(Commonwealth Union)_Discovering who you really are, unlocking the potential inside a human being using the three main components of human intelligence – knowledge, reasoning and creativity has become his forte. Dr. Selva Pankaj, Chief Executive Officer, Regent Group, UK states that the human body is a super computer of which the user manual should be understood. “How do we distinguish ourselves with others and discover who we are or who we want to be? If you want to understand who you are, you have to understand the laws of nature,” explains the Asian entrepreneur behind the multi-million-pound business.
According to Dr. Pankaj, many people have few or no strong belief on what they truly believe which make their achieving success unlikely. Behind the life stories of many successful and powerful personalities in the world there is the simple formula of visualizing what you want out of life. Great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela have been no ordinary leaders. In the times of turbulence, these leaders have been resilient believing in what they want in the future, mentally contributing to achieving it.
Dr. Pankaj added that human are already genetically programmed but the environment in which they grow in can contribute massively to their success. “Setting up a genuine goal, a dream, a vision that is beyond your experience will help you grow in your awareness of yourself. You can start thinking in a new powerful way and begin discovering your true purpose of life. Your goals can be your screensaver on your phone or the computer so that you can get emotionally involved with them,” he explained.
Adding that one must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want, Dr. Pankaj said then to move the dream into a theory. Using the reasoning mind one must question whether turning the goal into a theory is a possibility even if one does not know how. Everything that has been taught by science and laws of nature refers to the deep reservoirs of talent and infinite potential to enable a human to achieve the set goals. When the theory turn into a goal and if one is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve the goal, with the emotional involvement will change the behavior creating bigger and better dreams. He advises the youth to be a unique human being and not what others want us to be.
Starting off his career as an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants whose first job at a senior level was as Deputy Finance Director at Prudential Financial Inc, Dr. Pankaj built and developed the senior management team, managing twenty direct and indirect reports based both within and outside of the UK, while being a member of the executive board and participating in the UK and European investment committees, advisory board and audit committee. After a decade, Dr. Pankaj moved to several other senior level position before taking up his final stint as the Chief Financial Officer at Fortress Investment Group where he worked from 2006 until 2009. Realizing several key accomplishments whilst in post which included working on two major capital raises amounting to over €1.5 billion of capital raised assisted by major investments banks, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch, the restructuring of Eurocastle tax structures after the introduction of the German corporate tax legislation changes and assisting the transaction team on real estate acquisition including a $2 billion purchase of the Mars portfolio, Dr. Pankaj had many other feats to his name.
However, this Sri-Lankan born multi-tasker was not aware of his role in the world until he spoke to Professor Clayton Christensen who said to him “You have got to know who you are and learn to differentiate between man-made laws and the laws of nature,” during his days studying at Harvard Business School. The advice sparked his inquisitiveness and he soon sought out works from a number of authors, including Dr. Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Wallace D Wattles and Thomas Troward to find out the supreme secret of being successful. Learning that anything human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve, Dr. Pankaj set out to establish an education business, which is now known as Regent Group, in collaboration with his wife and father.
In 2009, Dr. Pankaj moved into education full time as Regent Group’s CEO and within a year of taking the position, Regent Group had launched a private candidate exam centre and founded another supplementary education centre. At present Dr. Pankaj who follows the motto that `The End Result of Education is Character’ has worked on establishing RLC tuition centres, one in Wembley and one in Edgware, the opening of private candidate centre, Burlington College the establishment of a thriving Higher Education division and most recently, the introduction of Regent Skills Training, providing further education services, to the Group via funding from the Skills Funding Agency. To establish another college, Albany College, in the locality in the spirit of the original Albany College in Hendon which was one of the first tutorial style colleges that came into existence in London is also in line.
Alongside the development of the UK based education business, Regent is setting up a base in Dubai, the USA and India as part of its global expansion.
“Everything in life has not been a challenge for me but an opportunity. I look forward to every situation to as an opportunity to serve and provide a valuable service to everyone I come into contact with. It has being a great journey right throughout,” says the entrepreneur passionate to share the secrets behind prosperity with those who seek.
Hailing from Sri Lanka during which the country experience the civil war which saw thousands of people being killed, he admits the memories are terrifying. Entering the UK as at the age of twenty as a refugee or an asylum seeker was a difficult terminology for him to accept yet the experience triggered him to learn and expand his boundaries evolving into the great personality he is today.
With the experiences gained in working in both the investment management and education sectors and inspired by knowledge acquired from both his studies and a great deal of wider reading on human behaviour and potential, Dr. Pankaj has penned two books; Thinking into Character and The Power of Learning from DAD to help individuals expand the perspective and awareness, deepen the understanding and to ignite the motivation to implement learning through which you will receive many rewards.
Following the philosophy of ‘Teach and Share as you go’ Dr. Pankaj believes that you learn best when you teach someone else and that learning is ‘internalised’ when you live it via teaching others.
This exceptional character has long had an interest in British politics and has been a member of the Conservative Party. Believing in giving back to the society what he received, he is a supporter of a number of charities both within and outside of the UK.
He also launched his own website to promote his consultancy and public speaking business and has also been invited to join Huete & Co, a very well respected and successful company of consultants, led by the famous Luis Huete, considered one of the top management thinkers according to the Institute of International Research.
He invites the confused souls looking for answers of the meaning of life to read his book and enter into the continuous process of a change in habits and achievement of growth and success.
