Resilience is defined as the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Kimal Singh, founder of NDE Solutions is resilience personified and was gracious enough to sit down with Tim Lavis on the ThirtyNiners podcast to discuss his confronting life journey from a childhood Apartheid, to one of South Australia’s most innovative young minds.
Whilst Kimal does not have a clear recollection of the atrocities that occurred in South Africa as a child, he vividly remembers the ways in which his parents excelled against all odds.
“I’m a migrant. My parents moved to Australia in 1999 and I was originally born in South Africa — now the South Africa Apartheid ended in 1993, so I was born into it, not that I remember much of it, I mean I do, but my parents wore the worst of it.
“My parents, they succeeded in the face of adversity, and that was the biggest lesson they taught me; it was to never worry about the externalities, you can push forward, you can find a way to persevere”.
Kimal’s parents were the epitome of resilience, as his mother obtained a doctorate in South Africa and his father served as one of the first diplomats of colour under Nelson Mandela’s time in leadership, where he was able to experience first-hand, the power of harvesting your talents to make the world a better place.
These lessons in hindsight are the building blocks of NDE Solutions mission to provide innovative inspection solutions and non-destructive testing across an array of industries to ensure business processes are kept safe, cost-effective, and sustainable.
Kimal wants to use NDE Solutions capabilities to leave the world a better place than he found it, and believes collaborating with other South Australian leaders is the foundation of creating real change not just locally, but the world at large.
“You can talk about a problem, but what are you actually doing to fix it? And you know I hope that in the ThirtyNiners, we plant a lot of seeds that grow into trees and flowers.
“I want to create a better future for my children and everybody else’s children, and I think this is a cool way to do it”.
If you can learn anything from Kimal and his life journey, his life mantra is a simple quote from the poem that got Nelson Mandela through 27 years in jail.
‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’.
To learn more about Kimal’s inspiring journey of resilience, listen to his full conversation with Tim Lavis on the ThirtyNiners Podcast by the South Australian Business Chamber. Search for it wherever you hear your podcasts.
