Translator: Melina Topaka Reviewer: Chryssa Takahashi
Good evening.
When I realized that today I would be one of the last ones to talk at TEDx,
I was happy thinking that I could listen to the first ones and prepare accordingly.
I discovered that maybe it's not such a good idea
as I might say things that may have already been mentioned.
Also, I won't be talking about things that have to do
with the main subject of my work,
that have to do with business, economics, growth sectors etc.
The reason I won't be doing this
and I will talk about something that makes me feel more uncomfortable,
but that I believe is more important,
is that over the past few years, I have lived quite a lot abroad,
and through my job I have the chance,
as every week I travel to 2-3 countries the least,
to see different mentalities from ours,
to be in the position to observe and make some comparisons.
That's what I will be talking about today,
as in essence I left Greece in 2003,
before the beginning of the large lobster pasta plates,
as my friend Giannis said in a previous TEDx,
and I returned in 2011, also having missed the end of lobster pasta.
And that's why, I believe the following:
That the model that I have seen working in general in every country,
whether it is about a country or about a company,
how the country or company is truly happy,
is that they are truly based on people,
and not with words but with many deeds.
What do I mean by this?
I mean that, at the end of the day, our mentality, our life stance,
and our behaviour are much more important
than other things happening around us.
This is something that we often fail to realize,
and the faster we realize it,
the more critical it is in order to better proceed.
Now, first of all, I want to openly state
that I met Mr. Papachelas in the break about one and a half hour before,
and so it it just a coincidence that I use an article from Kathimerini
to tell you what I will be talking about.
But actually, two weeks ago
- I don't know who has read this article -
it is an article that is closely related to what I will be talking about today.
So, what did this article say?
It said that Greek expatriates in America are first in education
and second in per capita income
in comparison to all other ethnic groups of America.
And right now there are about 150 ethnic groups living in America.
Greeks, then, are first in education, second in income
and in fact with 30% higher income to Americans.
Accidental? I don't think so. That's exactly what I wanted to talk about today.
As over the past 15 years, apart from working abroad,
I also have many friends, since I was living abroad,
that are Greek expats.
Most of them have lived half of their life in Greece
and the other half abroad.
The first thing I noticed, then,
is that most of them are very happy,
very successful, both financially and personally.
What's really clear,
is that these Greeks have maintained our key competitive advantage
that we all have as Greeks, our core,
which includes passion, hospitality, enterpreneurship, earnestness.
But what we don't do much in Greece, while they do it quite a lot,
is a different stance of life, a different mentality,
a winner's mentality, I would say, that most of the times we lack greatly.
Therefore, what I am saying is that it is very easy
to blame the situation we are in for what is happening to us,
yet some of the Greek expats I have had around me,
are not in countries as advanced as America.
There are many successful Greek expats in Bulgaria,
Romania, some in Serbia,
in countries that you really believe that the system is not working so well.
This is, then, the great contradiction.
That these Greeks abroad have managed
to have a much better mentality and behaviour,
a winner's behaviour, in comparison to us.
So, what I am describing is basically that,
what I see happening in Greece
- and I am saying again that I returned three years ago
and I am here mostly over the weekends -
but is crystal clear to me,
is that from what I see on the Greeks we live in Greece,
is that our key competitive advantages
which are passion and pride and freedom and joy
and hospitality and courage, have shown their dark side.
And unfortunately they have shown their dark side
often without us realizing it.
Therefore, passion becomes stubbornness, and we don't realize it.
Pride many times pomposity,
Freedom - our joy for freedom - anarchy.
Our cheerfulness, that we have as people, and our smile become intense depression.
Our hospitality, unfortunately as I notice lately, more and more xenophobia,
and our courage becomes quite often fear.
Taking a step back and to go back a bit to what Mr. Ramfos had said.
From very early on, the Greek genius has been rather straightforward.
As you very well know, we got into ships 2.000 years ago,
and we started selling olive oil and fruit and ideas and several things
all over the Western world.
This didn't happen because we had better products than the others.
I suppose that you have read
that there were several other people around us with very good products.
In my opinion, the reason that we truly are
the first universal citizens in the Western world,
and the first ones that brought along globalization to an extent,
was because Ancient Greeks had impressive self-confidence,
total lack of fear and the winner's mentality.
And that's what made them really move forward so much.
To come back a bit to the previous presenters.
So, what am I saying?
I am saying that, having a small country, does it help you do well?
No, it is definitely not positive.
It is much better to have a much bigger country.
To have a state that actually doesn't operate as you would think, helps?
No, it doesn't help and I agree.
What I am saying, though, is that I believe that all these external factors,
and some internal ones, like these,
do not account for more than 40% of the problem in order for a nation to proceed.
I believe that this 60% has to do with us, with an attempt to highlight our core,
to highlight our bright side and not our dark side
and do the right thing.
At this point, I would like to talk to you about eight, in my opinion, areas
which we should try daily to develop,
as, in my opinion and from what I have seen abroad,
these areas, and our development in these areas,
could bring along good results
without counting too much
on what the state will do, our productivity etc
The first one, then, of these is what I mentioned before - fear.
I believe that what happens in nations that are not doing well,
is that people live in terrible fear,
often without realizing it,
and it is very difficult to get away from this fear.
This can happen to anyone.
I remember myself when for the first time the company I work for asked me
to go to Romania and undertake 12 Eastern European countries,
with my basis in Romania, I was really terrified.
In addition, I went there alone, without my family,
as my daughter was three months old and my son one year and a half.
I remember, then, during the first trimester - quarter,
I would bring a new shirt to change at work,
as I felt so uncomfortable that my pulses were rising and I sweated.
I remember it like it just happened.
The question is, "What do you do to get away from fear?"
And "How can you transform fear into creativity, positive thinking
and do well".
Another example that has really impressed me,
is my friend, Alexandros,
who owned a very good agency in Greece,
doing branding and several other things, one of the successful agencies.
This agency didn't go well; after 2008, he had to close it down.
He went through all the stages of fear that I am describing for quite a while,
but he managed after some time
not only to get out of this,
but also to transform his fear into creativity to a large extent.
Now, he has set up a fantastic small brewery in Tinos,
and by the way I met him recently
and he looks 10 years younger as he also lives in Tinos.
And his brewery is constantly being awarded.
So for me, this example is very straightforward
in describing how you can step out of fear,
transform it into positive thinking, creativity
and move forward.
Another thing that I don't see happening, although we all talk about it,
- and in fact I hold my generation accountable for most mistakes -
is which is the good example we give our children.
There are two kinds of good examples.
The one is, which is the good example we give our children
and the other is, which is the good example the state gives our children.
As far as we are concerned, I believe that no matter how much we talk about it daily,
how important it is to set a good example,
our daily life doesn't demonstrate this.
We throw garbage out of our car,
we don't take a receipt for something we buy etc.
The first imporant thing is if we truly want our children to change.
If we believe in what we are discussing,
we should do something about it on a daily basis.
The second part is what the states does.
One thing that has impressed me abroad,
is that, from elementary school, the state teaches children about good behaviour,
and what it means in particular to have a good behaviour daily,
at least one hour per day,
and therefore kids, from very early on, evolve into more remarkable citizens.
So, one thing that I believe should happen
is for the state to truly put an emphasis
on what good mentality and good behaviour are all about.
The third area, that again when comparing to other countries,
I see that we don't do such a good job,
is to form synergies at work.
We are rather individualists as a nation.
And although we work hard, we don't view collaboration as one of the key elements
in order to do greater things than what we do individually.
One example I can tell you, is that, in the company I work,
and in fact I should mention that the headquarters of Coca-Cola
for 23 countries are in Greece - something that was my choice -
and among our staff of 120 people in our headquarters we have 11 nationalities.
Eleven nationalities that work together in total harmony.
Some of them are in the audience today.
And I wonder, then, how is it possible to have an office
where you see 11 nationalities working in harmony
and it is so difficult for us Greeks to work in harmony in between us
and when things get tough we blame each other.
The next area that really upsets me
and maybe because I have lived in Canada, which is the country, in my opinion,
that values diversity like no other country in the world,
is something that really upsets me in Greece.
And especially over the past two-three years,
that I notice that being coloured or being different is a bad thing.
For me, there is no chance our society can move forward,
not solely by tolerating diversity,
but by honouring diversity the way we should be honouring it.
Another example I would like to share is that,
I went to Canada with my family in 2008,
when my son was about seven and my daughter six.
A year later, we got to know many different people.
At school, the kids had at least 15 different nationalities in each class.
Another thing that had really impressed me is that
one of our good friends, is Andreas Souvaliotis,
- I think he is in the audience today, from Canada,
who talked on Thessaloniki's TEDx some time ago -
who is openly gay.
So, we went to his place with our children where he lives with his spouse,
and we had to explain to our kids, at this age of six and seven,
very clearly, what is happening exactly,
why do they have a common bed, as they had never imagined it etc.
Although at the time it was very hard, I thought it was amazing
to see what kind of education we really give our children on diversity.
But I also find it extremely difficult
for us Greeks living in Greece to do this in essence and in depth.
I would certainly hope that from now on we can do it much more.
Another area that I see - again comparing to other countries where I work -
is our self-evaluation.
Greeks - along with Italians, from the countries I know -
are the people that mostly blame others for something that's happening to them.
And this is no good.
For me, one of the keys to success,
regarding personal matters, or a company or a country,
is self-knowledge and self-evaluation.
And that's something in our DNA,
for many years now, I think.
If we don't change this part,
I believe that it will be hard to advance both as a nation and individually.
Another thing is how we work.
Primarily, I must say that it is not about not being hard-workers.
I can tell you for sure that among the countries I am responsible,
we have 37 nationalities in all 23 countries.
From these 37 nationalities, I truly believe that
the Greeks I have in all countries are the most hard-working.
So, I don't believe anyone who says that we are not hard-workers, as I live it.
Still, I believe that we are not good
at sticking to timeplans.
And I put myself forward.
I was the last one to send my presentation to TEDx yesterday,
(Laughter)
so, I don't want to exclude myself from this.
There is something in our DNA that doesn't help us do the job as we should,
within the timings we should and begin it when we should.
And that's a very important thing in order to move forward.
Another area is education, and we certainly talk a lot about it.
Education is very important,
but for me it is more important to have deep knowledge
instead of superficial knowledge in many different things.
When I talk about education, I talk about things we will get into as people
and that we will do really well.
The last area- and maybe the most important - is respect.
I have one of my 11 people from abroad in my office,
he tells me, "Nikos, I am surprised.
For you, people, even traffic lights are not the rule, are a mere indication."
(Laughter)
Think about it. For us, it is normal to pass when the light has just turned red.
The man lost his mind!
And that's when we realize how we tend to "round off the edges"
without realizing it.
So, what I want to say at this point, is
that if we, first, do not finish with all the corruption and the hustlers,
and we don't respect the law, even if our laws are not perfect,
then nothing will happen.
Concluding, then, I would like to say
that from my experience, from the little I have understood,
is that our core is very good.
The problem is that our competitive advantages
often expose their dark side
- something that doesn't help at all -
and we don't believe and follow and consider
those eight basic areas I have just told you about.
So, I would like to finish with an excerpt by Odysseas Elytis, from Little Nautilus,
which says that if you decompose Greece,
you will get down to an olive tree, a vine and a ship.
In my opinion, then, it is so easy and simple to put these back together,
as long as we focus on our core and our bright side.
Thank you.
(Applause)