OVERCOMING CHALLENGES OF 2020!

How to summarize a 2020 and to be positive? Yes, I can, we can, and we have to!

Let’s begin…

Just through the last year, 2019 I was a trainer, speaker, motivator and facilitator in more than 20 international trainings, seminars and events all over the world. Last year I was able to transfer knowledge about entrepreneurship, startup ecosystems, project management, human rights, healthy lifestyle, diplomacy in sport, the importance of education in the sport (ETS), non-formal education, social media, online tools, project management, team management, female entrepreneurship, European values, sales, business development, business plans and models for all generations of people starting from students to professionals.  With these trainings I was working in almost every part of the world. Only in 2019, I’ve had a chance to visit Brazil, Paraguay, Germany, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Philippines, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Poland, Greece,  Denmark, Bulgaria (3x), Uganda, Qatar, North Macedonia (2x), Kosovo, Albania, Sweden, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Armenia, Georgia (maybe I even forgot some of them) where I was trying to teach other people some useful things and tools for their life and was trying to inspire them to work on themselves, to use every day, every moment of their life to learn more, to develop their skills and gain valuable knowledge for their future.

Many people ask me where do I find all this energy, power and motivation?! So, this is my short answer:

Every new country, new culture, new language, every new individual who stands in front of me with a wish to learn more, to get some new information from me, every new training and opportunity where I can transfer my knowledge inspire me, give me energy and motivate me to work even more, much better and to increase the quality of my work!

My 2020 was planned to be almost the same, even with more trainings and trips, but …

In 2020, in only 2 months, I visited Belgium, Romania, Italy, Turkey, Poland and Croatia, so the following months supposed to look like the same, but…

Can you imagine how big a swap I had to make to survive 2020? When you make a plan for every day in a year, when every week and month is planned in detail, when your income depends on the number of “trips & trainings”, and suddenly nothing is as you prepared, nothing is easily solved, nothing can be covered by plan B, C or even D?! When you have planned a personal budget of over 50 000€, and you realize that you will get none, how I should feel?

Maybe you were asking yourself “why am I reading this”, why he is writing this, and what we have from “his promotion”, maybe…?

No worries, I will come on that right now!

 

Now is January 2021 and I am still alive, so I survived a 2020 without any international training and activity, which was my main income in 2019, but how did I manage it?! Answer to this question is the reason why I am writing this article…

To understand the answer to this question, first, you have to think about the situation in your life when you were thinking “everything is over”, I can’t continue, my life is over! Everyone in life had such a situation, bigger or smaller, such as falling exam, losing a job, losing a house, death of the family members, company or organization bankruptcy and etc. All these situations and many others are the biggest reasons for suicides in the world. So, to not think about it, I will give you some advice about finding a solution in any kind of situation.

First of all, you have to believe in yourself, in your knowledge, skills and abilities to deal with your feelings and emotions. Usually, if these last two are not set well all things mentioned before are endangered. When people react emotionally, then abilities for controlling a particular situation are not working well. So, first of all – control the emotional side of yourself in any situation. Second, if something is not going by your plan, try to change it to plan B or C if you have it, if not, make it! If that is not working, try something similar, based on the previous idea/job/work, because if that was your plan A, you should be the strongest in that field! If nothing of these are working, be open-minded, don’t be afraid to try new things, try new jobs, jobs which until then were insufficiently valuable and paid for you, jobs “below your level”, and don’t be ashamed of it, because every legally paid job is still a job and a livelihood for your family. If even this is not working for you, try to change your environment and the people you work with, research, apply for online jobs, apply for projects and learn from others! Something from above has to work, if not, hmm, then you really have to work on yourself, your skills, your non-formal and informal education, you really have to start from zero!

Even in this situation, you are still “alive human being” so, you have many things to learn and offer. Do not take things personally, because this is a circle of life, and every next moment can be different. Don’t be afraid to learn new things, to study, research and to change your everyday habits, just in this way you will see light on the end of the tunnel!

This part about learning and education is also valid at a time when you are doing well, when you have a job and when everything looks perfect. We need and must learn every moment of our lives!

The section on plans A, B, C and changes applies not only to individuals but also to companies, startups, organizations and all those who “depend on someone or something”!

At the end, how I survived?

Simple! At least for me, it looks simple, because I am not afraid to work on anything and with anybody, I don’t have a problem working for free or for some small amounts even for jobs who are usually very well paid. I love people, love to change the environment, societies, don’t have problems with freelancing and I am not ashamed to say “YES I WANT TO LEARN” even in situations when I think that I already know that what I get offer to learn. I don’t have a problem working 15-20 hours per day and I am recognized as a big workaholic person.

When the borders got closed I understood that my income will stop, so I had to react very fast and needed to find a solution. First what I have done was “changing the geographical field of work” = stop international => work locally! Second, I used all my skills to start some innovative things in BiH, started to open new programs and opportunities for people in BiH, started to cooperate with BH companies and organizations, I created freelancer profiles on few pages and groups, I contacted my cooperates and associates and offer to work for them for some small amounts of the money and I offered myself to some companies to work for them for free just to spend time with them and learn from them! After all this s**t with Covid-19 started I have contacted some of my “friends” who have companies that are not suffering due to Covid-19 Crisis and offer them myself, my knowledge and skills to work for them part-time or full time, but no one of them “gave me a chance” to join their teams and to contribute. Even we have never spoke about salary, conditions or anything about “job requirements”, but they didn’t give me a chance at least to try. Why? Maybe they were afraid that I will ask big salary or will have some big requests, but they couldn’t know without asking me. Of course, I still support their work and companies, and didn’t take this as “minus” for them, but this motivates me even more to work on myself and my skills.

This was my 2020 way of surviving, and YES, I am still officially unemployed, but still have a normal life, surviving normally, enjoying life with my wife and together we are looking future in the eyes. Maybe I don’t have money as I had last year in this period, maybe I am not spending as I did last year, but I am still enjoying life, have everything I need and I am not complaining never! From 50+ business meeting this year “in this situation” I have never asked anything from these people because I have my dignity and attitude, which is not allowing me to “ask” for myself. From all these 50+ meetings, after presentations and discussions about each other work and situation I have never get the question “how we/I can help you”, so in the last year I am questioning myself a lot: “Am I look really like someone who can help  everybody, and how never other side see that “maybe I really need something”?! Am I having a meeting with wrong people or people just trying to use my positive attitude and will to help?! I am questioning myself, but still, I will go to the meetings and will try to help everyone and everybody wherever  and whenever I can!

Once in life I said to my self: “God gave you a good brain and knowledge, so make the most of it, but share it with other people and put yourself on the service to your community!

Trust me there is a big truth in the quote “After a storm comes a calm”!

When you see your storm (real ” problem”) look her in the eyes and say: “I like storms. They remind me that even the sky (read “the best ones/the most beautiful/everyone) screams sometimes”!!!

To summarize 2020 in a few sentences and what I really did!

  1. I got a child, my first son!

  2. I made some great connections with local and national organizations, companies and institutions who hired me to work for them part-time;

  3. I held over 10 webinars and online educations for entrepreneurship, fundraising, human rights, fake media and fake news, SMS-s, startup ecosystem and etc.;

  4. I earned enough to have a normal life;

  5. I changed a way of work. From Internationally to locally;

  6. With my team I got 6 Sport International projects (as the only organization from Western Balkan), 4 Capacity Building projects and 2 Europe for Citizens;

  7. With my team I signed over 250 partnerships with organizations all over the world;

  8. With my team I supported and helped over 20 organizations to join European Commission Portal and enter European programs;

  9. My team prepared over 80 projects for other organizations, companies and institutions all over the world. I personally prepared over 20 of these projects;

  10. I received a prestigious Chinese government scholarship as a young professional under the “YES China Program” for International Business in Beijing, China as my Second Master Degree;

  11. In the end, I am still Director of BRAVO, and YES, still volunteering.

Trainer of “Youth, Business, Better” Capacity Building Youth Project

“Youth, Business, Better” (YBB) is a project involving a total of 8 NGOs of which 3 based in the Western Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania) and 5 in Europe (Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, FYROM).

YBB will develop an integrated approach for youth organizations in partner countries to tackle the issues of unemployment, social and economic marginalization of rural youth.

 

In Europe and West Balkans, high youth unemployment rates, sustained youth population drain to urban centres, overall economic marginalization are compounded by impaired access to education, socialization and participation opportunities in a complex relationship of co-determination.

The simultaneous operation of the factors outlined above is both a triggering and perpetuating factor in a self-feeding dynamic of exclusion whose unhindered development is due to hamper the socioeconomic sustainability of rural communities and the personal development of youngsters.

A comprehensive and sustainable approach to youth employability in rural areas should focus on strengthening the role of youth organization as key bridgeheads capable of connecting youth empowerment, active citizenship and local development through an NFE based educational approach targeted at providing young people with skills to be active drivers of positive change.

Developing entrepreneurial skills and competences in young people represents a major avenue towards the enhancement of self-employability, active participation and social inclusion of youngsters as well as a key determinant in eliciting a youth driven-bottom up process of development capable of making the most of the wide array of assets (natural, cultural, traditional) characterizing rural areas across Europe and Western Balkan countries.

YBB provides a comprehensive approach to tackle the issue of youth unemployment in rural areas by means of sharing and developing knowledge, best practices and NFE tools fostering the understanding and technical competences of locally-engaged youth operators in supporting empowerment and employability of young people in rural areas through conveying skills and competences of entrepreneurship.

The Consortium is composed of experienced youth organizations with a long-standing involvement in support of disadvantaged youth categories in rural areas by means of NFE. 

In the frame of YBB, partners will share, assess and develop knowledge, best practices and NFE tools to be tested and further developed in a TC involving youth/social workers from each organization. The methodologies developed in project TC will be tested in a piloting phase conducted in all partner countries with the participation of local youth operators. Partners will test the educational outcomes achieved in the first phase of the project through a specific YE involving youngsters from rural areas.

“Youth, Business, Better” (YBB) is a project involving a total of 8 NGOs of which 3 based in the Western Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania) and 5 in Europe (Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, FYROM). YBB will develop an integrated approach for youth organizations in partner countries to tackle the issues of unemployment, social and economic marginalization of rural youth.

In Europe and West Balkans, high youth unemployment rates, sustained youth population drain to urban centres, overall economic marginalization are compounded by impaired access to education, socialization and participation opportunities in a complex relationship of co-determination.

The simultaneous operation of the factors outlined above is both a triggering and perpetuating factor in a self-feeding dynamic of exclusion whose unhindered development is due to hamper the socioeconomic sustainability of rural communities and the personal development of youngsters. A comprehensive and sustainable approach to youth employability in rural areas should focus on strengthening the role of youth organization as key bridgeheads capable of connecting youth empowerment, active citizenship and local development through an NFE based educational approach targeted at providing young people with skills to be active drivers of positive change.

On this Training Course, 32 participants from 8 countries took part. Countries which were represented are Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia.

 

32 Youth workers and leaders in the field of non-formal education and entrepreneurship were representing their countries and contribute on this training course.

Location of the project:

Trainer of “Start it UP, Keep it UP” project organized by NAYORA

The project “Start it UP, Keep it UP” is an innovative project focused on promotion of social entrepreneurship. This project touches one of the comparing unknown fields in the youth sector and the new concept for Europe – social entrepreneurship, emphasizing the innovative feature – creation of social start-up incubators.

 

The project oriented to solution of social problems of communities in Europe, where young people can bring a change through a social-oriented start-ups, by equipping youth organizations with necessary capacity in order to provide young people with consulting and training on social entrepreneurship. This will not only solve different social problems in Europe, but also make young people become the main actors of change. The project inspired and provided young people with knowledge and resources in order to bring a change to their community. Besides this, it will also raise a network of young social entrepreneurs, who will continue working in a network and give solutions to social problems of Europe. 

The project links to the objectives of the Erasmus+ programme by aiming at the development of cooperation between youth organisations from East and West of Europe with a specific focus on capacity development of NGOs in order to promote social entrepreneurship in Europe.

The project unites in itself 2 min components regarding young people: employment and active participation of young people in solution of community problems.  Nowadays young people depend on the local context if their potentials are activated or if self- development is limited due to structural and direct forms of exclusion. This presented project wants to address this problem by offering the chance to establish social entrepreneur centres and human resources for fulfilling these needs of the local community. 

The main gap that we filled by implementing the project “Start it UP, Keep it UP” was to create the spaces (HUBs) for young people to gather for starting their social start-ups and get acknowledged with social entrepreneurs for exchange of practices. As it’s known currently there are few social start-up incubators and accelerators around Europe, as the big majority of existing incubators and accelerators are focused on entrepreneurship itself, not including social entrepreneurship in it.

We saw youth organizations as the main actors in filling this gap. We believe by providing youth organizations with necessary capacity these organizations can gather social entrepreneurs and create the necessary conditions for them. This has done by training 4 mentors per organization and providing organizations with the manuals that will be developed in the end of the project for further dissemination along with the online platform for young social entrepreneurs with necessary resources. The Social Entrepreneurship Forum and organizing local trainings for future social entrepreneurs will also ensure the implementation and learning processes, putting them in parallel, so the impact will be ensured during the whole project.

The mobility activities of this project were called “Training of Mentors”. It total there were 3 training of mentors conducted during 18 month within 21 project implementation months, with 1 training in each 6 moths.

The mobility activities were aimed to provide the mentors with necessary expertise, skills, knowledge and capacity to guide and mentor the local groups. The activities were organized as interactive 7 days training courses each. The trainings were conducted using the methodology of non-formal learning. After each training participants were required to implement the tasks set during the training course (involve participants for local trainings, implement training courses, organize workshops and counselling sessions).
Between the trainings of mentors the future mentors conducted the mentioned local trainings and actively work with potential participants and future social entrepreneurs.

The mobility activities gave a triple-impact effect. First, as the direct target group, the mentors themselves were benefitted by building their capacity as future mentors. Second, the organizations were strengthening their network between each other, as during the training courses some of the sessions were dedicated to network building. Third, the participants of local training courses were benefitted indirectly, as they were provided with mentoring in order to start their own social enterprises. 

During each of the mobility activity and other trips for capacity building activities, we organized a study visit to the existing social start-ups in the hosting cities. This gave a chance to build and strengthen the network among social enterprises, as well as inspire and give ideas for social start-ups.

The project “Start it UP, Keep it UP” has the following objectives and related key activities:

Objective 1: To build the capacity of youth NGOs in giving consulting for young people in social entrepreneurship.

Key activity 1: Establishment of social entrepreneur hubs in 6 countries across Europe. The hubs will gather young social entrepreneurs for networking and provide young people interested in social entrepreneurship with necessary consulting and assistance.

Key activity 2: A long-term training course for social entrepreneurship mentors with 3 physical trainings and mentorship practice phase.

 

Objective 2: To create a space for assessment and discussion of the impact of social entrepreneurship in decreasing unemployment and building a better environment with relevant stakeholders.

Key activity 1: “Youth Social Entrepreneurship Forum” which will be organized in Baku city and will gather 60 young people involved in social entrepreneurship and relevant stakeholders in order to discuss the role of social entrepreneurship in youth employment and social development in Europe.

Key activity 2: Study-visits to existing social enterprises in the hosting cities during the planned physical meetings of the project (advanced planning meeting, residential trainings, Forum and evaluation meeting) for exchange of best practices and visualisation of the impact of social enterprises.

 

Objective 3: To increase the knowledge of young people in social entrepreneurship and provide them with opportunities and tools for starting their own “social start-ups”.

Key activity 1: Long-term training courses for 120 young people in 6 countries, where they’ll identify the areas they want to work on and start running their own start-ups.

Key activity 2: Launch an online tool which will provide young people with online modules on social entrepreneurship and strengthen the network between young social entrepreneurs.

Key activity 3:  Establishment of a social start-up incubator in the city of applying organization, which will ensure the sustainability of this project and create a space for social entrepreneurs to learn and practice their skills.

Key activity 4: Development of the manuals in the language of the partner countries and English version in order to provide young people with the basic information on how to start the social enterprise.

Location of the Training: