I will introduce our resource persons one by one. We want to honor you, ma'am, with a small token of appreciation. Our first resource person, Lysen Ayer, she is a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team member. She has served as an educator for nine years. She has also pioneered and published these for inviting us to speak with you on this very special occasion. A special thanks to Assistant Professor Wontonga Loka for making correspondence between us very quick and easy. So thank you very much, ma'am. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking the time out to be with us today. I want to start with a story today. Let me just time myself. The story of Janetta McSwain. I don't know how many of you have heard of her story, but I assure you you'll be inspired by the end. So I just want you all to kindly pay attention and take as many things as you can. Absorb as many good things as you can through her story because we are going to talk around this story that I'm going to say to you. So Janetta McSwain was born to an alcoholic mother and an absent father. But when she was born, her mother told her that she did not want her and she kept telling her that. So much so that even when she grew up to be a young child, a teenager, an adult, she could not forget those words. So she had to live with her grandma, along with her slightly older sister and a cousin. By the innocent age of five, she was subject to vicious abuse by her three uncles who lived with them, both psychologically, physically and sexually. In fact, her sister and their cousin were also made to bear the ruthless abuse that was going on in the house. What they went through was so gruesome that I don't want to really mention it here. But she says this, by the time I was five years old, says Janetta, I had already started to believe that I was not only inferior, but I was also a child abandoned by her own mama. As a child, I had no home, no place, no voice, and no worth at all. That's what she thought, even as a five-year-old child. And as she entered her teen years, things did not get better for her. In fact, the abuse continued, this time from the men that her mother brought home. She began shoplifting and finally, she dropped out of high school. When she was 19 years old, she gave birth to her first son. She was introduced to drug dealers and she began dealing drugs herself. She lived on government housing and on government assistance. For extra pocket money or income, she depended on her boyfriends. When she was 26 years old, she gave birth to her second son. It looks like her life was just firing out of control. But one day, on the morning of her 30th birthday, she took a long look in the mirror at the woman that she had become and she did not like what she saw. She writes, that day I woke up and realized I had absolutely nothing to celebrate. No job, no money, no home, no husband, no clue and not even the will to do better. At last, I knew I had to make some changes. She realized that if she continued in the same direction that she was going, then her sons would also be headed for trouble because this was her family legacy. Almost everyone in her family had been in jail, on drugs, had dropped out of high school and many died young. So she did not want that for her children, for her two sons. And so she decided to make a change on her 30th birthday. First, she had to acknowledge, she had to admit that her life is not going in the right direction. And then she had to recognize that if she continued in that same path, her sons would also be in the same place where she found herself broken in despair, hopeless. So the process of change for her started when she went back to get her high school diploma. She tried two times and on the second attempt, she got her diploma. And then she decided to do something that no one in her family had ever done that is go to college. So at the age of 33, she packed her sons, packed her little belongings, and she moved to another city to start a college education. Now during this time, something significant happened in her life. One day her college friend was just saying this to her, I don't love myself. I'm a nobody. And then Janetta, she responded, you sure can love you if I love me. And then it hit her. You know, it hit her that day that she had changed. She was beginning to love herself. She was beginning to see her worth and value as a person. Today, Dr. Janetta McSwain has a doctorate degree. She is an Emmy Award-winning documentarian. She is an author, a speaker, a behavioral consultant, and so much more. She is making a difference in her world and she is helping and empowering thousands of people across the globe. She broke every generational curse in her family. And her story is a powerful example of what can happen in a person's life when she recognizes her worth, her value, and begins to invest in herself. Janetta McSwain is making a difference, like I said. And if someone like her can be doing such good work now, coming from such a terrible place, then I think we don't have too many excuses to make. If you don't realize that you have genuine value and that you are worth investing in, you will never put in the time and effort needed to grow to your potential. So what we are doing here today, what the college has organized is investing in your lives. Take this as an investment. We are celebrating Women's Day, but in the process we are investing in your lives. We have brought with us some life-changing principles that if you take hold of and apply it to your lives, it's a promise that you will be different. Here's a powerful statement by psychotherapist and author Nathaniel Brandon. He said this, quote, if you feel inadequate to face challenges, unworthy of love or respect, untitled to happiness and fear assertive thought, wants or needs. If you lack basic self-trust, self-respect and self-confidence, your self-esteem deficiency will limit you no matter what other assets you possess. Isn't that powerful, right? Your self-esteem deficiency will limit you no matter what other assets you possess. So if you want to become the person that you have the potential to be, you have to first believe that you can. So I just want to share a few steps. If you have your notebooks with you, you can note them down. That'd be very good. A few steps to build your self-esteem and all of us need it. It's not only for those who have gone through trauma. No, it's for all of us because we need to maintain a healthy self-esteem. Now, we're not talking about being arrogant, you know? We're not talking about looking down on other people, but we're talking about just becoming, believing in the person that we are created to be. So, number one, firstly, how do we build our self-esteem? The first thing we need to do is to guard our self-talk. Whether we realize it or not, you know, we're always having, we're always talking to ourselves. We're always having a conversation, you know? And the question is, what is the nature of yours? Do you encourage yourself or are you someone who's always criticizing yourself? Are you talking negative things over your life or are you speaking positive things over your life? So we have to think about what we are thinking about. Because to change our lives, we have to change the way we think. And if we want to change the way we think, then we have to change the way we talk. So self-talk is very important. You know, you cannot control what other people will tell you, will say about you, right? But you can't control what you say about yourself. Learn to become your own encourager and cheerleader, because there will come a day when you find that you're all alone, you're on your own, there's no one, you know? That is the time you have to encourage yourself, you have to cheer yourself on, you have to be persistent. What you can do is, if you have not done this yet, what you can do is you can make a list of positive affirmations that you can speak over yourself every day. You can start with two things, three things, whatever. Like you can say like, I am wonderfully and fearfully made, or I am becoming a confident woman. I am teachable, I'm compassionate, you know? Things like that, just write it down and speak that over yourself every day, because your words have a powerful effect on your self-image. Secondly, stop comparing yourself to others. We often do that, isn't it? What happens when we compare ourselves to others? Two things are likely to happen. We perceive the other person to be far ahead of us and it affects us. We become frustrated or we feel hopeless. Sometimes even the feelings of jealousy may arise. Or you perceive yourself better than the other person and you become proud. So neither are good for you. Rather rejoice that they are those ahead of you. They are those better than you, with more experience. Those have gone ahead of you so that we can learn from them. And also be aware that they are people. They are those behind you, coming along behind you, looking to you, so lead by example. But there's one person that you can compare yourself to. Can you guess? You can compare yourself to one person. That is you. You can compare yourself to you. Because your mission is to become better today than you were yesterday. So focus on what you can do to become better as a person today and improve yourself in those areas. When you compare the you of yesterday to the you of today, you will be, you should be very happy. You should be, you know, glad that you have made progress. So that's the person that you should be comparing yourself to yourself. Number three, practice a small discipline every day, daily. In a specific area of your life. Now we know that we cannot change our lives at once, in every area of our lives. We have to take one step at a time, one area at a time. So which area do you think you need to practice some disciplines in? Because positive habits, positive actions and decisions made daily. You know what happens? Where, what happens to our self esteem? It builds our self esteem when we do that, you know? Just, if you're already doing that, then just think about it. I don't know whether you agree with me or not, but it is a fact that, you know, when you practice good habits every day in any area of your life, it does something to your self confidence, self image, self worth. It could be anything for anybody. Maybe for you, it could be just making your bed the first thing in the morning. It could be maybe reading a good book every day, practicing that habit. Maybe you don't like reading at all, but reading is good for you. So you pick up a book that's gonna help you in a certain area and you start spending maybe five minutes, 10 minutes. You can build on that. Maybe you need to just declare positive words over your life. Maybe you're someone who is always around in a negative environment or you yourself. You know, you're always criticizing yourself. Maybe you need to develop this habit, this discipline in your life. It could be eating healthy. Maybe you love junk food. I also love a little bit of junk food, but we need to take care of our bodies, right? Maybe for you, it could be cleaning your space and keeping it organized. You have, I mean, when you keep your space organized and clean, you know, it affects your mental peace. It gives you, it just gives you peace and you can do other things. You can focus on the important things, but when you're living in a mess, you know, it affects your focus. So maybe you can do that. So it could be anything. Maybe it could be saying no to distractions. There's so many distractions around us, isn't it? So it could be saying no to distractions. You have to identify in which area you want to develop a good habit and practice it daily. So with that, let's move on to the next point that is embrace a positive vision for your life. This is so important. Embrace a positive vision for your life. When you do that, and of course, it's not only having a vision and doing nothing about it, embrace a vision for your life, a positive one, and then you take steps to fulfilling that vision. And you will soon find that your life matters without vision, what's gonna happen to you? You will wander in the dark. You will live in confusion. You will live an undisciplined life because there's nothing to go for, no goals. You're just aimlessly wandering around in this life. And you will live an unfulfilled life, which is very sad. The odds were stacked against her from the time she was born. It was vision that moved genetic in a new and positive direction, right? Lastly, I want to say this to you. Take responsibility for your life. Take responsibility for your life. You know, a lot of times we blame other people. We blame our situation. We blame our environment. But we don't look at ourselves and take responsibility. And as long as we are blaming other people, our situation, things that have happened to us, we will never become the person that we were destined to be because we will never change. We will only keep blaming and blaming and that's how our life will end. So taking responsibility for your life is one of the best things that you can do for yourself. Okay, don't wait to become, you know, I don't know how old you are here, but probably you're in your late teens to early 20s at the most. Don't wait to be, you know, older. Start now, start young. It's no mistake that Johnetta's life turned around when she took responsibility for her life. And where she was, she could have blamed her uncles, right? She could have blamed her mother. She could have blamed her grandmother. Do you know that Johnetta's sister, you recollect, right? She had an older sister who lived with her and who was also abused? We don't talk about her. Why? Of course, she survived the abuse and all that, but she remained a very bitter person. She could not let go of what happened to her. You know? So she'd not take responsibility for her life in a way. So the outcome for Johnetta and her sister were different. Johnetta is a successful woman. She's telling her story. She's healing those who are hurting. She's empowering women and children all across the globe. But unfortunately, her sister passed away. She could not overcome drug addiction. She could not overcome what had happened to her. See? And for Johnetta, you know, there was no one to cheer her on. No one came and said, you know, hey, make a change. There's a better future for you. You know, it was she herself made that decision. She took a good look at herself and then she looked around. She saw where she was going, where her sons could be headed if she did not make the change and she made the change. So taking responsibility for her life was key to turning her life around and taking control of her life. Let's say other people were controlling her life until that time. But she said, no, I'm gonna take charge of my life. I'm gonna go and get my high school degree and then I'm going to go and finish college and then to do a master's and then to get a doctorate degree. Those changes were not easy. Just imagine, right, for her. Those changes were not easy. I'm sure she had to talk to herself every day. I don't know how many times you can do this. You know, because do you know what? When she graduated, when she received her high school diploma, she was actually selected to speak at a graduation. But none of her family members showed up. At least you could, you would imagine that someone would come, right? Because she's making history. No one showed up. And when she decided to move to another city to pursue college, no one encouraged her. In fact, they said, you know, this is a fantasy. You'll never make it. No one has ever made it in our family. But anyway, she did it. So it goes like for her, swimming against the current. It must have been so difficult. You hear your parents are supporting your education. Teachers are supporting you. They're cheering you on. You have friends who are cheering you on. And if we don't even reach out to become the persons that, you know, we have the potential to be, it would be a tragedy. So changes for her did not come easy, nor did it come quickly. So you know, this is very encouraging. Her story is very encouraging. If she could do it, so can we. What you can do is take a good look at yourself. Take a good look at yourself. And what do you see when you look at yourself? You could literally go to a mirror and look at yourself. Or you can just look at yourself, look inside of you. What do you see? Do you see an inadequate timid and someone who's never good enough? Do you see a failure? Do you see a victim? Do you see someone who is wallowing in self-pity? Do you see someone who is always complaining about everything? What do you see when you look in the mirror? No matter what kind of background you come from and what kind of, you know, experiences you've had, what kind of traumas you might have suffered or mistakes that you might have made. The good news is your life can change. And you can make a difference. We're all here to make a difference. We're all here to make a difference. So all you need to do is look inside of you because everything you need is inside of you. Everything you need is inside of you. The courage you need. Because your potential is in you. It's not somewhere out there, you know? The education you're getting right now, these are, you know, they are helping, helping your potential to grow. But it really depends on you. So instead of looking outside too much, look inside because everything that you need is inside of you. You are valuable. You matter. You have seeds of greatness in you. Just like a farmer takes the seeds and soils in good ground, waters it, make sure there's enough sunlight, the rain. And then later on, he reaps a harvest joyfully, right? In the same way, unless we cultivate the seeds that are in us, nothing is going to happen. We'll never harvest anything. And we will not make a difference in our world. You know, we will just exist and then we'll be gone one day. We have left nothing behind, no legacy. We have not touched anyone. We have just lived for ourselves. That's not the kind of life that we want to live, I'm sure. So cultivate the seeds of greatness that is in you. Water them, nurture them, and you will begin to bloom and blossom into the person that you were created to be. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. We have truly gained from a deep understanding of how we, as human beings, can better ourselves and how we have the agency to change our own narrative. Thank you for sharing with us. You're very powerful insights. Now I give the time to Patricia Zimomi. So nice to hear some response. You can do better. Good morning, everyone. All right. I want to really thank the organizing committee, the principal of Thetso College for in having me on this day at the Thetso family, gathering as you honor the International Women's Day 2023. I want to first of all ask if there are any students from Christian High Secondary School who have joined Thetso College, if I can see your hands. That's okay. Just raise higher. All right. That's quite a few of you. I'm so happy that, you know, there's a representation of our students. I work in Christian High Secondary School, and it's nice to see all faces, even though it's a little dark down there or up there. All right. Today, I just want to talk to us from the point of view of education as we gather together. It is indeed very, very hard warming to see an education institution set aside time and space to celebrate women. And it is a sure signal, a sure sign that we are embracing equity when we set aside a time and space for that. Today, I believe we are here to celebrate, to recognize how far we have come as women and how far we have left to go. I will not go into the statistics of where we are. I will not go maybe into the statistics of our mentioning names of women who have made it in life, but I just want to bring my experience as a teacher, as an educator in this auditorium. It is a day of honoring the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of women. And it is also a once a year specified day. Just once a year specified day, but we are celebrating, we should and we ought to celebrate women and gender equality across the years in our life. So it is a specified one day event to remind the government, the businesses, and everyone else watching that women are not going anywhere. If our rights, human rights are violated, we want to take action, okay? And that is not to go to the streets and protest, but it is to be able to voice our opinions. It is to be able to be true to ourselves and the potential that is within us as women, and the things that we can do and contribute to the growth of ourselves, our immediate environment, and our society and nation at large. But to do that, we have to first start to be living in ourselves, right? Being in the education for most part of my life, I would like to just stress on education as a powerful tool to be able to go across gender equality and enter disparity and to reach the gaps, if any, and that the girl education, over a period of time girls have been, we will not say that we have been deterred from having the right to education, but there are still some other people across the globe whose education doesn't matter for a girl's education. So one, the discrimination of one woman or a one girl child is discrimination to all and it is our right to stand and keep on speaking, talking and educating one another in order for gender equity to take place. For us to be able to look into our inherent qualities as women and to be able to rise up and take our places. When we have girl education, there are less likely chances of our young marriage, okay? And there are more likely chances for women to live very healthy and productive lives. So keeping that in mind, we have to embrace knowledge as power and in education institutions, you are being given knowledge, you are being fed with all kinds of interactive sessions like this and conferences being held in a progressive college like yours. I think it is very important that we embrace it not only as a curriculum, knowledge as a curriculum, but across the curriculum to be able to equip ourselves to learn, to just read up both imprint and digitally and make sure that we are equipping ourselves to make conscious choices and very informed decisions about ourselves. The speaker before me has spoken about self-worth and about making that kind of choice and I want to reactivate that. Professionally speaking, I think education is one of the few arena of work where there is no discrimination among genders. Equal pay for equal number of working hours and I pride that I am in that sector where I work for this many hours of food service or you know educate people and I know that everyone across the gender is being paid the same, enjoying the same amount, but in most sectors like the sports for example or the corporate jobs, they look at the women and the men and at the attributes that we have and accordingly they pay, but I think we have to speak against that. A large population of Nagaland as I look across I have with Petso College as example, we have women or a woman who is having the institution, we have a lot of schools, educational institutions, colleges, which are having a majority headed by women and also having majority of teaching faculty as female. So it's a joy to be able to come together like that as female and work, but at the same time I'm wondering sometimes it gives me on the flip side a question, is there a stereotype that teaching is for women? It could be we have to adjust our lenses and look at it from that point of view. Is it thrown for the women to do that? Is it because we don't have any option? Don't misunderstand me. I am very passionate about education. I am, I love my job, I'm happy where I am, but I'm very excited to be touching lives through generations and being able to mold and shape leaders of tomorrow. So all of you are going to be leaders of tomorrow. So in the education field, I'm very excited to be doing that, but sometimes we have to take a moment and ponder over that as well, because looking at a tiny example of Christianizing and preschool where I work, there are 95 teaching faculty and the ratio of male and female is 25 is to 50, 70. That's a huge, you can do the math there, margin of difference, whereas in sharp contrast, in the field of technology, it is hugely dominated by men, right? There's great potential for women to fill in that space and for us to have an inclusive world, even in the world of technology. So is it because shall we examine ourselves here as women, as men and tell ourselves, is it us who are limiting ourselves from moving forward or is it the society that is defining the kind of roles we can have and not have? So that is something to think about and if it is you, I think all of us should forge ahead with a mind to explore, with a mind to fit in even into the corporate jobs, into the other sectors where women are less seen and heard. So this is the right time, my dear students, this is the right time for us to start looking and introspecting and also seeing the scope for future, future of work. As I looked up the TETSO website, I wanted to know a bit more about this college before I came here and of course I've heard of TETSO College, your sir has come, director sir has come to my school, our school and we have had associations, we have had meetings, but I have never really come here in a long, long time once, I remember coming and Dr. P.S. Lauren's son, a nephew, was my classmate in Padkai. So that's how I knew TETSO and Dr. P.S. Lauren and Awa was my classmate, Awa Lauren. He's also doing very well in life. So now bringing, connecting that, I wanted to, I checked out and I found that, yes, there's a section that tells me that it is one of the technologically advanced institutions with digital resources made available to you in various platforms with a large number of followers, you know, on Instagram, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, even podcasts of your own and what else? Even in the print media, I think you all have collaborations with the local express, the Morong Express and from that point of view, when I look at it at the college and at all your young minds and young lives, I really feel that the college is facilitating you in many ways, all you need to do is get a hold of it, get a hold of your life and get a hold of the facilities that has been given to you, provided to you and make your voice be heard. Today, if you want to make a difference, I would suggest that you take to Twitter, take to Facebook or Instagram, educate your other friends on International Women's Day, on equity, gender equity, or you can shout out in the media that you consume on celebrating women who are successful, who are making an impact and make sure that you are a part, hashtag IWD2023 and go, you know, vocal, okay, and support women. Even in the products that you buy, it's always good to shout out for our women folks who are making an effort to make their presence felt even in the business area. You have, as I look at it, you have both the environment and the infrastructure, okay, and you should not let it go pass you by. You should not allow, you know, life to just go by, the time to go by, but I think it's very important that you look into yourself and see your worth, your potential, and your value, and you have to add value to other people's lives. We don't live our lives only for ourselves. That's a very selfish kind of life. So I would say I would really want Tesla students alumni to be out there, you know, making history, making a difference as you move out from the college scenario because you have really made the most of your time here and you have invested in yourself wisely. Not only educationally, but yes, academic excellence is important. It will find two places and it'll keep you where you want to go. It'll take you and keep you where you want to go and be, all right, but beyond that, you have to educate yourself and make use of every platform that is made available to you. To the main folk, okay, our main folk who are here, I want to emphasize that your allyship will amplify the International Women's Day of embracing equity and going across gender disparities. We need your support, without you all, it's not possible. And that is why we are so encouraged to see our men here, our boys and our men, and I also want to tell you that you have to be the voice as well to dismantling all damaging stereotypes and roles that is existing, if any. Join forces with the women folk and you can propagate or project your women in a good light, but at the same time, this will happen at the grassroots level, not at the high-five level. So let's start from our homes, you know? Our homes and our family is where our first institution is and so there should be no, it can start from our household chores, okay? There should be no demarcation that this kind of cooking, cleaning, and making of beds, caregiving is only for women. If women can now take the forefront and be out there earning, and also at the same time taking care of the household, I do not see any reason why our men can also not move across, you know? Your society defined wrong and, you know, have this very nice interjection and intervention into each other's life as men and women. That is very important and I'm a mother of three and I'm raising my children to do that. So my son, in the evening, he has to do the dishes. He has to feed the dogs, the trip-ups that we have, and he has to clean up the dustbins, you know? All the dustbins, he has to empty it out and put it in the trash place where it can be taken when it comes, when the garbage wallet comes. So this is small things, okay? Small things, if it doesn't clean its bedroom now as a child, when they were kids, I would do that, but not anymore. Until the time that you are not able to stay in your own filthy room, you're going to stay there. That is the kind of rule and yeah, so the girls in the house, the girls in the family feel that they are not wronged because we don't have a house help and we are just getting by. And in that, you know, the girls start feeling, what is this, you know? Equity, when we talk about equity and all that, we should not think very big and far view until and unless we are able to make things happen in our own kitchen, in our own home, and in our work environment where we spend the most time, right? So food for thought for a man. I want to speak a little bit on, yeah, I want to speak a little bit on the future of work, you know? To not, like I said earlier, I'm very happy, passionate about being in the education sector, molding and shaping lives and building generations, all right? But can we also go beyond that? And for you youngsters, we are in our 50s and I may not be able to go back to learning new skill or I could if I will and if I intend to progress, to still live a progressive life. But for you all, you have the world in your hands, you have knowledge in your fingertips and the future of work is not going to be just a graduate in the regular area of streams that we are following. But the school, the college is providing for very progressive kind of curriculum and courses for you. I would really encourage that you all hone it, you know, opt for those kind of courses and make sure that you are fitting into the future of work, which would be one example that I was researching and checking out was of a called prompt engineer. I mean, I'm not an expert here, but I liked what I read and what I saw. And that is the in this field, you know, the person is an expert in using text because we have all become very tech savvy, using text to find out artificial intelligence to test artificial intelligence and to provide the right responses, which will determine the challenges as well as the scope capabilities of artificial intelligence. So all you have to do is write, type the right question to get the right answer. Or if there are any failings in the system in artificial intelligence, you can be the one when you go for a course like this, you can be the one finding out company, making the companies who are into this find out, okay, what could be the possibility, what could be the challenges and the capabilities and by putting and asking forward the right question. Also remote truck operator with the aging driver population and many people not opting for, you know, jobs like a truck driver, you know, now they're remotely controlled, which even female can do, okay, by staying somewhere far away and just, you know, holding on to the remote. This has been already introduced this year. And these are some of the jobs that are very in the US and in the advanced countries, okay, it's a very happening job that will engage you. But for us at this point, at this juncture, you can, you have the aviation, the hospitality sector, you have content writing, just sit at home, digital marketing, all right, culinary skills development. There's just a world of unexplored possibilities for students of your age group and caliber. And so think, research, start thinking what you want to be, what you want to become in the next one, two years, because I'm sure you will not stay too long here, right? So don't be fumbling. But at this point, you should make use by learning a new skill. There's no excuse with the digital world and with the technology and everything that is available at the press of a button for you not to design and dream and build your own dream life. Okay, there's no excuse. I urge all of our women here in particular to go and have a finer spot for yourselves in policy making in the future. You don't have to be just fitting into the society, but you can be heads somewhere in the policy making body in corporate jobs, corporate world, you know, heading companies. I want, I hope that has left some of you wanting for more and going home today, researching up things and writing or putting into perspective the things that you need to do at this moment to have the kind of future that you want to have, all of you. And I want to end with these lines on embrace equity. When none are ignored, all will thrive. All sections across gender will thrive when none are ignored. Let us all embrace that. A very happy International Women's Day 2023 to one and all once again. Let's all do one exercise. We'll do this. If you have looked up in the net and all that you know, but if not, we'll just do this. Embrace equity or equity, okay? Let's all do that. One, two, go. Embrace equity. Let's all do that again. I think we can do better. Embrace equity. So that is the theme of International Women's Day. Let's embrace one another. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am, for stressing and imprinting on us how important taking up space as a woman is, taking a stand not only for ourselves, but also adding value to other people's life. I'm also so happy that you addressed the male participants here. I hope that we have all learned our own roles on how to make our society more equitable. Now, our interactive session with Mans Vino. So we have gathered questions from all of you, all the students, we have already given the questions and I've sent it to ma'am. So she will be addressing those questions. But if any of you have any questions here, you can, yeah, you're free to ask. Can you hear me, everyone? Good morning, Tetsuo College. Good morning. Louder, good morning. Good morning, ma'am. I wish I was studying in Tetsuo today. I was a student like you all very long ago and it's always a pleasure to come back. I never thought that I would, you know what, in the past few years I've been going repeatedly to institutions and I take it like a privilege to come and interact with all of you because I think it's very important to have this kind of connect that we can pass on our failures and success to you so that you can do better. And thank you, Tetsuo College, principal, director of Tetsuo College, the women's department and department of psychology. By the way, how many of you are student of psychology? Can you raise your hand? Oh, that's a lot. Give yourself a big clap. I was a student of psychology so I feel very close to come and interact with people like you all. By the way, just because you're doing psychology doesn't mean that you have to be a psychologist or you have to go in that line. You can go into all kinds of enterprises and every area needs psychological studies. Okay? I'd like to also thank my co-panelists who happens to be my friends also. It's been a lovely, lovely few hours, a second sitting and listening to both of you and probably I'll underscore some of the things that Petsui has said after a while. The reason why I'm standing up is because I don't do very well in a cooped up place. My friend Petsui knows me. Whenever she calls me to her school, I said I need to just because I want to interact. Okay? So this is not just a monologue, it'll be a dialogue. By the way, last night I was taking it very easy until I got the questions from Professor Wondangro and I was like, oh God, these people are intelligent. I thought. And there were a lot of intelligent questions. The only thing is I have 30 minutes and I have 39 questions. So I really don't know because I have less than a minute to answer. So if anyone is keeping my timer, give me heads up five minutes before, okay? So that we don't sit here the whole time. But if I don't finish, it's an excuse for me to come back again and I would love to. Certain questions, I'll club it, okay? Because some are similar. But if I don't address your question, don't think because I didn't like it. It's just that I have very limited time. Very briefly, let me tell you this. I am, you know my name already, you know what I'm doing. I have two grown up children. My son is 27, my daughter is 23. Probably some of you will be in that age. And I have been on this entrepreneurial journey for more than 15 years, I think. Or maybe even 20 years because the initial few goof ups I've made, I don't put it, you know so. But it's a pleasure for me to come here. And yes, in between this is my table. So I'll go back and club some questions, use my glass, put it down. Because if I use my glass to read and come here, I won't be able to see you. So, you know, I've reached the age where I put on my glass on my head and I keep looking for it, you know so. So there are a lot of intelligent questions. However, if time permits and I can take a few questions off the cuff, I would be happy to. But before I start, I would like to underscore what Patsy has said because you are all getting yourself educated. You know, I'm using the word educated, not just in terms of marks. It's important, but education from all aspects. And this is what your college is doing. This is a wonderful platform. You have to, you come to a beautiful auditorium, sit and you just have to listen and absorb everything. So listen very carefully. Regarding vocations and career choices, do not always opt for the road which is very much taken, okay? It's saturated. For example, computer science is also saturated if you're looking, if you want to go into the land, you have to excel. In any kind of thing, don't be an average. Mediocrity will not lend you anywhere. You have to excel. But in the line of artificial intelligence, there's a huge scope coming up. And I'm addressing this to women also because we feel scared when we hear artificial intelligence. We always think that the men is better, not necessarily. So I would like you women to explore the possibilities. In fact, one of my nephew has gone into AI. Artificial, he's just started his campus in Doha. So these are areas you can look into it. We as Nagas or students of Nagalith are not any lesser in our ability here. It's just that we may have to do a little bit of calibrating in our thinking and our courage level, okay? So on that, I hope you take it to, and yes, the hospitality industry is also never going to end because people will always travel. People will always need services. So don't think lesser. By the way, I'll tell you something around hotels. And I have class 10 students who are like dropouts, they repass. They earn more than a postgraduate here, working in the hotel industry, okay? So this is, if money is an issue for you, then think about that. Let me start with a question. I have club three questions. Some are similar, so I've just clubbed it together. And by the way, I wish you all a very, very happy Women's Day. But to add to that, I just, I wish you more than a good Women's Day. I wish you backbone. You know, we need backbones, not just a wishbones, you know? So I am going to start my conversation or answering your questions with the topic on feminism, which is very, very, how to say, it's very widely debated. And there's a question which says, do you consider yourself to be a feminist, okay? That I'm clubbing. It's okay, you know, if I don't call out the names, you say that, yeah. Anyway, do you consider yourself to be a feminist? So I've clubbed this with another question which says, the rights are given to men and women equally. There are so, there are no such rights which are given to men and not to women. Why do feminists fight for the rights which are given to men as well? Probably this is a men's question from what I can understand, why are women fighting for their rights? This is basically what the question is. And the third thing is, there are a lot of misconceptions about the term feminism in our society. So in order to educate and give them a better and clear understanding, you can explain what feminism actually is according to you. Okay? So I'm gonna start with a little bit of understanding of what I understand about feminism and where it is heading. So the word feminism, what started off in the 19th century and what feminism is now is totally different. It has gained, I mean the term feminism gained traction in the 20th century early and it has covered up and picked up a lot of stuff on the way and what feminism we are in 2023 is very different, okay? So initially the feminism movement started with women politically. They wanted rights to vote, you know? They wanted to be included in property will. They wanted to fight against the system where like, oh, a woman is a men's property. Once you get married, you can't, you know, they were fighting against those political movements, political issues. Then the second wave was in, I think 18 something till about 60s where it was, oh no, the second wave, sorry, the second phase is where they started fighting for cultural, you know? They started, it was like a war of cultural fight. Then the third phase, I think the third phase was academic. Let me just check my thing, yeah. Yeah, the term people started, I actually like the place where they started fighting the second phase where they say that just because you're a woman, you cannot do, do, do this. This space is for men, this space is for women in terms of jobs also, okay? So this is, there's a very interesting movie that I actually watched on Netflix. Sometimes I like to watch period dramas. So this is about an Italian lady, a Lydia poet. You have to watch that, those who are interested. You have to understand how oppressed or, yeah. The women folk where they were not allowed to practice as lawyers and it was a fight for her. So things like, you know, just because I'm a woman and because my gender is different, why should I be not allowed to do this kind of job, that kind of job, you know? So the second movement and the third wave was, it became academic where women started getting into the literary force, they started writing books, they started writing, you know, advocating women's thing because in the past, the men folk were supposed to be leaders thousands of years ago. It was relevant because men are superior physically but leadership rules are redefined and changed now. It's not the strongest who have more muscles and fighting power physically that leads but people who are innovative, creative and who can do logical thinking, not emotional. These are the people who are leading. So this one has no gender bias. It could be a man, it could be a woman, you know? So with that I want to encourage the women to think that you can be a leader and you should not obviously really get it to this second in command, okay? You have a very good example here. Your principle is a lady. And the third wave, like I said, it started going on to academics. That's why you will find a lot of women writers coming on the floor fighting for the rights and stuff like that, okay? But now, feminism now has changed in the sense it is inter-liberals, then you have the Marxists, then you have the extreme ones, you know? Probably, I mean, who have nothing, who hate men with extreme ones. So this is where we are now. So now to put myself into perspective, if you ask me, am I a feminist? If your definition of feminism is hating men, burning bras, I am not. But if your definition of women is advocating the rights and the abilities in spite of your gender equality, you know? Then yes, I am a woman and I'm a very strong advocate of women and women's workforce, okay? So that I will close with that background. Now we will come to a lot of questions on entrepreneurship and before I go into entrepreneurship, you have to understand this very simple term. An entrepreneur is somebody who wants, or starts up a business with his own money, taking risk with an idea they have, okay? But having said that there are different kinds of entrepreneurs, I wish I knew all this. I had to educate myself when I came to that. So you have the independent, different kinds of entrepreneurs, now they are able to put in different boxes because entrepreneurs, not only somebody who opens a shop and starts, you know, doing it like that, so you have the independent entrepreneurs who are people who don't want to do a nine to five job, who like to be their own boss, you know? So these are the independent entrepreneurs. Then you have the, what is that? Site hustler entrepreneurs who have a job, but still they want to make some side incomes. So they have a small business running. So probably after the government office or maybe whatever job they do, they come back and set up the shop or maybe do some idea or maybe do online. So these are the site hustler entrepreneurs. Then you also have the digital nomad, we call it. You know, so people who don't want to have a physical thing but are comfortable working from home, they want to do everything through the digital means. These are actually very good for moms who have young kids, they want to spend more time with the kids at home but still work. And you know, so there are different kinds of entrepreneurship. Then you also have the opportunist entrepreneurship. So if I look at my opportunities is this, it's somebody who sees the need and they don't find it and they start it because there's a need, okay? So this is the opportunity. So in some way it was like that for me. When I started Hope Center, I started off like an opportunities entrepreneur because my kids were young and I wanted to, I was dropping my kids one year, one day for music lessons, this, that. Then I just thought, why can't we have everything under one umbrella, one roof with quality? I took the opportunity and again, there were no competitors for me, but guy was there but it was a different ball game. So I started off and then suddenly I found that there were many women and mothers like me who wanted that kind of thing. So yeah, because I started off with a position where there was lack, I filled it up. And sometimes in business that's a good way to start, okay, when you see a need and there's nobody doing it, you start off. Because there's so many people like you. Anyway, we'll come to that. So these are some of the entrepreneurship that you have to understand and keep it in mind because it's not only one size, you know? One size does not fit all. So did I make myself clear? Yes? Good. So now I'm gonna go to the question. I'm gonna go to the real question of entrepreneur. There, this is from BF fourth year. There are many entrepreneurs who have shared their ways to success in entrepreneurship through social media seminars. But the situation of entrepreneurship in the state of Nagaland is still lacking by a large margin. Why is it like that? And what would be your opinion and how to eradicate this issue, okay? I don't have the solution to eradicate all the necessary evils existing. But what I can say is, if I get the question right, this is asking about why are there less women entrepreneurs in Nagaland. Yes, I will say we are still lacking by a large margin. Women entrepreneurs, okay? We are still lacking in Nagaland. And this is the reason why we, or I, we've come here to tell you to take the path which is less troddy. Because the path which is described for us when we grew up are like, oh, you study and you become a good haul, a good job, then you get married, then your first duty is like your husband and children, which is, yes, necessary also, but there has to be a shift that has been defined by your tradition, your customs, and your families that you have grown up in, you know? And now, there are so many I find in Nagaland in general, I find that the women are doing so much better than the men because I go outside and I see. But then I also see that there's a big group coming but after some time, I just see few continuing with it. And the reason is because a lot of them just lose their hope, their vision, because they get dragged into, you know? So, like, as we were entering, I was just discussing with your principal, it's like, it's a lot of hard work for women who are having families and also working in the workforce, you know, so you have to appreciate those kind of women. Now, coming back to why do we have less entrepreneurs? Number one is because we do not have the mindset, we are not trained or raised to lead businesses, to lead establishments, okay? What to do? Our parents did the best they knew. It was good for that generation but now, going forward, it has to be different because Nagar women are amazing. By the way, I salute all the men who are here sitting here listening to women because you are the real men, you know? You don't have self-inflated egos like this is a women thing. And you can, you know, you can learn anywhere, anytime if you're willing to. And I'm sure you'll go back informed, educated to some extent. So what I'm trying to say is, with lack of role models is also one. We don't have many Nagar women doing really well at the CEO level and things like that, not many. So that is also lack of role models because if we don't see it, we don't think we can go and do it. We may say, oh, that one is doing that, oh, she's an American, oh, she's an Indian, she's smart. You know, this kind of thing, but there's so much in each women. So the lack of the failure of more women going into the workforce of entrepreneurship, I said entrepreneurship, because workforce getting a 95 job is different. Entrepreneurship is a lot more harder. It's a lot more harder. All success and failure is on your head, you know? So this is because we have fear of the uncertain, you know? We are afraid to take risk and also lack of proper information and the support system, okay? So these are the reasons and of course, more often it would be our faulty kind of raising up by our well-meaning auntie society who always tell us that women should not, should succeed, but should not over-succeed and take a man. That's also an unspoken kind of thing, you know? So these are areas where, which pulls us down, although the ability is not lacking, okay? How can I ever get all this, eradicate all this? I can't, but it always starts with platforms like this, we start the conversation, we start the topic and it begins to force you to think differently than what was taught at home or your society, okay? So it's important for you to educate yourself, read up books by successful women who had to overcome many challenges in life, okay? Now when I say success, I don't necessarily mean just making a lot of money, but making impact, you know, with their life and their life choices, okay? So is that okay for all of you? I think that's the best I can do with the time that I have, okay? So this is what's similar, being a woman entrepreneur, how do you envision yourself empowering the other aspiring women entrepreneurs in a particularly patriarchal society like ourself? I've covered that to some extent, but let me tell you a story. When I was growing up, I was pretty, how to say, rebellious, independent, thinking kind of person and my time, my generation, women were not, I mean, my dad was quite supportive, but to some extent, but I was always told by my parents, my uncles, my aunties, oh, you should sit for the UPSC exam, you should be an IAS officer, which I started my meeting and saying, yes, when people ask me, what do you want to be? I said, oh, IAS officer, and I started off like, all my life like a parrot, I continued. Nothing wrong, nothing wrong with that profession. It's a brilliant job and it's not easy to crack it, okay? And I would encourage a lot of you to get into it. But I started doing that, but when I went to college in Delhi, suddenly I realized, I was saying it, but I was not convinced that I wanted to do that. So slowly, slowly, it was a big disappointment for my family and they didn't like that I dropped out and did whatever I want. But to make a long story short, I had a lot of stereotype of thinking that I had to fight against to get into the entrepreneur or the business force, you know? So I was somebody, I would like to say that I am also quite creative with stuffs. So now when I say creativity, I'm not meaning just drawing beautiful, making good arrangements, nothing like that. What I'm saying is, I find that I can come up with one particular, I mean, I can come up with more than one ways of doing a certain thing. And it was quite a first lesson, it's definitely a gift of God. But then I began to understand that I will be so cooped up if I have to do a nine to five job and I'd like to be my own boss without realizing that the amount of labor and challenges and tears that is there in being your own boss, which we call entrepreneurship, okay? I'm also going to highlight the challenges of being, it's not as rosy as you look at it, it's a lot of hard work and if you are not hardworking, if you are not committed to your passion, if you are not, if you don't educate yourself enough in that field, maybe you should think of some other job options, okay? So there is another question that I'm going to quickly flip. Okay, this is a question, I'm going to answer the personal questions to me. What is the proudest achievement as a woman who inspire you the most, okay? Proudest achievement as a woman, for me, I would say is raising up my two kids to think differently. I have a son and I have a daughter. They don't think like the way I thought when I was younger. They're more inclusive in their thinking. They're more open to failures. They're not afraid to fall down, you know? So it was a lifetime commitment for me to push them to think different. So that would actually be one of my, because when you raise people who think differently, they will definitely make an impact or they will make their contribution to at least the society or the peer group that they hang out with. So if you ask me, yes, the business and all the editing, but I would probably think that would be my greatest achievement. And secondly, I raise them up in such a way that I'm a strongest supporter. When I want to start anything, I talk with them first. And they support me. They don't have thing about, so you know what, the support system or just to have that emotional support or maybe one idea thrown in is a big, big thing, okay? If you ask me who were my heroes, it changes. If you ask me when I was in my school, maybe I'll tell you, Brian Adams or something like that. But now I have changed and I evolve. I don't have a single hero as such, but I learned from a bucket of, I'm always open in learning and listening and reading books by intelligent or at least my way of thinking people, you know? When I say intelligent, I don't mean a high IQ score. I mean somebody who is very aware about their surrounding and can see maybe five, 10 years ahead, okay? That's what I mean by intelligence, okay? That is what I would also ask you to think about. Think of yourself 10 years from now. Where do you see yourself? What is it that you're doing to achieve what you want to, you know? These are questions that I'll throw it to you. So if you ask me who my greatest, I was a hero, but people that I get inspired are women and men as well, okay? Now you understand I'm not a mean man hater, but I'm definitely a very strong advocate for women's rights, for equality, you know, not based on your gender, okay? So coming to the people who have influenced me and continue to influence and I draw inspiration, like because I'm risked this age, I like Maria Shriver, you know, Arnold's ex-wife, I like her. She teaches so well about transitioning from a certain, because I'm not 20 or 30, I'm much more older now, so you know, we need to start linking and hooking up to the section of people who can speak into our life at that period, okay? So I like her, then I like those of you who are into psychology, I like Jordan Peterson, you know, he's a Canadian psychologist and he's very, he's a classical, but I find him very forward-thinking and he pushes the boundaries and he says things which will stun you, but you know, you have to listen to people like that, then you start thinking whether what you have been believing is all true and it stretches and broadens your horizon. I also like a Turkish writer and a political activist called Elisha Fakh, I really like her, the way she writes, probably they would be in the academic feminism phase, but you know, I mean, how far women have come? So I like these people, then I also like a lady called Caroline Leaf, she is actually a very good, what do you call, neuroscientist. The reason why is because you will not find many women neuroscientists, you know, we feel scared when you look at the very high or skill level when it goes challenging, maybe just back out, we think we don't have it, but we have it, so these are women who tell us, hey, I've made it, you can make it too, you know? There's another one that I really like when it comes to understanding or pushing boundaries about relationship, I like Esther Perrell, she's a Belgian-American kind of therapist, so these are people that I like to listen and you know, I mean, I just, I'm open to listen to everything, although I mean, I would agree with it, but there are some things I could pick up from it, so I don't have one single role model that I actually look up to, but I draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of people, certain this way, this way, this way, yeah, like that, so I have a host of people that I draw or I constantly check my thinking and my progress with. Are you able to follow and understand what I say? Yeah, are you? Good. Do you want me to continue or stop then? Do you want me to stop? Sorry? Okay, I will take this very important, there's one question that I, okay, there was a question about, oh, okay, how does it feel as a girl to use a nice guy for your own benefit, knowing that he likes you? Interesting question and very relevant for your age, but the question is something that I would like to challenge you. I would say these people are called manipulators and exploiters. How does it feel as a girl to use a nice guy when your motive is not right in any kind of relationship? You have an ulterior motive because, you know, you have to check what is your motive for doing what you're doing. Now, if you're going around with a guy because he has got fat wallet or because he's staying like that, you know what will happen? Eventually, your self-esteem will be hampered, okay? And then people will begin to lose trust in you and there are certain labels which will be put on you as, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a Nagamiswi of saying this, but I just can't think. Eh, mutha chola, there's something like that, you know? And what else? So basically, if you're a woman like that, you have low self-esteem, you better check what your standing is, okay? So you should not do it because, you know what? As a woman, women shouldn't beautifully say about your worth as a woman. We as women or you as men, we are no lesser than any other. It is an age where there has to be a symbiotic relationship between a man and a woman coming and working to get achieving things than rather the male folk one and the female on one side polarization is not what we are looking at in this generation. So this one, I don't believe it. And I don't, when I was raising my daughter, I was very careful to tell her or to put it in ways more than one that beauty is skin deep. I was more interested in building substance in her, content in her, happy to be who she is. She doesn't have to conform to all the teenagers around, wearing the latest back. I mean, it's very important for you as women to build your self-esteem in your faith, knowing who you are, you know? So this is something that I will not agree and I do not encourage this kind of practice where a woman uses a man. So because for me, the intention is always very, very important. So if the intention is evil and not right, the results will be temporary. And at the end, it will not only harm, the other part of it will harm you because you go level in your own eyes. Okay? So did I make this question? It's very relevant for your age. I understand. I thank you for asking this question. There's no question which is stupid enough because someone took the courage to ask me this. A lot of you got enlightened. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. What are the challenges you faced as an entrepreneur, okay? Entrepreneur in Nagaland and what led you to come up with your business and how it helped you? Okay. So I'm clubbing these two questions together just to save our time. So I actually, like I told you my story, I was not somebody who led too much of conformity. Now in some way, I do stick out like a sore thumb for my age and in that generation. Now things are different. I see a lot of women are getting vocal, which is very vocal for the right reasons. I just don't mean for the sake of fighting, but for the right reasons. So when I, actually there's a part of me that I have not, probably you all will not know except for my friends here. I started with the wedding planning industry. This is like in the 90s, mid 90s, okay? It was a very good concept, very very good concept, but too much before time. I was very passionate. So the other thing I keep telling young entrepreneurs, a passion alone is not enough for your business to success or for whatever you're putting, you know? You should be informed and you should have mentors to look up to in that line of work, you know? So this is where to be, to have passion is great. People say, oh, follow your passion, follow your passion. And I see a lot of car crashes. When you follow your passion without being realistic. So what happens is passion is actually an emotional product of your emotion. Whereas we always tell people, make rational decision. Rational will be based on your mind, your reasoning, your understanding, which will require you to do some homework, okay? Having these two, I always say, by and large, we as magas and also someone has rightly told me this. Somebody from abroad came and told me this when he gave me an assessment about his experience in Ireland. He just told me one word and he was like, enough for me. He said, magas are very emotional beings. And I said, you're right. If you're emotional beings, we make a lot of emotional decisions, you know? And emotional, when you make your decision based on your emotion and not your senses or your spirit, then you are bound to go wrong. So I started off with that business and it was a wrong time because I had a young family. My kids were small, you know? So this is not a challenges as women because we want to have family, we want to have career. So which one to be advanced first? You know, which one to be juggled? And it's literally a juggling act. I would say the word juggle. Juggling is something you throw up without letting it fall down, you know? So it's literally a juggling act. So the customer was very nice and I was getting popularity, but I just didn't understand how to scale it up or how to balance work life and home life because as a women, this is the greatest challenge that I have had to see that my family was not neglected. Neither my business, you know? So this was the biggest challenge. In addition to that, the other challenge I had was the kind of workers we had or I hired. It's very, very challenging to have very good workforce, Naga workforce. I'm saying this because I've been working with Naga for more than 15 years, okay? So we have a lot of educated, unemployable people. I'm not the first one saying this thing to you, okay? So for me, that was the to be challenge and also the third thing that I had as I started going initially, the 10 years was in within Naga, but when my children grew up because my entrepreneurship grew in increments, I was designing it around my children's education program, but I always had a plan. Once they both leave the house, then when I would get into full time. That's when I started moving out of the states and working, it was very challenging because by that age, I have developed my sense of comfort and things like that, but nobody grows in your comfort zone. You have to push yourself, you know? So when I started, my biggest challenge was that wrong timing and then also juggling, managing the young family home and the third quality of work. And the biggest challenge was the stereotype thinking in Naga land, especially women in my age group, including my families were like, why do you have to go out of the state to work? You can work here, you know? Why do you have to travel so far and leave your husband behind alone? I was like, he's not a kid. He can manage himself, you know? So women are constantly thinking between the home, the work. It's a guilty pan we have sometimes, but also the society norms and stereotype thinking these were the biggest challenges that I had to overcome, okay? When I was in my entrepreneurial journey. Now there's a question about when did you realize you were successful? This is a good question. I don't know what you actually mean by terms of success. If you're thinking, yes, I have achieved some measure of success and a lot of mistakes I've made. So I am somebody who's not afraid to make mistakes. You know, I rather take the risk and realize it was not for me. Then not take it at all, okay? So my level of achievement, I would say when I started, when my level of courage increased, I knew that I have achieved. I was not afraid. Now I am not afraid to go anywhere and start anything and do anything. So that for me was success because I overcame a lot of inhibitions and fear within me, okay? Now I would say success in terms of monetary when I have enough in the bank and I don't have to work for the rest of my life but just, you know, help people. Then I would say that I am success financially but I'm still on the way to that, okay? So I've defined your question of success in two different parameters, the way I see it. Is that clear for you? It's okay, can you tell me? Okay. What do you enjoy most about being an entrepreneur and what do you find the hardest about it, okay? So what I like is, so if you remember, I said what we look more for, what I look for more right now in my age is I want to see backbone, not just a wishbone, okay? So for me, the joy of being or the challenge of being an entrepreneur is when I have an idea in my head where only I can see and when I make that idea, a reality of physical existence before me that is so, so rewarding for me because from here to coming to physical manifestation, there's a lot of work, progress and toil, okay? But when you achieve that, I do get a high once, when you achieve that, I would say success but achievement, every achievement, whether in your school or it's, every achievement you do, if you record it, it's a milestone of progress so if I were to say, I like the thrill of the chase, so in one word, I hope you can understand it. Okay, there is one question I'm looking for which I thought I would, oh yeah, yeah, this is a very, very important question that I would, somebody has asked this, very important. Why do we need more women in leadership? Why? For the very fact that women bring something really different to the table, okay? And I think God has designed us to, like our strength could be a weakness as a man and a man's strength could be, one's weakness could be our strength and vice versa, you know? So why do we need more women as leaders? Now I don't mean just in business but in position of leadership, position of influence, why do we need more? I'm gonna just start, I just looked up this and I'm gonna convince you with three, four reasons. Fortune 500, you know these are the people who list the best companies and stuff like that in the world? Fortune 500 list, this is American list, they showed that the top, in their list, there were only 15% of women. Imagine if America has only 15% of good CEOs listed. So this 15% of women, the companies who had this women at the helm or leadership, they outperformed the companies which were headed by men, okay? So this is a statistical study which I'm reading out to you. Psychologically also they say that women when you have hit 40s, women when you're in your 40s, you make better managers and better administrators, okay? And I guess this is a natural innate, I mean God's gift to us because when we are growing up, we are also made to understand we are nurturers, we are builders and if you can look at your home and you're managing all the time, you know that's actually the real management course and practical thing that, so when a woman does that and reaches 40 by the time, so they have done studies and they found that the women after the 40s make very good CEOs, very good administrative officers and very, they get even better with the position of leadership. And the reason why we want more leadership, women leadership is because number one, when women are at the top, the hiring system changes. The way we hire workers changes, okay? The way a man hires a workforce and the women does is different. I'm not saying it's one better that there are but certain things that a women will do better, certain things that a man will do better. So what happens is when there are more women getting into the position of leadership, like my friend Patsy here, one of our panelists said, the wage gap closes up, you know? So we can't say that, oh yeah, there are still some areas where they say, if you're a women you may be this, but we pay more to the men because men is more superior. The women might be doing all the job. So if there are more women in leadership, the disparaging gap that goes between a man and a female seller, it starts closing up. Because women we also have more empathy, you know? We also have more empathy. And I'll give you one example, like when I went out and started working with my, when I first made my foray into outside of the state into the restaurant industry, I worked with men and not men from Nagaland, men from outside. And you know what? I have to prove it was very hard. I wanted to give up a couple of times because I found that every time we come together the day recognizes a man and I'm like invisible, you know, because I'm a woman and they take their credit for everything. But I like I said, if you want credit or if you want respect, you earn it. You don't demand for it. You work for it, okay? You should, men should not say, hey, respect me because I'm a woman. I'm a man. I don't understand that, you know? So in fact, the man who shows respect to the women you will get respect. So this is another thing that I would want to say. So coming to the workforce thing, when I started taking, because there was a lot of fights in the workforce, that's why they have HRs, you know? There was a lot of squabblings and fights with our, we did not workforce because we had Nagaland from people from Nagaland, people from Assam, people, so the border issue started there, you know, there was always. So I found that my co-partners, my partner's males, were not good in handling disaster, human. So I stepped in. When I stepped in, we had the workforce working for us longer, continuity, and the real dissent or the thing in the workforce was not because they did not know how to do the job, they just felt they were not heard. As a man, we don't bother about small things, whereas women, we listen to little details. So this is another thing about, so there was a relationship and a trust established between the owners and the workforce. That's when we started scaling, you know? So why is it important for women to be in the workforce? Because the way we hire also changes. And if there is a women within that workforce that you have hired, you're more sympathetic or apathetic towards them because you understand how you come. Also, when we have women in leadership, you know, what happens is if there are other, if the women, big one, rise to the top, there are other women who are working below, who sees that, okay, it's possible for me to, they have a role model that they can go. So there is no glass ceiling that you need to break, you know, so to speak. So these are the reasons why. And plus, there are a lot of studies which have shown that women as leaders are very sincere, very sincere than men, okay? Now men, you have your area of speciality and your strength, but this is based on study. I like to quote Margaret Thatcher, who said this, if you have a job where you need to be, if you need somebody, something to be said, she says, if you need something to be said, again I'll say, if you need something to be said, ask a man. But if you need something to be done, ask a woman. And I believe that. That's Margaret Thatcher, you all know, the British prime, former prime minister. So, you know, from there on we know. And I know even between my son and daughter the difference when I tell my daughter to do it and when I tell my son to do it, you know? So this is why we need more women in leadership and if we will change the narrative, we will change the narrative of leadership. For example, I said before that women who are people who are more creative, who are more innovative, who have more emotional intelligence, you know? They are the people who will lead, not just the one who is stronger physically. So we will change the narrative, okay? So this is my answer to why should there be more women in the leadership position. Oh, the questions are all really nice, but like I said, it might be an overkill. So if I have to answer everything, but I'm just picking up the very good ones. Okay, however women's entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs who are more lacking in comparison to women entrepreneurs from other countries, what should we do to keep up with them? Okay, forget about countries. And that's only if we compare our now entrepreneurs with other countries, we are nowhere there. Even if I were to compare within the states, we still have a lot to catch up, okay? We still have a lot to catch up. But like I said, a lot of it is the way we have been brought up to think, think that, okay, I'm good, but maybe I should not go so far. And also like, yeah, the biggest challenge that you have to overcome is not the outside thing, but your own fears within, you know, your own fears. That's why I like this. You have to be courageous. You know, you do it afraid. Courage is not something that you need when you don't have fear. You need it when you're a fear, you know? So we need, I mean, if you remember, there's a cartoon character, Scooby-Doo. I mean, the dog, so there's a courage dog that was always shaking, right? So, but you still have to do it afraid, okay? So what's the time now? Okay, then we should talk about it. So thank you. I think I'm done with my time. And it's been a pleasure being with all of you, but I don't know, I would like to close with this, especially the women. You all know who is Reese Witherspoon, right? I've also picked up very contemporary people to leave a quote with you. And this is what I would say the same thing to you. She says, in my closing, I encourage women to step up. Don't wait for somebody to ask you, okay? Whether it's in the classroom, or if you need to ask a question, if it is a job that you want it done, and you know you can do it done, don't wait for your teacher, you step up, okay? That's what I would tell you. Thank you very much.