"Expect the unexpected." 

That was the theme for the 3rd edition of Maybank's GO Ahead Challenge this year, and it was definitely unexpected for the winners to pick up the final grand prize of USD 40,000. I say unexpected because this year's GO Ahead Challenge was unlike any other. The organizers promised more complex challenges which required the challengers to adapt both individually and as a team to different situations. 

I wrote about the GO Ahead Challenge for 2014 earlier this year, when it was first announced and the "trailer" event certainly gave glimpses of how amazing a challenge this would be to the participants. Fast forward a few months, and the challenges have been completed. Blood (yes, there was blood), sweat and tears have been shed. Fears have been conquered. The winner has been selected. 

Wow. So much drama in that last paragraph. Okay. Time to tone it down a little. 

If you don't know what it is, Maybank's GO Ahead Challenge 2014 is an exciting international business case competition which melds corporate life and business meetings with It is literally a challenge which makes challengers use both their body and mind. This year, the best and brightest minds from Malaysia, ASEAN and across the globe were given the opportunity to exhibit their potential in a multi-discipline and multi-national initiative with world-class experience.

I was fortunate enough to be invited for the Maybank GO Ahead Challenge Gala Dinner to witness the crowning of the winner of the challenge. A huge thank you to SocialGrooves for hooking me up with this insane opportunity to brush my padded shoulders with some of the best and brightest young minds in the industry, as well as fellow bloggers and social media butterflies. 

The group of us bloggers and social sharers from SocialGrooves.com were just standing around talking when none other than Tan Sri Dato’ Megat Zaharuddin, the Chairman of Maybank walked up to us and started engaging us in conversation. He was so friendly and humble that most of us didn't even know that one of the most influential men in Maybank was standing in front of us and laughing about how he wished the doors would open so that dinner could be served. 

One of the highlights of the dinner was this sharing session between the young generation and the more experienced generation. The youth proved that it isn't too late to learn new things, and on the way also picked up a few valuable tips in how to succeed in the working world. 

Of course, amidst dinner, the winners of the night were announced along with music from the Maybank in-house band, who played a lot of Bruno Mars. Below are a list of all the winners.