AVIS Viswanathan: Bio
AVIS Viswanathan is the happynesswala. He is an Inspired Speaker, Life Coach, and Author. He is also a Specialist in leading Workplace Happiness and Culture Transformation mandates in organizations globally.
AVIS' Talks 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 awesome 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. He's married to Vaani, his soulmate and business partner. The couple are the happynesswalas at their Workplace Happiness Firm - a v initiatives. They believe their Life's Purpose is Inspiring 'Happyness' - inviting people to be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. They 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' Talks 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 awesome 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. He's married to Vaani, his soulmate and business partner. The couple are the happynesswalas at their Workplace Happiness Firm - a v initiatives. They believe their Life's Purpose is Inspiring 'Happyness' - inviting people to be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. They 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 Background Information:
AVIS confesses that he did not make it to B-school. In fact, he barely scraped through college__thanks only, as he says, to save his parents embarrassment. He invested the first 10 years of his professional career in the media as a firebrand civic, investigative, political and business journalist in India working with The Indian Express, India Today, Business World and Business Today. He then briefly ‘touched and felt’ Life in the corporate sector, with global assignments, over two years. Those were highly eventful though considering that he was the globe-trotting EA (Executive Assistant) to Sterling Group Chairman and maverick entrepreneur, C.Sivasankaran. In 1996, AVIS, set up imagequity+®, with his soulmate__friend, wife 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 crisis.
Pennilessness, law suits, threats to Life from irate creditors, mistrust among family and friends, insecurity and fear followed. But the couple braved all these and more with faith and patience. Several, often unknown, compassionate people came into their Life and helped them along the way! Over this time, they both learned to trust the Universe and were witness to, what AVIS calls, ‘the inscrutable, miraculous ways of Life’. He and his wife are still to put their business back on track - they are yet to repay their over million dollars in debt - though they try relentlessly, plowing on with true indefatigable spirit. But they have followed their bliss and stayed rooted to their Life's Purpose - Inspiring 'Happyness'. Vaani and AVIS have since retooled their business model and lead a Specialist Consulting Firm called a v initiatives (www.avinitiatives.co.in) which inspires Workplace Happiness! Their learnings from this tumultuous phase of their lives have become the leitmotif of all the work that they do. Together, they inspire people to be happy, to be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering, despite their circumstances.
