3 amazing individuals I met in 2016

What I learnt and what you can also learn from them

Written by: Sotiris Baratsas

It’s the 31st of December, a few hours before the New Year, and like most people, I can’t help but reflect for everything that happened in 2016. It’s been a tough year, full of challenges, moments of sadness and despair. BUT, it’s also been a year full of happy and exciting moments, a year full of personal and professional growth, a year, in which I got to understand myself better and I also had the opportunity to touch people’s lives with my work. And THAT is everything. Because, all these beautiful moments gave me the opportunity to meet and connect with dozens of talented and ambitious individuals, who are each leading their own journey and doing amazing things to help others.

I am extremely grateful for every personal interaction I had in 2016 and the things I learnt from our conversations. One thing I understood from this year’s interactions was, that whether an acquaintance happens by design and week-long planning or it happens completely by chance in an event or an airport, each occasion has its own unexpected value, both for you and the other person. If you make the mistake and try to estimate a conversation’s value before it happens, you might miss on the most wonderful and life-changing moments of your career and life.

There were 3 of these occasions that literally left me speechless, reflecting for a long time about everything I’ve learnt from these 3 individuals I had the pleasure of meeting. Here’s how it happened:

DISCLAIMER: I am aware that there’s more than 3 people I connected with in 2016 who deserve my gratitude and I know I’m not doing any justice to all the amazing individuals I met in 2015, 2014 and the years before. I want to assure you that you have a place in my heart and my year-end reflection, whether it was this year, or the years before.

Ethel Agelatou

In May 2015 we were hosting the 2nd round of Success Academy, the professional development program we’ve created at Effect to help young people become more employable. When we wanted to host a training for Linkedin and how a young professional can use it, we thought of inviting Ethel Agelatou to be the instructor. The choice was obvious to us, since Ethel is the #1 Linkedin expert in Greece. The only problem was, we did not know her personally (except from a quick Q&A we had in a conference) and we did not know if she would be willing to help us.

So, we sent her an email and we tried not to get our hopes up. Despite my struggle not to make assumptions about other people, I assumed her schedule would be super busy and I should show her the business-related gains she might have from helping us. When I think about it now, I usually laugh with my bad judgement.

When Ethel learnt what we were doing to help young people with their job struggles, she immediately agreed to help us. I don’t think I’ve ever met a kinder person with such an authentic sense of caring and helping other people. I was mind-blown. From the moment she started speaking, I realized her genuine interest to help the participants of the program, but also her willingness to help our team. After the training ended, she stayed for almost 2 extra hours, to answer all my questions and thoughts about Linkedin, the structure of our program, my personal brand and she even gave me feedback to improve the way I communicate with other instructors through e-mail. I loved her and her human approach! And as a lot of you know, I haven’t stopped talking about her character and her quality as a person and how she made perhaps THE best impression a person has ever made on me. I’m happy our cooperation continued in the 3rd round of Success Academy and hopefully in the years to come.

Thank you Ethel! Have an amazing 2017.

What I learnt:

· Keep reminding yourself not to make assumptions. Duh…
· Be helpful and polite. You can never know how much another person will appreciate it.

Derek Magill

In October 2016, I participated in a conference in Rhodes, which turned out to be completely different from what I had in mind, in terms of Content & Agenda, so I remember myself thinking I didn’t get much relevant knowledge. Although most of the conference speakers’ expertise was totally unrelated to what we do, there was one speaker, who turned out to be very relevant to us and the work we do in Success Academy. His name is Derek, he’s a college drop-out who chose to take charge of his own education and earned his place as the Marketing Director of Praxis, a fast-growing startup in the USA.

So, on the last day of the conference, we found ourselves on a networking boat cruise around Rhodes and after a while I was having a conversation with the head organizer of the conference. Our conversation was interrupted by Marianthi, the co-founder of Effect, as she invited me to join the conversation she had started with Derek. Time passed and we found ourselves talking passionately about Effect’s work, about Praxis’ work, about transforming education and how we can help young professionals transition from education to employment in the best way possible while the Education System completely fails to capture and provide what companies really seek. Since Derek is passionate about education and he has an entrepreneurial disregard for “the way things are supposed to work”, it didn’t take much time to like him and relate to his mindset. One thing I really admired, was the way he chose to leave the sensible path of college and take responsibility for his own learning, using online courses, amazing books and lots of practical (sometimes free) work. Being able to learn at his own pace (which was faster than college BTW), practice what he learnt and follow his passion led him to being the Marketing Director of a rapidly-growing startup, travelling full-time and inspiring more young people who want to follow a similar path.

Thank you for our conversations Derek. I hope we will have a chance to work together in 2017.

What I learnt:

· When the way things work doesn’t make any sense to you, just do your own thing. Afterwards, share how things worked out fine for you to help other find the courage to follow a similar path.
· A conference can prove valuable just by one meaningful connection you made. What I now consider as one of the best conversations I made in 2016, happened literally after the conference was officially over and the only thing left on the agenda was the networking cruise.
· Even if some ideas don’t apply to your own reality, getting to know how things work in different environments and different countries, can help you be inspired and generate amazing ideas.

Aggie Kuperman

In March 2016, I was invited to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Program, hosted by the US Department of State. The program itself was an insightful experience about the way Career Centers work in the USA, which helped me improve our own work here in Greece. However, one of the best things that happened in this trip, was the fact that I met Aggie, our host / guide during the 2 weeks of the program. Aggie is a retired Senior Diplomat with 40 years of Foreign Service for the State Department. She speaks 6 languages and she’s lived some extraordinary experiences, including revolutions, peace processes and international conflicts.

Impressed by her credentials we wondered why she chose to be a guide for a group of Greeks. We quickly found out, that she regularly volunteers to facilitate international groups, as she enjoys meeting diverse people, learning about other cultures and connecting with individuals who do innovative and meaningful work. For the next 12 days, she gave us an incredibly insightful perspective of the way things work in America, about federalism, about the volunteering culture, about all the diversity that exists inside this one country and we couldn’t stop asking questions.

All the stories and the insights she gave us also pointed out one more thing: She is passionate for learning new things from all the connections she’s made. She has gained knowledge from her service in Europe, Asia and Africa and her education, but also from her volunteering in India and the USA. She has learnt new things from hosting a group of Greeks and talking with us, but also from showing a group of Chinese around the USA and learning about their realities. After all, travelling, volunteering and meeting people from different cultures can be the single best source of learning.

But, apart from her wide array of knowledge, what struck me the most about Aggie, is the way she connects with people and how she makes everyone feel like they have her undivided attention. She would say “Good morning to everyone” and ask about their day. She would ask our drivers about their work and their families, getting to know them better. I couldn’t help but notice that, because of these connections, people would often go out of their way to serve us, whether it was driving us somewhere to see the view, or serve us faster in a restaurant because we were in a hurry.

She would also ask about the political situation in Greece and how it impacts our work. More than enough times during our trip, Aggie came to me and offered to connect me to a relevant person, or a relevant opportunity regarding my work in Effect and she would always try to make sure that our schedule for each day would include tailor-made meetings and events for our individual needs. I really loved the way she connected with everyone and the effect it had in the way we experienced this program.

P.S. She enjoys calling us “her little ducks”, since for 2 weeks we kept following her around always forming a long line behind her.

Thank you for everything Aggie! I hope you have an amazing 2017 and that we’ll get to meet again.

What I learnt:

· Never stop learning
· Travelling, volunteering and meeting people from different cultures can be the single best source of learning
· Connect with people, ask them about their day and their family, show your appreciation for other people’s work and they will go out of their way to help you. After a while, things that seemed impossible, will start happening.

Sotiris Baratsas is the CEO & Co-Founder of Effect, an award-winning Social Enterprise that makes young people more employable.

This article was originally published here.