Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the fourth episode of the YYY podcast by Social Marie.
Speaker: Have you ever wondered about beekeeping?
Speaker: What do you think you'd learn from that experience?
Speaker: Professor Nikola Kesic from Croatia is an expert researcher, teacher, and social innovator who supports disabled people, prisoners, and anyone interested in finding wisdom and growth from beekeeping.
Speaker: My name is Nikola Kesic.
Speaker: I'm a retired professor, university professor from Zagreb for faculty of agriculture.
Speaker: And I spent my life working with bees.
Speaker: Now, as a retired person, I start to teach the people about beekeeping, basic knowledge, which is...
Speaker: really very important but mostly is missing from the beekeepers that they don't know much about basic knowledge in the beekeeping.
Speaker: How can they understand what they see in the hive?
Speaker: And now also we are teaching people in the prison.
Speaker: We get an offer from the Ministry of Defense that
Speaker: They can pay us to teach those people how can they learn it at the end when they are went out, they can work on this, that they have some, something to do, which is not depending on the anybody, what they are doing, what they like.
Speaker: if they like this beekeeping during the time in the prison, they will like it later on and they will continue and participate also in the beekeeping association with what is very important because they met other people and those people talking mainly about beekeeping, not anything, not politics or other things.
Speaker: And I found it very interesting to
Speaker: if I can, with this sharing the knowledge, can help somebody.
Speaker: Professor Kesich, why did you decide to start?
Speaker: Can you tell us your personal perspective?
Speaker: Because I'm retired to teaching and sharing the knowledge.
Speaker: But if you would like to share the knowledge, you need to continue to work, to follow the all actual knowledge in the world.
Speaker: the world, not only in your environment, no surroundings with other people.
Speaker: You need to follow the present, actual knowledge in the world.
Speaker: And this transfer of the knowledge to another environment is hard work.
Speaker: Because you need to choose the parts which fits needness of your environment.
Speaker: You need to choose to translate it to the people which is in a problem.
Speaker: We are facing a lot of losses, colony losses everywhere in the world.
Speaker: The biggest problem is colony losses.
Speaker: And I try to transfer this actual knowledge.
Speaker: How can I try to help those people to work this very interesting work with bees to produce the bee product, which is not only honey.
Speaker: Honey is one part.
Speaker: I could say a small part from the...
Speaker: working with bees.
Speaker: The main part is other products, for example, pollen, propolis, bee venom, and also the bees, colonies, small colonies.
Speaker: This is very interesting work, but it's very risky because from these colony losses and very hard work,
Speaker: and need a lot of intellectual power to incorporate in this occupation, intellectual occupation with bees, how can they solve the problem and produce this product.
Speaker: Why did you choose beekeeping as an activity to perform after you retired?
Speaker: I must say that as the guy from the middle school, my grandmother had been in the very primitive colony.
Speaker: At that time, was not present this modern frame, which they can move the frame, fix the comb in the hive, this...
Speaker: But Colony was present and she was quite old and she asked me to help her to put it on, to take down, to get some honey from this, to take care about.
Speaker: She was not able to do it.
Speaker: And I found it very interesting and very tricky to contact those bees in the bee hive was for men fascinating.
Speaker: Some kind of communication in that time between the bees and the person, me.
Speaker: this communication which is not easy to understand because if you come there, they will, it's not easy because they are stinging, you need to be careful, you need to be relaxed and follow what the rules of the, not beekeeping, rules of the bees how get you right to manage
Speaker: all this activity with those bees, that was for me at that time fascinating.
Speaker: Then I go with the faculty, Veterinary Faculty, Agricultural Faculty and finish, start to work.
Speaker: And I found that this knowledge which I take from the book is very interesting to share with the people.
Speaker: And that's, I'm still working because
Speaker: My profession is beekeeping, definitely, but to transfer the knowledge.
Speaker: This is something that I like and I think I'm doing it very good.
Speaker: After so many years of research and experience with beekeeping, what do you think is the effect on people that beekeeping has?
Speaker: that somebody working with bees or not working, they like, you see, that was my interest for a long time to see what is the main characteristic of the person which working with bees.
Speaker: And finally,
Speaker: I think the very important part of the personality of the person you can work with, person which is not afraid to making decisions.
Speaker: Decision-making is something that is very important to working with bees.
Speaker: And some of those people which is afraid to make a decision, they are not...
Speaker: following the beekeeping, they are not there
Speaker: afraid to work with bees.
Speaker: Because each colony is different.
Speaker: Each colony, after 15 minutes, half an hour, or one hour, you need to make decisions, because you need to close the colony.
Speaker: You must do it.
Speaker: But how you make decisions where to put the frames, did you enlarge it, or change the queen, or something to make some radical...
Speaker: with this colony depends success of your work of this of the life of this colony where you need to feel some relationship friendly relationship with this colony if you don't feel it this relation then it's difficult to work professor kesic why do you think your initiative is successful
Speaker: When I was working at the university, at that time I offered to the beekeeper to organize some school also, not only for the students, but also for the beekeeper.
Speaker: I found it very important to share the basic knowledge in the bee biology, bee physiology, bee behavior, and all these things which usually beekeepers have no time to learn it, but it's very important to understand.
Speaker: the bees and they try to teach about this part also to the to the beekeeper and at the end when I was retired that I start found that very interesting to share this knowledge
Speaker: to the people which I think that they need it much more.
Speaker: This is the handicapped people.
Speaker: And then I organized the school, beekeeping school for the beekeeper, but also for the handicapped people which can work together, which they can share the same environment, to be together each other,
Speaker: not to help, but to share the possibility.
Speaker: And one day when some of my friends, he applied for the project to teach the prisoner about beekeeping, and I found it all, that's something very interesting, to go there and to offer some
Speaker: practical work and theoretical work to people which is in another environment.
Speaker: They are not communicating with the other part of the world.
Speaker: But I'm not bringing the other part of the world.
Speaker: I'm bringing some knowledge which they can use during this period.
Speaker: And also when they went out, they have a new knowledge which they can start his own.
Speaker: And we have success.
Speaker: We have some people from the prison which this period is over and he's...
Speaker: get out and they start to work with bees.
Speaker: Not many, not enough, but I would like to have, but we have this success present because we are doing it for more than five years.
Speaker: And we have some, and a lot of those prisoners contact me when they went out.
Speaker: to help them, to talk with me, to say thank for this period which they spent the time and something that was very important.
Speaker: We fulfill the time of those people with something interesting, nice occupation for them.
Speaker: That was, for me, the best opportunity
Speaker: think what I get from this work in prison.
Speaker: Super.
Speaker: And therefore, the success of the initiative from one side, as I understand, is because you are bringing knowledge to an environment that is isolated from the rest of the world, right?
Speaker: And the prisoners there found it to be useful and they expressed actually
Speaker: gratitude to you afterwards, right?
Speaker: So when they go out of the prison, they feel gratitude and they even had the strength to tell it to you, right?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: We met with some of those which make a phone call.
Speaker: I met them
Speaker: I tried to find a way to meet them, to talk with him, to see, to hear his impression about time in a prison.
Speaker: It's also what he thinks about this knowledge which he brought out, what does he going to use
Speaker: the normal life and some of those show me the interest to continue with this activity further.
Speaker: That's wonderful.
Speaker: And why do you think it was so important to them?
Speaker: Why do you think it is a success?
Speaker: Why do you think those prisoners found in this initiative something important?
Speaker: Or what would be the reason?
Speaker: I'm very curious to know.
Speaker: Because this is the
Speaker: I think in this answer I can divide in two parts.
Speaker: One part is where I bring some new knowledge, somebody, and
Speaker: about bees, about beekeeping, theoretical and practical, which can occupy and fulfill this time and period which they spending in this environment.
Speaker: And another part is very important how you present the knowledge.
Speaker: Because during this school, at the end, we become friends.
Speaker: They understand me because I'm not talking only about bees.
Speaker: I'm talking just only of the bees.
Speaker: You understand?
Speaker: I'm not talking about other things, but this relationship because the way to teach them
Speaker: how to build good relationship with other people in the prison and good relationship with other people later in his life, which he's going to have.
Speaker: That's wonderful.
Speaker: Because, you know, I found in all the other interviews that I'm doing,
Speaker: that in many cases the reason why the initiatives are successful is because they generate a sense of community.
Speaker: They support the individuals to feel like they belong to something else.
Speaker: It's very important in this part, it's very important they are doing with community.
Speaker: They are working with, they think they need to start to think, try to think how the bees thinking, which living in the small box, wooden box, and they are going out from small slot.
Speaker: I'm going out and visiting all the flowers and surrounding up to three kilometers in the area, coming back again in this box.
Speaker: And this community, when you are working, you feel that they are perfect.
Speaker: And this is very important that you are working with some perfect community which can help you in a way of thinking.
Speaker: Yeah, that's really amazing.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: So then we can go to the third question.
Speaker: That is, why do you persist?
Speaker: I mean, for example, in my case, I was musing about going to pension the past week and calculating how much
Speaker: time I'm working and what I will do when I'm in pension.
Speaker: And in some way, I'm looking forward for my pension because I think that I will be able to focus more on the things that I like the most.
Speaker: But many people imagine the pension time as finally, I'm out of my work.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I would love to hear what is your opinion.
Speaker: So why do you persist?
Speaker: The...
Speaker: I have some fear.
Speaker: I have some fear that I'm not, I will bring this knowledge which is accumulating from communication from all my colleagues from all around the world, writing new papers, reading the new papers, new knowledge, and I will bring it.
Speaker: I didn't, that I shouldn't share
Speaker: this knowledge enough to the other people.
Speaker: Because this is a very important part of the developing and that's my fear.
Speaker: And I try to continue sharing the knowledge.
Speaker: as long as they like to listen to me and as long as I can present it in the way how people accept it and find it interesting way of... Because I have now more difficulty to present the presentation, to talk in the classroom than 10 or 20 years before.
Speaker: Sometimes some words need time to come back.
Speaker: But still, I think, and the people told me that still I'm doing it very good and I like it, makes me happy.
Speaker: at the end, why don't share the knowledge as long as the people?
Speaker: But if you would like to share the knowledge, you need to follow present knowledge.
Speaker: You need to, all the time, because now, after so many years working with bees, the scientific way, now I know that my knowledge is not enough.
Speaker: So many things is present in this, which I didn't accept yet.
Speaker: Still I need to learn hard work to learn new knowledge, how can fulfill the gaps.
Speaker: Okay, so if I summarize, so your biggest fear is to not be able to share all the knowledge that you have about the beekeepers and beekeeping in order to do so.
Speaker: you have to continue learning, right?
Speaker: So you have to get up to date with the latest discoveries or research on beekeeping so that you can continue giving that kind of alive knowledge, right?
Speaker: Now, when I'm not directly incorporated in the producing new knowledge, scientific working, I found the transfer of the knowledge is not easy.
Speaker: It's hard work.
Speaker: You know that we have research and development.
Speaker: It is practical development and this part of development is not easy, is very costly, intellectual costly, because all this new knowledge you need to adapt and connect with the present knowledge and make it useful.
Speaker: but it's not easy.
Speaker: And again, you need a lot of knowledge because during giving the lesson, organizing the school, you have a lot of talk with other beekeeper.
Speaker: And now it's difficult to say from where I am accepting more knowledge from the new articles which I am reading continuously or from talk, discussion with other people.
Speaker: What is very important, if you are not doing this, you are not able to estimate what is the best and how to present the new knowledge to those people.
Speaker: Wonderful.
Speaker: And so you mentioned that you have been working not only with prisoners, but also with handicapped people.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And that means that you, and for many years, right?
Speaker: So that means that you can see the effect of
Speaker: on those persons in the longer term of what happens with them, so with their lives, their psychology, their self-confidence, their decision-making capacity after working for years in beekeeping.
Speaker: Could you share with us a bit of what you have observed?
Speaker: I must say that beekeeping is not universal.
Speaker: is not for every person.
Speaker: If you are lucky and you met the people which accept this part and is willing to do this and understand this new world, which is insect world, which living in this hive, then you are lucky and
Speaker: I tried to also to help those people to better understand it, to make his life more happy and more interesting.
Speaker: And for me, it was interesting to try to get, to share this knowledge to the handicapped people, which I think this life for those people is not easy.
Speaker: is connected with a lot of obstacles and a lot of problems with the normal way of living.
Speaker: And if I can help him psychologically to orient in something new which can occupy and make him happy, then this is my success, make me happy also.
Speaker: So you saw people being better because of working with the bees?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: For example, we...
Speaker: Last year in the school, we had two persons with difficulties to hear.
Speaker: You see, and here, and we organized translation of my presentation to those two ladies.
Speaker: And nowadays, after one year,
Speaker: They still contact me and explaining me the problems which they face after.
Speaker: But after school, I can help them because they pass some basic knowledge with a few words to orient them to take care more or less about something.
Speaker: Then they are more successful and they can go further and work with bees in his private life.
Speaker: Do you know what it takes for social innovators to influence policy makers?
Speaker: My following interview will answer the question and give some more nuggets of experience-based wisdom.
Speaker: Hi, my name is Hanna Kosan.
Speaker: I work at Kralje Ulice, Kings of the Street.
Speaker: We are a very well-known NGO working on the field of homelessness.
Speaker: Hanna, could you tell us the story of why did you start?
Speaker: So yes, I'm now working at Kralje Ulice for almost 10 years.
Speaker: I started before as a volunteer and as a student because I studied social pedagogy.
Speaker: And of course, the core of social pedagogy is work with people in their everyday life.
Speaker: And also Kralje Ulice are very intertwined with social pedagogy, Department of Social Pedagogy.
Speaker: So yes, I said, I want to explore this field.
Speaker: And when I came to Kralje ulice, I immediately connected with people and also this organization gave me opportunity to develop my ideas.
Speaker: So I started to participate in the theater group.
Speaker: I started to do outreach work and then I stayed.
Speaker: I really felt that I belong here and I started to build some new projects.
Speaker: And 10 years ago, I was like a student and there was not a lot of employees, but now we are quite big NGOs.
Speaker: So this is something that made me stay here.
Speaker: Could you tell me a bit more about what you like from your work?
Speaker: Yeah, maybe the first thing, yesterday we had some crisis situation, I have to say.
Speaker: So my first question on this would be my team, but this teamwork and this support that we have, because like I said yesterday, we had some really awful events, some crisis events, and then how it's easier to go through this is to have a very, very good team that supports you.
Speaker: So this would be maybe today my answer at my work.
Speaker: Of course, it's something
Speaker: It's quite challenging to work in this field because you meet people with different stories, with different heartbreaking stories.
Speaker: Different people bring a lot of their, how do you say, backpacks with them and you have to deal with it and you have to support people.
Speaker: And because our idea is to accept people with what they bring,
Speaker: something this is this, what they bring is quite big and you have to challenge all these challenges.
Speaker: So sometimes it's rewarding because people reach something, what was their goal, but sometimes it's also hard to deal because this path that homeless people have to go through
Speaker: to change something it's long it's like ups and downs and sometimes yeah you have to just to be with them and help them and support them on their way but on the end when people like I said reach something what they want it's quite rewarding not only for them but also for us that were with them on this way
Speaker: So you're working for 10 years in this initiative and basically your whole profession has been focused on it, right?
Speaker: Why do you think it is important to persist?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I have to say that people that started with this work with our NGO, only few of them are still here because this job can be hard.
Speaker: It could be like...
Speaker: You have to all the time be in the connection with yourself and it's hard.
Speaker: And I, of course, understand to give all the credits to people that left because it was maybe too hard for them or they needed some change.
Speaker: Maybe it's better to say.
Speaker: But why to stay so long is maybe my personal question would be or answer would be because you see some progress, because this organization is always answering the needs that we see in the society.
Speaker: So why to persist is because we are so open to develop all the time or to
Speaker: adjust on what we see that is important to support in society.
Speaker: It looks like the initiative is a complete success, right?
Speaker: Yeah, because we quite evolved.
Speaker: Maybe to say we have 35 employees.
Speaker: We also do some work in Maribor and we have like many, many projects and programs.
Speaker: Sometimes people know us just because of street newspaper, but we do much more.
Speaker: And when I explain, people say, oh, you do all of this work.
Speaker: And I say, yes, I do.
Speaker: So this is the reason why to stay because...
Speaker: Because it's very important to be support to people that are on this vulnerable margin.
Speaker: And because this organization gives me and my co-workers opportunity to develop much more
Speaker: than only just the basic support that people need.
Speaker: That we just say, okay, we think that there is a need to work with young people, we will develop this approach and then we do this.
Speaker: So this is something that makes me to stay.
Speaker: Trying to summarize would be you found a real need
Speaker: And you found how to support or how to alleviate, how to make it easier for people to go through these kind of situations.
Speaker: And when you do that, you find a reward that comes back, right?
Speaker: That is the satisfaction of doing something to solve a problem.
Speaker: Yes, of course.
Speaker: I think we have to say it is not that in this job, it's not sometimes, like I said before, it's not that you, how do you say, you stay or you develop on this satisfaction or this involvement, you know, because sometimes it's not so rewarding this job because, like I said, the path is ups and downs.
Speaker: But yeah, so if you only stay on this, how do you say, on these trophies, you know, in this job, you cannot seek for trophies like in other entrepreneurship or in some business, you know, this is not like this, you know, but it's more this process.
Speaker: So, but it's in, and when this process is going on in the direction that people want, this is satisfactory.
Speaker: Okay, great.
Speaker: So then the second question is, why do you think this initiative is successful?
Speaker: What is the key factor that makes it a great initiative?
Speaker: I think it's connected to what I already said, but because it's really from the bottom up, I believe.
Speaker: So this is something that all the projects, all the programs that we do are based in the needs that we see.
Speaker: We started as a student project.
Speaker: So 20 years ago, students went on the street to be with homeless people for 24 hours.
Speaker: and to see what they need.
Speaker: And then the first idea of newspaper came because they said our voice is not heard.
Speaker: So they started with the newspaper.
Speaker: Also on the field, they said they heard that people need like a day center where they could stay.
Speaker: There was no day center in Ljubljana, you know, where during the day people would have a safe space to be there.
Speaker: So we opened a day center.
Speaker: Then, of course, when we are talking about homelessness, we have to talk about roof over our heads, you know, and we believe that people, that
Speaker: house home apartment is a human right and everybody have to have a respectful and safe and apartment so we started with our housing or settlement program then there was a need of a
Speaker: Housing founder Ljubljana said that we have, we developed a really good cooperation with them in this housing supporting program.
Speaker: And then they said, we also would like for you to help us with our projects.
Speaker: how to say, clients in our apartments, because some of them maybe could be evicted.
Speaker: And we also saw and met on the street people or they came to our day center.
Speaker: They said, I'm in this way, in this crisis now where I could be evicted.
Speaker: Can you help us?
Speaker: And then we said, of course, we have to develop something to help.
Speaker: to help people that they are not evicted and regarding this, that they do not became homeless, you know, like a prevention of homelessness.
Speaker: So, and much more, we have like different programs that are actually guided from our users, we say, because there is a need to have like a theater group or sport activities and this and this and so on, et cetera.
Speaker: So I believe this is the core that
Speaker: Everything is from the bottom up.
Speaker: We don't say like, okay, I'm a professional worker and now I know how I will solve this problem.
Speaker: But we also give homeless people a voice and we ask them what they need.
Speaker: And this is the key why the things could work.
Speaker: And I also believe that we really believe that people have resources in themselves and we really empower them to put out these resources.
Speaker: So far from our conversation, what I'm getting is that number one, you detect a real need.
Speaker: You start from the bottom up.
Speaker: So basically asking the persons that are in need, uh, uh, what is the problem that you are going through?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, uh, you try to understand them in order to begin, right.
Speaker: And then you continue and then you start finding out how these problems are like a tree dividing in multiples, right?
Speaker: And then you start finding solutions to each one of the different aspects of the problem that you see, right?
Speaker: So you persist because you know that the progress is solving a problem, at least in some measurement.
Speaker: It is successful because of the same thing
Speaker: Now, what stays in my head is how did you make it?
Speaker: Because starting an NGO in Slovenia is not easy, right?
Speaker: In Slovenia, it's very difficult to cooperate, to find cooperation.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know if you can say something about it.
Speaker: Yeah, maybe I can shortly answer because I wasn't there in the beginnings.
Speaker: I'm too young.
Speaker: So, like I said, it started as a student project in 2004.
Speaker: And then because the people, the students that started to work on this, they saw, like I said, there is a need.
Speaker: And then they decided to start with the NGO.
Speaker: So they opened like a...
Speaker: association.
Speaker: I think it's the translation in Slovenia.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Back then, in a way, it's quite easy to open an association.
Speaker: But like you said, the cooperation is important.
Speaker: I think that we always had this idea from the beginning that we need a good cooperation with different stakeholders if we want to be successful.
Speaker: And we put a lot of energy to be in a good relationship, to build this cooperation, to
Speaker: And to maybe expand our networks.
Speaker: And when we started, I think the key things were that we had, like I said before, we had support from Department of Social Pedagogy.
Speaker: So I think this was quite important that here were some researchers, professors that give a big support on this.
Speaker: I think that when we started with the first issue of our street newspaper, the public, mass media and municipality
Speaker: very recognized the importance of this.
Speaker: So from the beginning, we had this support, like public support.
Speaker: So this was also quite crucial, I think.
Speaker: What happened later, maybe to say, is also our guidance still today that if there are some obstacles,
Speaker: or bureaucratic obstacles, we have to be creative to go over them.
Speaker: To give an example from the beginning, there were no applications from the ministry on this field, on the homelessness, you know, for the day centers and so on.
Speaker: So we were quite creative to apply on some maybe different applications and
Speaker: Then we went to the ministry and we say, look, we are doing this.
Speaker: We have so many users.
Speaker: We, in our practice, we saw this and this and this, and these are our results and they are good results.
Speaker: So you have to open one another, like this type of a project application.
Speaker: for the homelessness, for the day center.
Speaker: And we said, this is important, we have to do this.
Speaker: So we went there and said, you have to do this if you want to support us and if you have to, and if you want to, yeah, to do something on this field.
Speaker: So this is something that, that this also may be our guidance is that we, if we see that there is a need, we need,
Speaker: We are very creative in it and we find all the paths that maybe go through the obstacles.
Speaker: And then we show the government, the local politics to say that, oh, there is a need and there is a bureaucratic obstacle and we have to overcome it.
Speaker: And then they realize, you know, if we don't do anything, they will say, oh, there is no problem, you know, you know,
Speaker: everything is in the right order but when you do something and you go over the corner you know and then you say oh but that's reality they say oh maybe we can change something so we were all the time like active to be connected with different stakeholders with ministries with Ljubljana municipality and so on yeah
Speaker: to be loud about what's happening in reality.
Speaker: That's fantastic.
Speaker: So to close our conversation, I don't know if you would like to say something to any person that would like to start as a social entrepreneur or someone that wants to solve social issues.
Speaker: What would you say to that person?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Can I maybe first say something to the ministries and to the government about social entrepreneurship?
Speaker: Because, as you know, years ago, we started our social entrepreneurship at thrift shop.
Speaker: And now we are on this death point, how do we say, because there is no support from the different applications, RASPs, for this kind of work, you know.
Speaker: And everybody said, everybody is saying, oh, you're doing this great job.
Speaker: But we do not get enough support for this kind of social entrepreneurship really to work or to give opportunities to people with homelessness, drug abuse and so on.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: So maybe first I would say to them, it's not enough when they say, oh, you're doing a great job, but they have to support it because the secondhand shop cannot survive on their own.
Speaker: So we have to have some support, financial support to do this social entrepreneurship from the government, from the local politics and so on.
Speaker: So this is maybe one thing now and we are creative in this how to survive and how to still work on this project even though if we don't have enough support on this project maybe.
Speaker: Yeah, and to what to say to the others, I think you have to be excited about things.
Speaker: You have to be curious about what is happening around you.
Speaker: You have to be curious in people's stories, I believe, to really hear people.
Speaker: and to see what is happening.
Speaker: And then you have to be creative, brave, and just to have this idea that you can do something.
Speaker: Because this is what I believe, why we are still staying, because we say we will do this even if it will be hard, this path, we will manage to do it.
Speaker: So this is something that I would say, of course, on the beginning, it's hard.
Speaker: And like NGO, you have to, sometimes it's very hard because you cannot apply on some RASPIS application if you don't have enough funds.
Speaker: So these beginnings can be quite hard, but it's cooperation is crucial.
Speaker: So you have to be creative, be brave and
Speaker: It's very important that you find yourself good cooperation, good partners that are same minded and supportive.
Speaker: And this is how you can start.
Speaker: During our last podcast episode, I promised to share with you some of what I learned about entrepreneurship and fear.
Speaker: The tricky part is that both words are not easy to define.
Speaker: And if you ask around, you'll see each person has a different idea of what they mean.
Speaker: Because of that, I will start explaining what entrepreneurship and fear mean to me.
Speaker: Entrepreneurship is the art of taking initiative, challenging the status quo and enthusiastically going towards adventure.
Speaker: The spirit of entrepreneurship is the force that motivates us to take the first step.
Speaker: The thing with entrepreneurship is that to challenge the status quo, the person leaves their comfort zone and faces changes and new circumstances.
Speaker: In one way, the entrepreneurs are looking for some outcome, but in parallel, they get an expanded sense of themselves and perceive their own development.
Speaker: We can understand entrepreneurship as a process of growth.
Speaker: Constant and consecutive change definitely causes stress, frustrations and even suffering.
Speaker: Some initiatives fail and some outcomes never materialize.
Speaker: But no matter the results, the entrepreneurs learn something new at every single step.
Speaker: After a while, entrepreneurs get used to the process and become familiar with uncertainty.
Speaker: They develop an intuition to their field of action and realize they are on a path of mastery.
Speaker: I'm sure you have heard many times that persistence and resilience are critical success factors.
Speaker: To explain this, I will share my definition of fear with you.
Speaker: Fear is our reaction to circumstances that present the possibility of harm.
Speaker: I divide fear in two types.
Speaker: The first is instinctual and functions to protect our life and physical integrity.
Speaker: The second is psychological, created by our mind through our life experiences.
Speaker: From now on, I'll focus exclusively on psychological fear.
Speaker: Our fears are like GPS.
Speaker: They warn us of situations we should avoid and experiences we do not like.
Speaker: And our fears want us to follow their instructions.
Speaker: The problems begin when we face a circumstance for the first time, do not know what to do, or even when an old fear pattern becomes a limitation.
Speaker: In the process of entrepreneurship, we fear starting something new when our expectations are different from the results, when we fail.
Speaker: and when we anticipate the consequences of our mistakes.
Speaker: We fear disappointing others, damaging our reputations, limiting our possibilities, and even finding that we are not good enough.
Speaker: Fortunately, when we persist, we know that starting something new, failing and fearing is an inevitable part of the process.
Speaker: We transform our struggles and stress into strengths.
Speaker: We bring other people to the team, increase capacities, find new partners, and like that we innovate.
Speaker: While we persist, others don't.
Speaker: And after a while, the persistent entrepreneur stays, masters, and has the potential to inspire others.
Speaker: Instead of a limitation, fear can be perceived as a cause of past failures and a pointer for personal development and growth opportunities.
Speaker: Following the GPS analogy, fear tells the entrepreneur the most adventurous path to the destination.
Speaker: Fear can be a debilitating force and can cause depression, anxiety, and also a sense of stuckness.
Speaker: Be sure to discuss it with someone who can support and guide you.
Speaker: We all go through fear.
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker: I hope you found inspiration, some positive vibes and empowerment in this episode.
Speaker: Have a great day and keep in touch.
