Being creative and entprenreurial | Zoi Kantounatou | TEDx EUAB

In 2014 Zoi Kantounatou, then the Community and Events manager, now Director at Power of Youth did a TEDx Talk at Athens University of Economics and Business. For our Greek readers, below is a link to the video but long have we sought after a translation of this talk…today is the day!

“The theme today is emerging paths and I will tell you about how the decision to create my own path changed my life.

I was born and raised in Thessaloniki and I grew up with the mentality I think most of the people of my generation did — the ultimate goal is to get a secure job, thus I had to study something that could give me that. When I was 16 or 17 I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Maybe, I hadn’t thought about it and maybe nobody had ever asked me. So I just followed the path that was set for me and end up in University of Macedonia studying Accounting and Finance. I started my studies but something didn’t feel quite right. I felt that what I was doing didn’t interest me, and I wasn’t expressing who I really am. So, I started volunteering in organisations, travelling and meeting various of people. I got interested in the big problems of the world and even more in what I could do to solve them. But all this energy and excitement left me every time I attended a class when I had to spend my time on book keeping and stocks.

I finished my studies though, because I didn’t want to quit and leave something incomplete. Afterwards I decided to take advantage of the opportunity offered by my parents and study a Masters abroad. I had a real urge to do something that would interest me more than my previous degree, so Ι started studying Socio Economic Development in a small town in Scotland.

My Masters was completely different, it excited me, it gave me the opportunity to see a lot of the world’s problems, widened my horizons, and it also gave me the knowledge of alternative solutions that exist. When I left, I realised that if there are other solutions, then I might do not have to find a “normal” job, follow the same path, but I might be able to do something different that would allow me to fulfil my dreams.

With that in mind, I moved to Edinburgh. I found a flat and started looking for a job. I was excited at the beginning, looking forward to the new adventure ahead of me. Six months later my excitement wasn’t the same. That period was full of paperwork, applications, little money coming from the benefits and many hours spent searching! Then, I started wondering if my decision to look for a different job was wrong, if my choice to stay in Edinburgh away from my friends and family was wrong, but mostly if I was driven by a young naivety that there is an alternative path and that it was wrong to see that the world in that way.

Fortunately, at that moment, just before I gave up, I met Adam and Alex — two young Englishmen who have started their own organisation 2 years ago — a network of young entrepreneurs who run their businesses based on values, understanding the impact that their actions have on society.

When I first met them, they told me about the organisation and that an important part of their work is organising global summits and at that time they were looking for someone to help them set up the event they were doing in Scotland. I was excited, because it was something that I had experience in. They also told me that, unfortunately they didn’t have the money at the time to pay me and part of our contract would be me fundraising and getting a percentage of this money. Being honest, I left the first meeting not knowing exactly what happened. I didn’t know exactly what the organisation did or what my role would be in it. The only thing I knew was that the passion I saw in their eyes made me excited, and that I was walking home feeling happy again after a long time. So, I accepted.

I had been working there almost a month when I realised that I just want it to be part of it! I needed to find a way to keep working with them even when the event was over. The second month I got my first payment and that’s when I had a thought — what if instead of me taking the money now and leaving, we collect all the money and in the end we make a contract with it for the next year? That way I would keep working there and I would have a monthly salary for my expenses. I knew that the money wouldn’t be a lot, but I believed that I could make it work. I told them, and they agreed! I was so happy! After the meeting I ran home to tell my family and friends. Their reaction wasn’t as good as mine though. They were sceptical, some said that they had taken advantage of me, that it was not the normal way to find a job and some couldn’t understand what was happening, because it was something they had never heard of before. All of them were happy, but they advised me to be careful and keep my options open.

The first six months I had to defend this decision lots of times, both to others but also to myself. I was still loving my job and what I was doing, but no job is perfect. There were moments of tiredness, problems and arguments. There were moments when there was not enough money. I was thinking, maybe I made this decision too quickly, maybe I was not made for it. And even though I tried, I couldn’t convince myself why I did it.

Until I went to the Netherlands and I met one of our entrepreneurs. We sat down, and the first question was if I had my own business and when I said no he asked me why then are you involved with this organisation? I froze and then started telling my story. When I finished he looked at me impressed and said “I understand now,” you are clearly entrepreneurial. You saw an opportunity and you seized it, you saw something you wanted and created the way to achieve it, you created your own path and that’s what entrepreneurial people do!

Being entrepreneurial is being creative and finding new ways to deal with your problems, it is the way you see the world around you and your own life as an opportunity

Suddenly, a new world opened to me! I realised that entrepreneurship is something different. For me it never existed as a concept. In my mind, an entrepreneur was someone who is 40 -50 years old, sitting in a big office managing their employees. Now someone was telling me that it is more than that. Being entrepreneurial is being creative and finding new ways to deal with your problems, it is the way you see the world around you and your own life as an opportunity to learn is not to compromise but to change things. And if you fail you start over until you achieve what you want! And the best of all? It’s an ability that everyone has. It is part of our human nature.

I was entrepreneurial in the way I created my own job but there are so many others; entrepreneurial office workers who approach their everyday lives in a different way, entrepreneurial parents who raise their kids in a different way, entrepreneurial students who see their studies as an opportunity, to create something new. People who chose to create their own experiences.

Imagine a world that everyone is living that way — how would it be?

How open would our path be if we knew that we all have the ability to create it?

I was thinking about this when suddenly I realised that there was a question bothering me — if this is true, why had no one ever told me? Why I didn’t know this earlier?

Trying to find an answer to this question, I started looking at the world around me and I realised that like in most things, the environment we live in plays an important role. Through my work I was able to have a deeper look at it.

We created a map of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Scotland showing all the organisations that exist and nurture entrepreneurialism — schools, universities, start up communities, investors, and organisations that help young people realise their potential … and what we found was that in Scotland, the ecosystem is extremely supportive. People have almost everything they need to become entrepreneurial and choose their own path.

Think what makes you happy, what makes you come alive, what is the path you imagine yourself walking onto and be creative and just try it.

I know what you might be thinking — that sounds great, but in Greece things are different and you are probably right. But I’ve seen many things changing in Greece over the last few years — I’ve seen new projects, new ideas, and creative people achieving a lot. What if WE change the environment we live in? What if WE create the opportunities we need? What if each one of us creates their own path?

Think what makes you happy, what makes you come alive, what is the path you imagine yourself walking onto and be creative and just try it. It will be tough and you need to be patient, but, believe me, it will be worth every moment.”

POY will be heading to Greece for their 2016 Retreat in September — if you would like to find out more — follow this link.