Following your Gut
One of the most important things that I have learned in business is to always give your gut feeling a say in any decision. Your brain instinctively picks up on non-verbal and other cues, and without you even thinking about it, can tell you whether or not to trust someone or take a deal.
I’ve followed this mantra for most of my life, and it has rarely gone wrong. The best example in my life is the founding of my startup, Kinetiq Solutions. I had the idea to link Balkan talent with American clients while living in Russia, but it was just a pipedream. I wanted to start a company utilizing Balkans developers to meet American business needs but I needed a Co-Founder to make this dream a reality.
In the summer of 2015 I was traveling across the Balkans and stopped in the Macedonian capital of Skopje to meet two of the writers for the online publication I founded-Hristijan Petrushev and Kristijan Fidanovski. When I met them we visited one of Skopje’s most interesting tourist destinations (for me at least!), the Putin Café-a café completely themed around Russian president Vladimir Putin. While there I discussed my business idea and Hristijan told me he knew just the guy to make it happen.
Later that week we organized a meeting with Hristijan’s best friend (and my soon to be Co-Founder), Nikola Jordanovski. Nikola had been in the states a number of times and is a huge fan of America. We discussed this, business, and our future plans over beers and Macedonian folk music. We immediately took a liking to one another and set up a meeting for the next night between myself, Nikola, and his team of developers.
At our second meeting we spoke about our aspirations and brainstormed strategies and goals for our future business. The meeting solidified our commitment to making our dream a reality and set us on the path to success. My gut feeling told me that I could trust Nikola after just these two meetings, and he felt the same. We have stayed in contact since then electronically, but have only met in person two times.
Despite this, our company has been met with great success, becoming profitable within the first month of operation and exceeding our goals beyond our wildest dreams within the first six months. If I hadn’t followed my gut, and had listened to all those who told me I was crazy for working with someone overseas who I had only met a few times, I would not be where I am today. Trust is the foundation of any business relationship but trust should always be determined largely by what your subconscious tells you.
Alex Pantich is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kinetiq Solutions and Founder and Editor of The Vostokian. He loves international travel, speaks Serbian, Russian, and English and writes frequently about business, economics and politics.
