Three highlights from the past year
Last year I spent four months at home in Sofia, five months in Bulgaria but not at home, and three months abroad in 9 countries and three continents. I enjoy this perpetual motion. I went over my calendar entries and photos to see what was worth sharing. I narrowed it down to three highlights.
First, I married Mina, the girl who has been putting up with me for the last seven years.
I want to keep most of that for myself so I will stop here :*
Second is the chain of events related to X[TREE]M CO[SPACE], the co-working space that we (by “we” I refer to my partner Vesko and I) created in X Challenge Park in 2021. In January 2022 we began talks with NEXO, a crypto platform company that wanted to rent out our existing co-working space for the summer. After signing the contract we decided to expand our co-working space. Having built the first one from shipping containers and wanting to stay original, Vesko had the idea that the new “wing“ should be built out of two refurbished city buses.
This time, same as last year, we vastly underestimated the complexity of the task, but we are stubborn and can endure pain for prolonged periods. We began looking for buses in February, found two that we liked, and got them. My (still) girlfriend at the time, Mina made the architectural plans and we began the lengthy process of transforming the buses into offices.
I was so excited about what we were doing that I told everyone around me. One of those conversations managed to raise the interest of Radoslav Georgiev from Quantive. They committed to renting one bus for the upcoming summer having seen only Mina’s sketch. I am immensely grateful for the trust.
That was a first for me. Selling a promise. I am usually much more comfortable selling something that I have built and tested but this seemed like a very good opportunity. Delivering on that promise put us under a lot of stress. Having underestimated the task, we had a few points in the process where we brought friends and family to help us finish on time and I want to use this opportunity to thank each one of them.
IKEA joined forces with us once again and provided us with all the furniture and Fashion Days also stood behind us and helped build the lounge area between the busses. I will leave the images to speak for themselves. On top of NEXO and Quantive, we had clients from Hewlett Packard, Financial Times, Greenpeace, LAB 08, and individuals from all over Europe throughout the summer months.
Last but not least most of my international travel was with the World Jewish Congress. Among the many events that I was part of including one in the Vatican with Pope Francis, I produced videos in Poland and Hungary in March and in Moldova in December. Both of which left a mark on me. In Poland and Hungary, we went to a few of the borders with Ukraine and spoke to the people on the ground and Ukrainian refugees. The experience was quite humbling.
In Moldova, I joined last minute on a trip that had been planned for a few months. I was just a witness to what my colleagues had prepared but again was moved to see that what we did mattered. Here is one of those clips:
Once again I realize that working on hard things with questionable outcomes is what drives me and gives me the biggest satisfaction and I wonder what will those be in the coming weeks and months.
