Guest Lecture by Mr. Firoz Poonawalla
Date: 6th September, 2019
On 6th September, 2019, SIIB invited the prodigious philanthropist Mr. Firoz Poonawalla, Co – founder and Trustee - Lila Poonawalla Foundation, to share his Life long journey titled ‘From My Heart’. He initiated the talk with introducing his family and how affluently royal lifestyle he possessed. In his speech, Mr. Poonawalla spoke about how important it is to be mentally strong to face any situation in life which is always uncertain. He then proceeded with his marriage journey which was filled with lot of hurdles and how he and his wife Mrs. Lila Poonawalla overcame and managed to get into phase of peaceful marriage life. He also mentioned about adopting 10,000 girls, inculcating all in one family and giving them a platform where girls are taught not to gain sympathy but to achieve empathy under the foundation activity.
After this, he explained about how his royal lifestyle came to a termination after his decision of marriage and through this journey he very well coated the power of optimism and working hard with consistency which helped him in restoring his royal lifestyle again. Next, he highlighted the importance of giving back to the school where an individual has pursued education in order to contribute a part of earning in educating the youth. He coated a beautiful statement that “Giving back to society is not the responsibility of an individual but it’s a way of living life”. Finally, he proceeded to discuss how Mrs. Lila Poonawalla succeeded in getting 26.5 million dollars Swiss money from USSR (now Russia) which helped to establish ‘Lila Poonawalla Foundation’. The lecture ended with a question-answer session where the students asked insightful questions ranging from how business scenario existed during his peak career time to how Indian youth should perceive their respective career in order to live a happy and satisfied life which he emphasized throughout the session.
