I’m going to start by asking myself a question, even if that’s what they teach you NOT to do: how do you feel after the Born2Succeed conference? Answer: AMAZING!! Truth is, not even my journalism school should tell me how to start and article after such an amazing weekend!
Actually it was Tosin Ogunnusi’s idea that got me thinking about it a bit more. He taught us to ask the powerful questions. I interviewed loads of students, asking them what was the most importand thing they take home with them, from everything they had learnt. Most of them told me it was an increased feeling of self esteem, of confidence.
Like a domino, my mind got to the next question. Why do people feel the need to be encouraged? Why can’t we be just like 5 year olds? If they are happy, they laugh, if they are sad, they cry. If they are accepted by their new friends, it’s fine, if not, that’s ok too. Five minutes later they’ll play again and forget about it.
What is so wrong with our society that we always need to be approved by others in order to be happy? But that’s what powerful conferences do. They get you into that state of wonder and fill you up for the next three months. You feel inspired, positive, optimistic and you can really conquer the world. So questions kept popping up in my mind, you know, the good questions, the ones leading to great answers.
And then I remembered the most important question of all, one that got answered at the end of the conference: Why did we all do this? Why did Irina Alionte bother to bring all these coaches to Romania? It got answered when Georgiana Bendre, an Economics student, who said: „If my days at university had been just as inspirational, I wouldn’t have missed a class”. So yes, Romania needs INSPIRATION! Romania needs mentors and successful role models. That’s what we’re all here for!
It was then that it all fell into place. I realized that just as Ketan, Tosin and Justin said the whole weekend, you should look at it from a different perspective. This time, from a student’s perspective. They are the future entrepreneurs of Romania, the little wheels that will get things started. And the question isn’t just what we’ll take home, but also how many lives have we impacted during it all. If just one of you felt inspired and started off a new business of became the best at work, then their mission here in Romania would be accomplished. Tosin said this and it really got stuck in my brains.
Truth is, there wasn’t just one person there who felt inspired and pumped up. The whole room was bustling with ideas, people networked, meditated, danced, shared their fears and embarrassing moments, laughed at the jokes all speakers made and on top of it all, broke through a thick wooden board, to overcome their biggest fears and uncertainties.
„If your mind can do it, you can do it! It’s all in the mindset” So even if it usually takes people around 18 months to break through wooden boards, we all did it in half an hour there, just because Tosin gave us some of his energy and confidence. And he had plenty of energy to share! You should have seen everyone jumping for joy after they did it! Actually you can see it in the pictures on Facebook! And then the next day, over the coffee break, I heard people saying it took them less to get home. They litterally floated on cloud number 9. No traffic there, I suppose.
All I know is it took me half an hour to write this article, I guess fingers can float on top of the keyboard too. And just as Ketan said, once you know you do the right thing, your heart is pumping out and you feel like you could conquer the world. But then we get to what Justin Devonshire had to say: you need a mentor, to guide you. Even Richard Branson has five of those, for everything he does. He reminded us that Born2Succeed will continue after this and will keep inspiring young people in Romania to be successful, through their online mentoring programme that is created as we speak. All those present signed up to try it and see what doors will open up for them.
As for myself, I tried choosing one mentor out of the three. Who could be the most inspirational for me? Truth is, all three of them got me thinking about my own questions, each of them in a different way. Justin made me think about mentors and how they could inspire me get to the next point in my life. Ketan made me think about the bigger picture and breaking my own barriers and Tosin helped me reconsider my attitude towards it all, good and bad! And one thing came to my mind: we keep building ourselves, all our lives, brick by brick, book by book, conference by conference, experience by experience. And then it dawned on me. As Ketan said, „It is only when you start thinking about the world around you, that the right answers will come to you.”
Because we are all BORN TO SUCCEED!
