Nimal Perera’s “advice to my younger self”

NP Capital Chairman Nimal Perera

While CEOs and leaders focus on the future, we’re asking them to pause, reflect on the past, and share the single-most important lesson they have learned. Our lives and careers are works-in-progress, and we will always learn more in the future than we know now, but what insights could our younger selves  -  and other aspiring leaders  -  embrace and act on right now to live a more positive, productive, and empowered life?  In the final article in the Narrator series, Michel Nugawela asks Nimal Perera, Chairman, NP Capital Ltd., what one piece of advice he would give his younger self if he could travel back in time

Advice to my younger self and all aspiring leaders: Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. It’s always scary to change careers mid-way through life but if the timing is right, you won’t go wrong.

My beginnings are humble. In 1977, at the age of 19, I left my village in Pinnawala where I was teaching Economics and Accounting for A and O Level students and came to Colombo for my higher studies at the Sri Lanka Technical College. While studying, I also conducted classes for students in Panadura, Moratuwa and Kalutara because I needed the income. Life was tough and there was never a rosy path ahead of me but I was ambitious and determined to better myself. I developed my aims and goals and also changed careers at opportune times throughout my journey. 

I began my career as an accountant, joining several organisations until, at the age of 30, I made a life-transforming move and joined Shermans, where I learnt about stock trading and made a name for myself in the stock market. I had a good job, earned a respectable salary, and felt comfortable. Then Daya Muthukumarana invited me to join Pan Asia Bank as their marketing manager, which was a subject I had no knowledge of.

Most people wouldn’t take that gamble in their mid-life years; they prefer to stay in one place and do the same thing until they retire. They don’t learn anything new in their careers and so they don’t gain any new opportunities in their lives. It’s easier if you’re young but I took up the challenge and became a qualified marketer in my 40s. I always take risks. That’s my way of doing things. That’s also why I’m extremely successful in the stock market and the leader in corporate acquisitions. Nothing stifles progress like complacency. You must have the courage to step out of your comfort zone and try new things in life. 

When you change career you learn to adapt, which enables you to secure a better position, a higher salary, and expand your network as you meet new professionals, colleagues and friends from different businesses and industries. Age is never a barrier to studying and learning new things. I’ve changed my career from accounting to marketing to banking and then to management. I’ve managed different disciplines, from manufacturing to services to finance to leisure – you name it, I’ve done it. I’m now involved in technology. This is the secret behind my journey from Pinnawala to Horton Place via Echelon Square. It’s the experience you gain as you keep changing paths that ultimately benefits you, propels you forward and helps you succeed in life.

Advice to my younger self and all aspiring leaders: It’s important to associate with people from all walks of life, even if you meet them by chance, because you’ll always find one among the many who can help you come up in life. As your network expands, your opportunities multiply. 

While you develop your talents and abilities, and commit to your goal, you also have to consider luck. Anyone can aspire to succeed, but I attribute 80% of my success to luck. In life, many people have the same talents and perseverance that you do. They are able to do the same things you do. For example, my siblings and I came from the same background and shared similar educational qualifications, but they couldn’t reach the same levels and positions as I did. 

So you need to have luck behind you. It’s an external force, it’s not visible – but it’s out there. Your commitment, capability and talent – that’s in here, within you. It’s a balance, and both need to come together. That’s how a village boy who was flying kites in paddy fields and tying dragonfly tails with kehel danda nool now lives next to the American Ambassador in Colombo 7, and is blessed with wealth and assets and fame.

Luck followed me like a cart behind a bull. Otherwise anyone from Pinnawala could be where I am today. Anyone could be Nimal Perera. That’s why I advise people to keep developing their skills and talents and remain committed to their goals. Because then, when luck comes knocking on your door, you’ll be ready to grab the opportunity. You’ll never go wrong if you do that. 

Advice to my younger self and all aspiring leaders: Your gut feeling helps you change and progress through life. A powerful sense of intuition is similar to luck; it’s like a raised antenna that senses and transmits the decisions and actions you should take at important moments in your life. My sense of intuition told me to make my life-transforming move from accounting to marketing in my 40s, which isn’t an age to change career. 

Ultimately, you have to be true to your identity and you have to believe in yourself. At all times, be yourself – humble, simple, and down-to-earth. I’m perfectly content to eat rice with pol sambol and dried fish, just like everyone else. I cook my own meals, twice or thrice a week. I have access to people at the very top of the hierarchy, but I never act as if I do.

Looking back, I don’t regret anything – the way I do things, the way I speak to people, the way I behave – because I haven’t tried to become someone or something I’m not. It’s important to avoid cultivating an artificial image or acting like someone you’re not. If you’re unable to be yourself and stay true to your identity, you’ll deviate from your path and target.

Advice to my younger self and all aspiring leaders: Believe in yourself and be true to yourself. Have clear goals. Go for it, take the challenges and risks to realise them. Don’t stick to one place or position in life, and change your career from time to time.