​The Omen of Ashram

I had decided to leave my corporate position to pursue my Mission in Life and when several people heard about this they came and exchanged some information and thoughts with me…all of them I am happy to say were positive.

One of the people that I talked with was Ronnie Ng, Managing Director of Best Practices Management. I had met Ronnie when I was working on organizing the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards for the Hong Kong-Macau District Rotary Clubs. We engaged Ronnie and his training organization to conduct the training as professionals in this field. Later Ronnie, unknown to me, was engaged by one of the hotels in the company I was working with. I went on one of the training sessions that Ronnie gave to the hotel management, and as part of that program I fire-walked with them. Quite an interesting experience.

When Ronnie heard I was leaving the hotel company, he came to see me. He suggested that I visit the Osho Ashram, in Pune, India. I was still partly in the corporate mould in those days, and while I appreciated his idea, I basically said, “Ronnie I am not doing Ashrams, I am doing resorts”. As I had come to know Ronnie as a channel of some sort, and to soften this stance, I also explained that as I was changing jobs, setting up my new company, had little time to travel, and probably a few other excuses, I would put it on my list of “things to do”, and perhaps try to get there at some future date.

At the same time as this was happening a trade association for hotels and restaurants, The International Hotel & Restaurant Association engaged me to work with them on a part time basis as their Regional Director. Two weeks later they asked me, as one of my first duties, to attend the annual meeting of one of the hotel associations in the region. Of course I agreed. Where was this meeting to be held? Pune, India. The hotel that they accommodated me in was right in front of the Osho Ashram!

I went to visit the Ashram, but initially still couldn’t see the connection. However the connections made at this meeting, lead me to go to Pune again, and on a subsequent visit I realized that the Ashram was actually very similar to the model for a Sanctuary Resort, they just positioned and marketed it differently. It was an interesting revelation.

Guess Ronnie was right after all.

Thanks for the Insight Ronnie.

Ronnie can be found at: http://www.bestpractice.com.hk/