Nurturing Intellect through Mental Sports

Gwendolen Noronha – MD, Child’s Intellectual Academy Pvt. Ltd. (CIA) & National Board Chief for World Mental Sports Olympics Fed (Memoraid)

Gwendolen Norohna is a multi-faceted and inspiring superwoman who wears several hats — from being the Chief Coach for Mental sports to practicing sports herself, having trained four world record holders in the field of mental calculations, to running an Event Company and ironing out a social agenda in parallel, she has authored three co-curriculum books. She is also passionate about flying, holds a private pilot licence and loves swimming & jet skiing.

Gwendolen Noronha, MD of Child’s Intellectual Academy (CIA) and Event Director of WizWorld is a globally acclaimed coach in the field of speed calculations and memory sports, six digit square root, mental eight digit square root, mental ten digit square root, mental multiplications, mental additions and flash anzan. She is also the National Board Chief for World Mental Sports Olympics Federation (Memoraid).

Quoting Napolean, she believes that “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” She established a franchise based educational business set-up which spread across India and moved out to other countries. Learning the Management principles with her father’s business, she holds additional degrees in phonology, graphology, diploma in corporate and criminal law, and currently is studying literature and anthropology from New York. Her campaign Break Free Foundation works towards educating people about chronic depression, dementia, memory loss, math anxiety, Alzheimer’s, and even on women health related to breast cancer, cervical cancer, helps fighting any false criminal allegations on young girls, helps rape victims overcome the ill doing and educate girls on hygiene.

High point in career
“I set goals. Each time I am working towards a goal, it becomes the high point especially when I achieve it but the next very moment, I have another goal set. Basically it has been an on-going process. The most essential element or high point is to see myself and most importantly people around me and who associate with me very happy with the work I do. Being contended has been the highest point and the biggest achievement.”

Most challenging assignment so far
“All projects are challenging at the beginning, but I have never succumbed to the pressures. I don’t see how many hours I put in behind an idea to make it happen. I have sometimes worked for days with a couple of hours of sleep. No assignment eventually has felt very challenging because all of them are very realistic and practical. Honestly, the biggest challenge I face is to cater to my family and friends if I am pre-occupied but most of them understand it knowing how passionate I am towards everything that I take up work-wise and at my studies. Although, if I have to specify a project it would be staging the Elimination for the World Mental Sports Olympic Federation and it is not because the project is a challenge. It is the Olympic selection for mental sports but because India’s corporates lacks at understanding anything beyond cricket and coming forward to associate, it leaves me with the choice of making it huge on my own terms most of the times. While currently the work is in progress, I will know where it leads sooner.”

Greatest inspiration
“I have a long list here. I learn from many people around me and each one inspires me differently. To begin with- my parents, they have sheltered me from every storm in the best way possible, given me that wide space to spread my wings and aspire everything I wanted to. I am inspired by them and I know that when I become a parent, I will work towards being the best mother. I have learnt to trust, show empathy and believe in doing great work. The other people who do inspire me are my close friends Sharon, Geeta, Sneha, Tina and Alpa. These girls keep the true self in me alive. Often surrounded by fake, temptations and distractions, these girls let me sail easily over all this. One among them is married and even before they both could even fall in love, they faced so much disturbances but the fact that they believed in staying true to the feeling of liking one another brought them close. So their relationship has inspired me to trust in love and take care of it.”

Most important milestone in life
“Being able to find love. As an entrepreneur, life is so busy that we don’t find time for anything other than work. I have been lucky to find love. Who ever thought that miles away on a foreign land while busy discussing a mental sport project love would be found and that it would teach me to be patient, believe in the positive energy of the universe, learn to care for people suffering with Alzheimer’s and majorly because he lost a family member to death because of the disease. I also learnt to forgive people who cause misunderstandings between relationships, learn to be in peace with past storms and moreover learn to never expect and stay strong.

Since the time I have found love, which indeed is one milestone especially with the candid life I have, I have seen myself more motivated towards work, more satisfied with what I have achieved, more established, more patient and I have the capacity to fall in love with absolutely anything and everything around me which makes me a very happy person.

A good friend of mine and a great motivator, Phill Ash keeps me strong, lectures me when I lose hope. Having found love in the most unexpected time and having found real good friends is a milestone too. In my opinion, no true vibe that two people feel for each other can ever fail, it is only that the fragile ego comes our way that doesn’t let us stick to this vibe and gives space to misunderstandings. Overcoming such fragile ego and learning to stay strong has been the other milestone. I have grown as a better human and I am happy about it.”

Women are the better halves. What does it mean?
“It symbolises a huge responsibility. Being able to contribute to society, economic growth, to the man of your life, to every relationship around us, would make us the better halves. While women are slowly striving to prove the saying, it is also important that men let the other half be better. What I see today is that our generation gives equal importance and the men do believe that how much they contribute in terms of work and personal objectives, so do the women. When such balanced thought will progress among everyone, then definitely this old proverb will hoist high.”

Your experiences on being a woman entrepreneur
“I have found no difference and because I don’t know how it is for men who are entrepreneurs, for obvious reasons. I was supported by my father at my initial steps. He saw no difference in putting me ahead in the business world because he simply didn’t think there was any gender differences. I have enjoyed working and getting showcased as a business person today. I have seen the entire business industry treat me well and have faced no indifference anywhere. The world has evolved and I stepped into an era where being a man or a woman professional didn’t really matter. I believe that if you have a strong support back home from parents, friends and your love, you can dilute all the negative effects on your mind and head back to work with zest.”

Did you believe in making dreams come true?
“I am a dreamer. I dream for real and work towards it. If I wouldn’t dream, I just couldn’t have got where I am today and neither I would be able to head towards the next goal. My goals are very focused, big yet obtainable and are aligned to my strengths. I know what I am capable of and will invest all of my efforts in it, avoiding my weaknesses.”

Challenges faced
“Being able to work in an environment where you probably don’t like some people or share some bad space with them. Although I like to maintain a calm vibe around me, many times it is disturbed by vibrations of the other. I have seen that sometimes personal relationship stress, be in family or others too fall on work and visa-versa. It took me a good amount of time to filter the two parameters and build a bridge in between.”

Setbacks and Lessons learnt
“Surprisingly not much. Having had a controversial situation at the onset of my career, I thought I was getting nowhere but family and friends played a vital role. I was blessed to always find support. Therefore even when I had people frame me in situations I didn’t belong, I could easily walk out and the result is in front of you. I also learnt that getting into a problem is not something bad, but not knowing how to come out of it is the bad side. At the end of the day, we all want to achieve to see ourselves and our loved ones happy and even if any set back comes my way, I have learnt to push it aside and walk. I am willing to learn from each failure and I don’t give up after failing at something especially when I know my decisions are right. I persevere.”