The simple, one line, Introduction: AVIS Viswanathan is the happynesswala!
Here's a short Bio:
AVIS Viswanathan is the happynesswala! He is an Inspired Speaker, Life Coach, and Author of Fall Like A Rose Petal. He is also the Principal at Workplace Happiness Firm
a v initiatives. He specializes in leading Workplace Happiness and Culture Transformation mandates in organizations globally.
AVIS' Talks and Workshops invoke soul, provoke thought and inspire action among the audiences he addresses. In the past, AVIS has been ranked among the Top Ten Motivational Speakers in India by The Week magazine.
AVIS says he always lives inspired by Life! He is greatly influenced by Osho's philosophy of "living dangerously in a complete let-go" and by Eknath Easwaran's awakening book, "Gandhi - The Man". AVIS is also a mega fan of Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and loves Hindi film music (particularly the R.D.Burman-Gulzar-Kishore Kumar combination).
AVIS lives in Chennai, India, with his soulmate, friend and business partner Vaani. The couple are the happynesswalas at their Workplace Happiness Firm - a v initiatives. Awakening through a Life-changing crisis - a numbing bankruptcy - that they have been enduring for over a decade now, they believe their Life's Purpose is Inspiring 'Happyness' . So, they invest every waking minute in inspiring people to be happy, despite their circumstances, by sharing with them the art of being non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. (See section More on the story of the happynesswalas below.)
AVIS and Vaani have two children - Aashirwad and Aanchal - both of whom are young adults now, who have set out to explore Life and this beautiful world!
AVIS Viswanathan is the happynesswala! He is an Inspired Speaker, Life Coach, and Author of Fall Like A Rose Petal. He is also the Principal at Workplace Happiness Firm
a v initiatives. He specializes in leading Workplace Happiness and Culture Transformation mandates in organizations globally.
AVIS' Talks and Workshops invoke soul, provoke thought and inspire action among the audiences he addresses. In the past, AVIS has been ranked among the Top Ten Motivational Speakers in India by The Week magazine.
AVIS says he always lives inspired by Life! He is greatly influenced by Osho's philosophy of "living dangerously in a complete let-go" and by Eknath Easwaran's awakening book, "Gandhi - The Man". AVIS is also a mega fan of Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and loves Hindi film music (particularly the R.D.Burman-Gulzar-Kishore Kumar combination).
AVIS lives in Chennai, India, with his soulmate, friend and business partner Vaani. The couple are the happynesswalas at their Workplace Happiness Firm - a v initiatives. Awakening through a Life-changing crisis - a numbing bankruptcy - that they have been enduring for over a decade now, they believe their Life's Purpose is Inspiring 'Happyness' . So, they invest every waking minute in inspiring people to be happy, despite their circumstances, by sharing with them the art of being non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. (See section More on the story of the happynesswalas below.)
AVIS and Vaani have two children - Aashirwad and Aanchal - both of whom are young adults now, who have set out to explore Life and this beautiful world!
More on the story of the happynesswalas:
AVIS did not make it to B-school. In fact, he confesses that he barely scraped through college only to save his parents embarrassment!
AVIS invested the first 10 years of his professional career in the Indian media - initially as a firebrand investigative journalist with The Indian Express; and then as a political and business journalist with India Today, Business World and Business Today.
AVIS then joined Sterling Group Chairman and maverick entrepreneur C.Sivasankaran as his globe-trotting Executive Assistant. Over two years in that role, AVIS worked on global assignments in the Telecom and Direct-to-Home broadcast sectors.
In 1996, AVIS set up imagequity+®, with his soulmate, friend and business partner Vaani. It was Asia’s first reputation management consulting Firm based out of Chennai, in south India. The Firm went bankrupt in end-2007 plunging AVIS’ family and his business into an unimaginable, Life-changing, crisis.
AVIS' story - and Life - will be incomplete without Vaani, the other happynesswala!
imagequity+®'s bankruptcy thrust AVIS' and Vaani's Life into a deep, dark, seemingly endless abyss. Ever since, they have been dealing with several imponderables. On the material side, they have had to face several law suits and police complaints from irate creditors. This has also been a cathartic experience for them - when the realization that they were bankrupt dawned on them, they were initially pinned down by fear, insecurity, anger, grief, guilt, anxiety and incessant worry. Besides, despite trying very, very hard, they have been unable to turn around their financially devastated Life. So, many times, from early-2008 onward, they have had to live through long spells of worklessness and pennilessness.
Their crisis still endures - it is not over, it is ongoing.
Through this numbing phase of their Life though, AVIS and Vaani have learnt some unputdownable lessons. They discovered that Happiness is the art of being non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. Through the practice of mouna - observing daily silence periods - they taught themselves this art. That's how they realized that it was possible to be happy despite their excruciating circumstances. They reckoned that while being successful (of turning around financially and repaying their debt) was presently proving elusive, they could still be useful. They reasoned: Happiness is what everyone is seeking - caught in the their own problem situations in Life. Why not share our experiences and learnings with them? This awakening, of realizing that they can be useful even when they could not be successful, led them to their Life's Purpose, their raison d'etre, their ikigai, of Inspiring 'Happyness'!
So, wearing their Life on the sleeve, AVIS wrote his book 'Fall Like A Rose Petal' which was published in August 2014. Encouraged that the book's message of Happiness and contentment resonated with its readers, the couple began to share the lessons they have learnt from their unique journey with audiences who cared to pause and reflect.
Despite their crisis remaining unresolved, AVIS and Vaani live a meaningful, Purpose-driven, Life. They conduct customized inspirational Workshops, deliver reflective Talks & Signature Programs and curate world-class Conversations that invoke soul, provoke thought and inspire action! Each of their offerings reminds people to look within themselves and tap into their key, inherent, strengths of reflection, resilience and resourcefulness. These three qualities, AVIS and Vaani believe, are embedded in each of us. They hold the key to personal leadership in crunch situations. The insights and learnings from the couple's lived experiences infuses people with the belief that they too can be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering; they then unlock the secret to being happy despite their circumstances.
All Information on the happynesswalas' non-commercial, free-for-public, offerings is available here.
AVIS shares Life lessons on his Blog. Read the Blog here.
Also see AVIS' and Vaani's Workplace Happiness Firm - a v initiatives
AVIS did not make it to B-school. In fact, he confesses that he barely scraped through college only to save his parents embarrassment!
AVIS invested the first 10 years of his professional career in the Indian media - initially as a firebrand investigative journalist with The Indian Express; and then as a political and business journalist with India Today, Business World and Business Today.
AVIS then joined Sterling Group Chairman and maverick entrepreneur C.Sivasankaran as his globe-trotting Executive Assistant. Over two years in that role, AVIS worked on global assignments in the Telecom and Direct-to-Home broadcast sectors.
In 1996, AVIS set up imagequity+®, with his soulmate, friend and business partner Vaani. It was Asia’s first reputation management consulting Firm based out of Chennai, in south India. The Firm went bankrupt in end-2007 plunging AVIS’ family and his business into an unimaginable, Life-changing, crisis.
AVIS' story - and Life - will be incomplete without Vaani, the other happynesswala!
imagequity+®'s bankruptcy thrust AVIS' and Vaani's Life into a deep, dark, seemingly endless abyss. Ever since, they have been dealing with several imponderables. On the material side, they have had to face several law suits and police complaints from irate creditors. This has also been a cathartic experience for them - when the realization that they were bankrupt dawned on them, they were initially pinned down by fear, insecurity, anger, grief, guilt, anxiety and incessant worry. Besides, despite trying very, very hard, they have been unable to turn around their financially devastated Life. So, many times, from early-2008 onward, they have had to live through long spells of worklessness and pennilessness.
Their crisis still endures - it is not over, it is ongoing.
Through this numbing phase of their Life though, AVIS and Vaani have learnt some unputdownable lessons. They discovered that Happiness is the art of being non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. Through the practice of mouna - observing daily silence periods - they taught themselves this art. That's how they realized that it was possible to be happy despite their excruciating circumstances. They reckoned that while being successful (of turning around financially and repaying their debt) was presently proving elusive, they could still be useful. They reasoned: Happiness is what everyone is seeking - caught in the their own problem situations in Life. Why not share our experiences and learnings with them? This awakening, of realizing that they can be useful even when they could not be successful, led them to their Life's Purpose, their raison d'etre, their ikigai, of Inspiring 'Happyness'!
So, wearing their Life on the sleeve, AVIS wrote his book 'Fall Like A Rose Petal' which was published in August 2014. Encouraged that the book's message of Happiness and contentment resonated with its readers, the couple began to share the lessons they have learnt from their unique journey with audiences who cared to pause and reflect.
Despite their crisis remaining unresolved, AVIS and Vaani live a meaningful, Purpose-driven, Life. They conduct customized inspirational Workshops, deliver reflective Talks & Signature Programs and curate world-class Conversations that invoke soul, provoke thought and inspire action! Each of their offerings reminds people to look within themselves and tap into their key, inherent, strengths of reflection, resilience and resourcefulness. These three qualities, AVIS and Vaani believe, are embedded in each of us. They hold the key to personal leadership in crunch situations. The insights and learnings from the couple's lived experiences infuses people with the belief that they too can be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering; they then unlock the secret to being happy despite their circumstances.
All Information on the happynesswalas' non-commercial, free-for-public, offerings is available here.
AVIS shares Life lessons on his Blog. Read the Blog here.
Also see AVIS' and Vaani's Workplace Happiness Firm - a v initiatives
