Today something great happened in my life...
I shook hands with a person who has been on North, South and both magnetic poles of the Earth. I have been given advice by a man owning three Ferrari's, two Lamborgini's and second biggest footwear company in the world. I have been impressed by a Dutch woman running the most powerful publishing house in Russia.
All these incredible things happened due to my chance to attend Enterpreneurial Seminar - one of the events in frames of Star Management Week at the University.
As you has probably guessed, at the seminar, we had a bunch of outstanding people giving speeches - sharing their experience, advice and inspiration with us. Above, you can see just a part of the achievements of some of them.
Unfortunately, I was forced to skip a couple of lectures to be able to attend the event. However, there's no room for regret. Apparently, advice of such people carries much more credibility rather this of academicians and researches we normally have as lecturers. One of my study-mates compared the impact and usefullness of this single seminar to a whole year at college. Needless to say that his assumption holds water.
The impact produced by the Enterpreneurial Seminar was beyond any expectations. I have been inspired by those people to the utmost meaning of this word. My ambition, purposefullness and passion have been fueled for months, if not years, to come.
This is one of the things I like so much about my University - the brilliant opportunity to meet face-to-face the strong of this world, those minds and hearts who make a true difference on the planet.
Now, I am looking forward to the Academic Conference, which is due to be the day after tomorrow, where we will be able to see even more outstanding people.
P.S. Shit, still 12 min beyond schedule!=) But I'm making progress!
Monday, 27 October 2008
Friday, 24 October 2008
The Dutch Stuff
There are three most horrible things in the Netherlands: the weather, the language and biking when it's raining and windy like hell.
The weather. You never, ever, ever know what it's going to be like. In fact, weather forecast in the Netherlands doesn't make much sense. It changes literally within minutes. The most remarkable time to witness it was when we were going from one lecture to another, and we had to go through one of the campus buildings. On the slowest pace, it takes no more than 15 seconds. As we were entering the building, it was drizzling - those 15 seconds were enough for the drizzle to vanish comlpetely.
The language. The most prevalent sound in Dutch is "g". In order to pronounce it, you need to imagine as if you were going to spit, and breath out sharply. Sounds good, hé?:-) And it sounds even better when it's repeated several times in one word, and when it's pronounced by a good-looking girl.
Biking is much fun. Saves time and money, and makes you much more flexible. However, when you are taken aback by severe rain and wind on the go, you would prefer taking the most shity tram with 102 sweaty miners inside to gradually getting soaked to the skin and helplessly struggling with your umbrella (if you're lucky to have one).
However, it's all not that bad! The Dutch cheese and the way they organize stuff is indeed beyond any praise.
The weather. You never, ever, ever know what it's going to be like. In fact, weather forecast in the Netherlands doesn't make much sense. It changes literally within minutes. The most remarkable time to witness it was when we were going from one lecture to another, and we had to go through one of the campus buildings. On the slowest pace, it takes no more than 15 seconds. As we were entering the building, it was drizzling - those 15 seconds were enough for the drizzle to vanish comlpetely.
The language. The most prevalent sound in Dutch is "g". In order to pronounce it, you need to imagine as if you were going to spit, and breath out sharply. Sounds good, hé?:-) And it sounds even better when it's repeated several times in one word, and when it's pronounced by a good-looking girl.
Biking is much fun. Saves time and money, and makes you much more flexible. However, when you are taken aback by severe rain and wind on the go, you would prefer taking the most shity tram with 102 sweaty miners inside to gradually getting soaked to the skin and helplessly struggling with your umbrella (if you're lucky to have one).
However, it's all not that bad! The Dutch cheese and the way they organize stuff is indeed beyond any praise.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
The First Entry in my Diary
My mind has been fostering the idea of keeping track of events taking place in my life for quite a time. I finally decided to turn this idea into life.
There has been several major reasons behind this decision. Firstly, it is a great tool for self-insights and learning from mistakes. Secondly, it's great way to let emotions out. Thirdly, so many people have been asking me to tell them about my life here, and I am really eager to share my experiences with all of them.
The decision of keeping my diary in English has been dictated by solely practical considerations - I would like to make it available to the widest audience possible.
Another pronciple I decided to stick to is keeping my records short. Otherwise, the whole idea of the diary would fail, since I would get too much into details and spend redundant of time geting my writings to perfection. Therefore, I limited my time for each record to 15 minutes (although now it took me more than 30 - I'll forgive it to me for the first time). It's all about time-management.
Finally, I strongly encourage all comments - positive as well as critical, so that I my intrinsic motivation for keeping the diary could be fueled by extrinsic one.
And now to the point itself.
Once and once again, I get surprised by Holland. One can hardly think of a better place to broaden one's mind rather than this weird little country, sandwiched between Germany, Belgium and the North Sea.
After an intensive day of studies, I went swimming today. But since it was my first time to do so on Tuesday, I went to a wrong swimming pool. After a exhaustive training I was amazed to find out that it was a swimming club for gays. I got acquainted with a man, a CEO and owner of a consultancy company, working all over Europe. After the training we talked with him a little, and I got some useful info about making business with CEE countries. I just went swimming this night! How unpredictable our life is, though...
Seemingly, nothing special in this today's experience. I just sometimes have a look back and get amazed about how life can change and where it can get us. I believe that it is crucially important not to forget who we were, not to lose our roots, and keep in mind the people who contributed to us becoming who we are today.
There has been several major reasons behind this decision. Firstly, it is a great tool for self-insights and learning from mistakes. Secondly, it's great way to let emotions out. Thirdly, so many people have been asking me to tell them about my life here, and I am really eager to share my experiences with all of them.
The decision of keeping my diary in English has been dictated by solely practical considerations - I would like to make it available to the widest audience possible.
Another pronciple I decided to stick to is keeping my records short. Otherwise, the whole idea of the diary would fail, since I would get too much into details and spend redundant of time geting my writings to perfection. Therefore, I limited my time for each record to 15 minutes (although now it took me more than 30 - I'll forgive it to me for the first time). It's all about time-management.
Finally, I strongly encourage all comments - positive as well as critical, so that I my intrinsic motivation for keeping the diary could be fueled by extrinsic one.
And now to the point itself.
Once and once again, I get surprised by Holland. One can hardly think of a better place to broaden one's mind rather than this weird little country, sandwiched between Germany, Belgium and the North Sea.
After an intensive day of studies, I went swimming today. But since it was my first time to do so on Tuesday, I went to a wrong swimming pool. After a exhaustive training I was amazed to find out that it was a swimming club for gays. I got acquainted with a man, a CEO and owner of a consultancy company, working all over Europe. After the training we talked with him a little, and I got some useful info about making business with CEE countries. I just went swimming this night! How unpredictable our life is, though...
Seemingly, nothing special in this today's experience. I just sometimes have a look back and get amazed about how life can change and where it can get us. I believe that it is crucially important not to forget who we were, not to lose our roots, and keep in mind the people who contributed to us becoming who we are today.
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