{"id":13939,"date":"2026-07-01T00:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=13939"},"modified":"2026-06-23T07:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:53:20","slug":"the-other-side-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2026\/07\/01\/the-other-side-of-success\/","title":{"rendered":"The Other Side of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Bookshelves abound with rags to riches stories, but Intimidated? The Lecture I Never Gave <\/em>takes a different approach. Instead of leaning into a polished account of success, it shares the lessons Assoc Prof Nanayakkara learned\u2014and the questions he\u2019s been asked\u2014along the way. Drawing on his own experiences and those of his students, the book aims to reach young people navigating uncertainty, seeking higher education and pursuing meaningful careers. \u201cThe whole purpose of the book is really to help people to remember that we are not extraordinary. We\u2019re the same people\u2014what matters is some courage, some self-belief and resilience.\u201d<\/p>

Here are five things to know about the book:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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1. It\u2019s not a success story\u2014at least not in the usual sense<\/strong>
Assoc Prof Nanayakkara sets out to \u201cpeel himself open\u201d, sharing the less visible parts of his journey: failures, self-doubt and those moments where he nearly gave up.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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2. From humble beginnings to big dreams
<\/strong>He grew up in a lower-middle-class household in Sri Lanka, speaking only Sinhala and with little exposure to technology. Arriving in Singapore with only $1,000, he had to navigate an unfamiliar environment while pursuing an Engineering degree.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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3. The message is deliberately simple<\/strong>
You do not need to be exceptional to achieve something meaningful. What matters more, he argues, is courage, self-belief and the willingness to act when opportunities appear.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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4. It is written for those who don\u2019t yet see what\u2019s possible<\/strong>
The book is aimed especially at young people whose ambitions are shaped by their immediate surroundings. He recalls meeting a student whose highest aspiration was simply to wear a long-sleeved shirt and tie\u2014an example of how limited exposure can narrow one\u2019s sense of possibility.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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5. It is already reaching far beyond him
<\/strong>What began as a personal project has taken on a wider life. With support from a sponsor, 5,000 copies are being distributed to schools across Sri Lanka, with the country\u2019s Ministry of Education\u2019s backing. This way, an individual story is being used as a resource for the next generation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Assoc Prof Nanayakkara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the School of Computing<\/a>. He is also the founder and Principal Investigator of the <\/em>Augmented Human Lab<\/em><\/a> at NUS, where he leads an interdisciplinary team designing human-computer interfaces and tools for assistive and augmented technologies. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book, co-authored by Associate Professor Suranga Nanayakkara (Engineering \u201905, PhD \u201810) and Ms Hanjun Wu (MComp \u201925), strips away the gloss of success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13939"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14579,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13939\/revisions\/14579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}