Hello all
Some day ago..
..when the girls asked me to be a speaker in today's event
the first thing I 've thought of and told them was..
'who am I?', 'Sincerely, who am I to speak in a so important occasion?'
and actually, what do I have to speak about?
'We want you to speak about Failure!' the told me
That didn't sound really good..
Ok then but, who am I to talk about failure?
I don't look like Walt Disney, that was fired by local newspaper due to lack of creativity
that was fired by local newspaper due to lack of creativity
Off course I have no similarity with someone like Steve Jobs..
that was also sacked by his own company and now we all know the story
Off course I don't look at all like Albert Einstein
whose teachers was calling him stupid
then..why?
Some years ago, I was also April,
I 've thought, like many young people those days..
that I had to do something, to start up something
I already had a two year experience as an AIESEC volunteer
a little bit of advertisement, a little bit of Social media
anyway, I was thinking,and let's please keep it between you and me, that the corporate world out there
would fight each other for me
I had just came back from abroad and I was thinking that I was really important, that I had a great talent
I decided to make them all happy, so I started sending my resume
I 'send around 3million resumes
and I 've been interviewd 2-3 times
while being close to disapointment
I wake up a morning and see a position that, I would name 'Dream job'
Marketing director in a group of companies with somehow my skills
Sincerely, when I saw it, I imagined myself sitting in that position
I envisioned that I am sitting in that chair, that I am this person
I also called for reinforcements
I called my mum
I will suffer for this slide later...
Practically, this means that, when I want something really much
my mum goes to Virgin Mary and kindles a candle for me asking for favours
Some days later, I find myself to the CEO's office, for the interview
Also by networking a little in the company, after some days
they announce to me that I 've taken the position
I had caught my acorn
Really, I cannot describe you my feelings
I was feeling like that
I was 23 years old, Marketing director in a group of companies!
I didn't care about anything.
I didn't care that the salary was low
I didn't even care for leading a single member department, consisting only me, its director!
After a one-week training that left me with a lot of confusion
I begun leading the Marketing of the 5 companies consisting the group
1st of September was my first day
22 of September was my last day in the position
I had resigned when I realized that, one floor below..
they were interviewing people to replace me.
Let's return to the beginning's query
I am here today with you, to make a sincere failure analysis
The failure as you will never find it in Facebook photoquotes
The failure as nobody describes it
The failure that doesn't lead to majesty and you know what? Enough with this cliche
Having failed doesn't mean you are one step closer to become Michael Jordan
It is time for some conclusions
Failure is painful, failure hurts, failure fills you with insecurities
Secondly, probably noone except your mum, will see the educative experience behind your failure
People will only see a loser
After some days that the pain has passed, I started thinking
I had, somehow, to see what went wrong
It seemed to me difficult and irresponsible
to lay all the blame to company that, to be truthful, had survived the crisis
but it seemed impossible for me to continue with this last impression
Somehow, I had to erase this last impression and so I quickly made my next move
which I will describe you with the next story
One and a half year ago,
while Greek society was seriously affected by the economic crisis
I thought that the most important thing I could do was to start something up
something that would be nice, that would help the society during these days
These days, my best friend was my fellow traveller
We, together, had created a project that would chance the Greek University
the whole world and the galaxies around
We spent a lot of hours working
laughing a lot, solving managerial problems
and finally, we made of something with great abilities that received lot of acceptance 0:07:04.000,0:07:03.000 Maybe more acceptance than we were expecting
and probably a lot more than we could handle
After the project was only 2 months in life, we started giving interviews
interviews at magazines, newspapers, radio, we were seeing ourselves to the TV
Those days, we were feeling like Rockstars
Everything was going great
Everything was one click better than we expected
Everything except the project itself
After 4 months, despite our project's abilities, it only had 5 temporary customers
It took much time to see it but
when we did it, it was too late
An epic fight about the stock share of our 5-customer General motors
gave an end to our innovative idea but especially, gave an end to a dream
The dream of implemeting a social project
that was really close to success due to our nice atmosphere
and good communication that had until a point of time
I think it's time to tell you something
It's really important to chase your dreams but
I am warning you, because it costed me a lot.
If, somehow, it happens to you, grab it from the horns and stay modest
Otherwise, history will force you to become modest and that is not cheerful
I already had two big failures, I had not earned not even one euro
The opposite, I had lost lot of my parents money
I was taking pocket money at the age of 24
I had more than half of my department's courses to pass
I could not recognize either me or my best friend
Failure, sometimes comes wearing the mantle of success,
reminding us how imperfect we are
Have you heard yet anything that was at all romantic?
something that is hiding a lot of inspiration or that could stand up a stadium to applause?
In my opinion, what we 've said till now was only a big FAIL
We are now in February 2012
Having already some occupation with entrepreneurship
and after the first Greek startup Accelerator had opened
I decided to send an application
A startup Accelerator is program selecting business ideas with potential and supporting the team around them.
I already had a project in mind so I quickly sent my application
After a couple of months, having been accepted, I am swiming in a really deep sea
With the rest of team, were working in a place, meeting mentors,pitching,business planning
It was a difficult period with too much knowledge coming, knowledge for which I am really happy to have taken it in that age.
My idea, at first, was judged well and passed to the next phase in the top-3
Now is the most demanding period for everyone.
But, all I am describing you, were happening for a purpose
This purpose was the creation of an innovative idea, in its conception or its implementation, in a global scale
that could bring enough money for an investor to get interested
that could be able to be implemented at a low cost
surrounded by a globally competitive team that could work for 6-12 months for free
Having that in mind, I worked really hard and I am feeling proud for having managed to finish the whole program
where the investors were waiting...
real investors, waiting there to hear our ideas and after 10 minutes of pitching, decide whether or not they will burn their money on them.
To be accurate, I was asking 550.000 euros
In that point, I want to make a parenthesis
An investor is not a person that will reward you for your effort, they usually represent serious funds or even banks
they have few time and almost 0 patience
For example, if an investor believes that your idea cannot make you feel optimistic, that your presentation is vague or that you waste his limited time, he will say it to you.
And he said it to me. 0:13:03.000,0:12:11.000 When I got over it, faster this time, I came to some conclusions that would be really nice to share with you.
Conclusion #1, my ambitions were too big
Conclusion #2, I never was this little genious my dad thought since junior and I want to apologize for that today
I was unable of achieving something that big, in that point of time.
Coming to now, I am telling my personal stories of failure without any kind of excuse
As you can see, I am not the fancy speaker as the rest of people you will hear today
I came in front of you today, without having an honesty crisis
After a domino of failures like these, whatever you had as entrenched, starts to change.
Successes stop being what they are and failures look like lessons
You realize that things were never total black or total white in what you have experienced
but you understand the progress you 've made
Either failure or success are defined for you by others
It is only you that defines them
Don't stop chasing your dreams even if they seem to be wrong, worthless or pointless
Chase as many acorns you can
Never give up, get disapointed, cry, get angry
Do not be afraid of changing your path
Most of all, do not be afraid of insisting
The only lost battle is the one never happened.
Thank you very much