What I follow and what I don't

Today I had chance to write an email to one very good person who is not afraid to think and act in different way. His question was:

"How hard was it to make the important decisions that brought you to places inside and outside yourself where you have never been before? How much insecurity and doubt did strike you before, during and after such a decision? And which factors lead to everything turning out well in the end?"

My answer was pretty much about following:

• Don't follow the crowds. Crowds are stupid and ignorant, even if there is majority of them.

• Don't follow simple solutions. Simplicity often cuts the way to larger paybacks and larger picture.

• Follow smart people, people smarter and better (in something at least) than you.

• Act and speak in such a way that others would eventually start to follow you (in something at least).

• Follow your dream(-s). If you don't have one, make an effort to work on its creation.

• More than anything else - follow your heart. If you believe you are ultimately a good person, your heart must be good advisor to you too.

I like to take the risk. A calculated risk, to be sure. Because if this risk is sustained with a confident belief and power of focusing, there is nothing unachievable, I believe. There are always doubts and reasons to say "no". In any case. But problems and personal miseries allow you to develop your empathy towards hundreds of millions of people who are suffering similar challenges.

One day it pays off.

How rich are you?

I like intellectual challenges. I like especially the kinds that challenge your mental picture of the world and your own place in there.

And it is just excellent if such intellectual challenges are for a good reason.

We all have heard about highly unequal distribution of incomes in the world. But how comprehensive it really is?

And how rich every one of us really is?

How rich are you?

Well, you can find out your place in the Global Rich List.

A beautiful song from Kazakhstan

...and beautiful video from beautiful country too.

I am an AIESECer!

I am going to be popular among students in Estonia and in Kazakhstan. Big posters below will be distributed in universities there. It was nice to be recognized in this way by AIESECers who are organizing new members' recruitment at the moment.

Well, if my face and words would attract to AIESEC at least some proactive and amibitious young people in Estonia and in Kazakhstan, it won't be a waste of colour and paper. My mom will be proud of me anyway ;)

Feel stupid? Make most of it!

It is great to feel stupid again. Because when I feel like that, I have the urge to do everything possible to eliminate this feeling. Usually the way to do it is through learning.

I am now in the period of my life when this learning is institutionalized. In other words, I spend a lot of time in the learning institution.

This institution is called BI Norwegian School of Management (Handelshøyskolen BI), where I am pursuing two-years degree of Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. One of the leading business schools in Scandinavia, one of the few private institutions of higher education in Norway has to manage to attract good students, while they have chance to get their education for free in any of Norwegian public schools. When one competes against others who have certain natural advantage, one has to be better in certain things.

I definitely feel that studying here. The school itself is very innovative and studying-friendly. I have never had that good conditions to study. The university building is one of the most beautiful and impressive I have seen in my life. I have access to all kind of business books and all kind of scientific databases around the world. Connections between university and business sphere are very strong and learning methods are very practical.

Coming back to feeling stupid - I have subjects such as Financial Management and Theories of Business and Economic Development, which are very intensive and require a lot of dedication. I have a bachelor degree in social sciences, therefore, I literally felt stupid in some classes. - I just didn't understand many things as they were said. This has led to many hours of reading, exercising, writing and thinking afterwards on my own and talking to my class-mates with previous financial education. Sometimes I have the feeling that I would be a great accountant, should I study like that for some time more :)

My first three weeks of studies have taught me enormously much about financial and business world. Interesting conclusion I have come to is that, in my opinion, it is a good idea to receive a business education after a social one (or maybe vice versa). Because, in fact, these two are like two different worlds.

Social paradigm of the world is all about humans, their behaviour, their interaction, institutions they create, societies and communities they participate in, policies and structures they think of to make the world easier to grasp.

Financial/business paradigm of the world (in its pure setting) is all about profits, earnings, rational investment, innovations to create more value.

And it is interesting to see that there are two distinct types of people who think in one or another paradigm. It is also interesting to ask yourself which of them is governing societies and the world as such. If you don't have money, you cannot build society or any kind of relationship, can you? Can anyone say for sure what kind of impact on societies have had people like Warren Buffett, one of the world's greatest investors?

Anyway, I am glad BI gives an opportunity to open up another paradigm of understanding the world.

Another interesting discovery is that it is really great to be a Master student after having lived and worked in different countries for three years without being enrolled in university. I feel I understand much better what I want and what I need from my studies. I can focus my attention on what truly interests me, not on what is "good to learn". I can judge the things being learnt in my classes from perspective of my past real-life experiences.

The soft-skills and the world-view which I have acquired thanks to AIESEC, are of a great importance. To work on presentation in a group, to drive fast conclusions, to hold a presentation in class, to have a broad perspective on learning material, to set clear objectives for your studies - I feel my AIESEC experience has helped me enormously to make all of that better and easier than if I would not have had AIESEC career behind me. Global perspective of thinking is another valuable asset I have acquired thanks to leading AIESEC chapters in Estonia and Kazakhstan, interacting with hundreds of young leaders from all around the globe.

I suppose I will fully grasp the importance of my AIESEC experience in years from now, after some more discoveries of how cool it is sometimes to feel yourself stupid ;)

"Hotel Rwanda" - for those who are not ignorant

Lately, this blog is turning into movies' review diary. In general, I watch movies rather rarely. And if I watch some, I usually pick something worth doing that in order not to waste my time.

I like history. I admire brave people. There is one movie which speaks about both of it. "Hotel Rwanda" it is.

People are generally ignorant if they don't feel that something happening does not impact them in any way. That's how many events around us are perceived. Everyone is aware of the conflict in Iraq, because a world superpower USA and oil are involved there. Everyone is aware of the conflict in Georgia, because a wannabe superpower Russia and oil are involved there. And it seems like people (at least in what is considered to be West) are concerned about these events. They protest, they create different groups in the Facebook "Supporting X against Y" etc, which is good to some extent, because it shows their civic attitude.

But how many people protest or create groups in the Facebook against atrocities happening currently in Sudan, for example?

In 1994 a Central-African country Rwanda did not have major world superpower involved there. Neither did it have oil. According to estimations, more than 800.000 people were slaughtered during three months of 1994 during what is now referred as genocide. This seemed like another bad news from some failed state in Africa back then.

I remember working as a summer reporter in the biggest Estonian daily "Postimees" in 2004. I was then involved in foreign news department. Once my task was to write about 10th anniversary of genocide is Rwanda. I comprehensively researched the topic, wrote quite a good article which was supposed to become a main story in foreign news the next day. But few hours before giving materials to final editing the main editor approached me, apologized and said that I need to cut the story till just 4 paragraphs, because the main story will cover the visit of Estonian prime-minister to neighbouring Latvia. It stroke my mind then - I lost my chance to really show people what happened there because of their own ignorance...

And what happened is an extreme example of what can be result of hysterical nationalism and manipulation of people with the help of mass media. By 1994 there were two main ethical groups in Rwanda - Tutsi and Hutu, while the difference between these two was created by outsiders, former Belgian colonists, who divided people to two group according to their looks (length of nose) and gave different passports (along with different priviliges, while Tutsi got more of them in 20th century). So, basically, it was the same people speaking the same language who were divided into two groups.

Eextremely-minded nationalistic Hutus grabbed the military power in the country and started to strengthen anti-Tutsi sentiments in the beginning of 1990s . Mass media was used heavily for that. A special militia (killing force) was created and being trained. After some incident mass-killings started. Everyone who had a temple "Tutsi" in their passports would not escape the death, incuding small children. It was a true ethical cleansing. Around 70% of Tutsi living in Rwanda in that time were killed during these three months.

The movie "Hotel Rwanda" tells a story of one hotel manager, Hutu himself, who was married to Tutsi woman. Despite threat to himself and his family, he saved a few thousand Tutsis who could cover themselves in his hotel. I recalled "Schindler's List" when I watched this movie.

The movie is excellent. The actors' play is excellent. The story is amazing, yet scary. Because it was a reality.

It is obligatory watching for everyone interested in history and everyone not willing to be ignorant.

Singing Revolution (Laulev revolutsioon) in Estonia - a thing to be proud about

I am critical about some things in Estonia as my country (as any critically-minded person is about his or her society). And normally I don't like to boost with the words like "Estonia is the best" etc. But, among others, there is one thing which makes me proud about my home-land and which is worth to learn from. It is so-called Singing Revolution in the end of 1980s.

These thoughts came again to my mind while I was watching the movie with this name in July. Me and my colleague Kristi showed this movie to foreign volunteers who came for their service to Estonia (it was a part of their cultural preparation during the training me and Kristi did for them). I watched this movie for the first time then.

Singing Revolution is the term characterizing the chain of events which eventually led to national re-awakening of Estonians and break-up from the USSR in 1991. But the way people expressed their wish for independence, their desire to build their own country was not military. People did not use guns or any kind of violence. They were singing. About Estonia, about the nature, about their families, about the weather, about the sea, about their country. In the peak moments of the time of Singing Revolution there were more than one hundred thousand people singing together. This brought unity and focus to Estonians (as well as to Latvians and Lithuanians, where similar events were happening simultaneously) who managed to proclaim their independence from Soviet Union.

The good things about this movie is that it is done by Americans, not Estonians. Americans managed to stick to the facts and videos available from this time, while staying objective. And the final result is excellent - everyone feeling part of this country would not probably be left cold after watching this movie. It is emotionally very intensive movie, which shows how something very desirable for more than 1 million people has been happening.

Having been in Bosnia I know what can it lead to when people take guns, start to kill, destroy, rape and wound. Unfortunately, that is precisely what is still happening in many parts of the world. Why cannot all revolutions be singing?

"Singing Revolution / Laulev revolutsioon" is obligatory watching for all Estonians, all people interested in the history of Estonia, all people interested in the history of 21st century and in international relations.

Next steps, next dreams...

I am back in Estonia since couple of days ago. My one-year-long journey to Kazakhstan has ended for now.

It is great to be back home, to see my family, my friends, my hometown.

What next?

Realizing next dreams!

In two days I am having a welcome party with my AIESEC Estonia friends in Tallinn. I am really looking forward to see them all.

In five days I am going to travel around Estonia and Latvia with one person dear to me for almost two weeks. That will be like one long beautiful dream.

In three weeks I am going to deliver training for young people who came to Estonia as volunteers - will try to impact their world-view and their understanding of Estonia. I love to do it every time I can.

In four weeks I am going back to Split, the most beautiful city I have ever been to! I was waiting for 2,5 years for this moment - to see all my old friends, to recall all nice memories, to do the things I have not managed to do there last time. Just couple of hours ago I got to know that I was selected as a chair of International Summer Program in Split, which AIESEC Split is organising. They invited me there. Another dream is coming true :)

I will take a short break after that and then - back to Oslo! The next long journey is going to start. I got accepted to Master studies in BI Norwegian School of Management, which is one of the best business-schools in Northern Europe. I am going to study Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a very exciting subject.

It was my goal since 1,5 years ago - to go to study in Master programme in business-related subject in some very good school. I am realizing my goals again :)

The world is beautiful. And I am capitalizing on its beauty as much as I can ;)