P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15 sivu 5

A.V.I.T.A.E

Ideas and visions fill the conversations around the tables in room 400 at Øre-stad Gymnasium. We are four teachers from Faarevej-le secondary school who are attending this special and innovative schoolday. While discussing their ideas, the students work in a practical and creative way and this combination makes room 400 buzz with activity and energy.

On our way home we dis-cussed the day and the input we got from the AVITAE-pro-ject and decided to establish international contacts, so our kids have to communi-cate in a foreign language in order to participate actively. Lise, teacher at Faarevejle Secondary school.

At Oerestad Gymnasium we had our Avitae day March 26. The idea behind the day was to disseminate what we

had done with students until now. Focus for Denmark had been to teach teachers and students of the project the innovative method ”Design to Improve Life” in which you get to think out of the box, cooperate in groups, be creative in forming ideas, de-fining problems, give and re-ceive feedback, present your solution and be specific in analysing target groups and background knowledge.

We created a workshop in which a first year class from our school, teachers both from our school and from a secondary school participa-ted and worked intensively with innovation in a historic context all day. With know-legde from various historic periods the students had worked with in their history class, they had to think new solutions. One solution was to reuse old trains to make cheap homes for students in the center of Copenhagen.

Avitae day = innovation day

Another was to create an app with various features for grandparents and grandchil-den getting to know each

other better through acti-vities and story telling. As one student said at the end of the workshop, ”It was a

fun and educational day. We used the innovative part of ourselves, we defined prob-lems and found solutions to our chosen problem. Beyond that we also learned the im-portance of working toget-her in our groups”, Nicolai 1e

One of the purposes of the workshop was to use history in a modern con-text and make the students experience one way to use their newly gained historic knowlegde. One student put it like this, ”I really think it was a successful day. First-ly because we were able to work and think in innovative ways. Secondly because we could choose which historic period we wanted to work with, we chose the Middel Ages”, Katja 1e

Since the students of the AVITAE project had tried out the method several ti-mes, four of them acted

as assistent teachers of the workshop. Now the AVITAE students had to experience the method from the inside. Ask Urheim from the project said, ”To be an assistent te-acher was as much to teach as to learn yourself. Didactic and knowledge became one, and it became very clear to me that both were needed.”

After the workshop we had a reception for students, teachers and parents where we told about what we had done in the project. We also had an exhibition of proto-types from both the visit in Copenhagen and the work-shop earlier that day.

Claus and Charlotte, Den-mark

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15sivu 6

By Carlos Acosta

IES Canarias Cabrera Pinto, Tenerife

I found it quite interesting kno-wing why someone starts to develop a business activity ai-med at entertainment and cul-ture. So I interviewed Mónica Lorenzo Díaz, a businesswoman who is currently the director of the Timanfaya Theater in Puer-to de la Cruz and she shared her experiences and love for her business with me.

Monica started her business operation at the Timanfaya Theatre in May 2011, when she thought it was necessary for the town of Puerto de la Cruz to have a theater because up until then there had not been any space dedicated to the Per-forming Arts. She knows that culture is a fundamental part of the development of human beings.

She invested her savings, ob-tained a loan and restored a former cinema and converted it into a theater. That's how she became a theatre entrepreneur.

When she was a child She wanted to be an actress. Mó-nica studied dramatic arts and when she tried to build her bu-siness project she did a Masters in Cultural Management.

Although there haven’t been any financial benefits, because culture isn’t profitable econo-mically, she has managed to create habits of cultural con-sumption. It has made the Ti-manfaya Theatre a meeting place for artists and audiences.

There is a large group of peop-le who benefit from their va-ried activity program: children, youngsters, adults, senior ci-tizens, foreign residents and tourists.

Monica feels her work and effort is compen-sated when she sees new people enjoying the activity, especial-ly when she sees the audience has enjoyed a function and con-gratulates her for her work.The most negati-ve thing is preparing a play knowing that the show is great and not many people turn up.

She has taken a signifi-cant risk by operating the business but she li-kes that she is her own boss and makes decisi-ons on her own.

Monica believes that the worst thing about being an entrepreneur is that there are no schedules, having to work a lot.

The key to success is consis-tency, dedication and to being

The Path to Success -SpainTimanfaya Theater

by Nantia Dimitriou, Ioanna Karydi, Stefanos Dallas

For the purpose of the inter-view we visited the dairy fac-tory of Mr Karalis. We chose this one because we were told that it’s the business with the biggest turnover in the area and the one with the biggest export activity of hard cheese (kefalograviera) in Greece. It’s a family business, currently run by father and son.

We met the father, Kostas, who told us it was his father that had started the business but unfortunately it didn’t go well. So he took it over in 1965 and started from scratch. By 1982 he exported to the Sta-tes, Canada and Australia.

It was his willpower that ur-ged him to get involved with the business in the first pla-ce. “It was not a need but a want”, he stressed repeatedly. He got acquainted with the job very early in his child-hood but all these years his drive has been his strong will. He went on to say that it was very difficult to make his first profit and it still is. “This never changes but if you want somet-hing strongly then you carry on.”

He didn’t feel special when he

The Path to Success -Greece

got to his first goal because he was already thinking of the next one to achieve. He always takes risks but only after he has plan-ned his next move carefully.

The good thing about being an entrepreneur is to set a goal, to achieve it and plan the next one. No entrepreneur ever sits back and is content with himself or his success. He is on the alert to move on to the next step. He added that a businessman

should rely on his good jud-gment, quick thinking and on dealing effectively with difficult situations. Constant concern, consistency and hard work are some of the qualities that lead to success.

He finished by emphasizing that he has never been given something ready or easily but he has struggled for everything in his life.

open to change constantly, evaluate your project and the needs of the public.

Throughout this interview, Monica has transmitted us the great enjoyment her work gives her and the personal reward is

huge.

A.V.I.T.A.EAugust 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15 sivu 7

Simon Sicko, Slovakia

We have decided to visit a very successful entrepreneur Simon Sicko and interview him, as he is the co founder and CEO of Pi-xel Federation, an independent game developer and publisher headquartered in Slovakia. This company is well known in Slo-vakia and we know the games they develop.

After finishing his studies in architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bra-tislava, Simon briefly worked in his field and started developing computer games in 2002.

In 2007, along with three ot-her partners, Simon co founded Pixel Federation. The first sig-nificant success came in 2010 with the well known game title TrainStation, currently played on Facebook by more than 1million players a month. Si-mon is an investor in the Slo-vak Venture Fund, managed by Neulogy Ventures, and advises the Fund as well as portfolio companies in the area of inter-national business development,particularly in gaming.

Here are his answers to our questions

How did you start your busi-ness?

In 2007 I decided with three other people from the gaming business that we would estab-lish our own independent com-pany, which should deal with game making. We had a clear vision of the claim our products should have: From Players to Players.

How did you realise you wanted to be a businessman?

When I had understood that freedom, responsibility were very important factors for me.

Did you want to do this job when you were a child?

Yes I did, it was my big dream. Computer games was somet-hing which I was totally fasci-nated with- it was love at first sight. Even though I finished my studies in architecture and earned a living from it during the studies. So I grabbed the very first opportunity to get employed in a company which produced computer games.

Was it hard to make the first profit?

It is questionable what can be meant by the first profit. To make a profit for a company which started through B2B was a very simple equation deri-ved from concrete questions. When we turned to B2C with our own products, this equati-on got more complicated and ROI (return on investment) was a harder task to accomplish and especially define.

How did you feel the first time you got a profit?

I would rather rephrase this question and change the term Profit to Success. In my opini-on success can be signalized not only according to the de-fines KPI’s (key performance indicator) of the project, but in our case also according to the reactions of our customers and players, which were positive from the first moment. Then we started to feel that we were on the right path (after 5 procee-ding failures).

Do you often take risks?

At the beginning of our entrep-reneurship we had to take risks very often. Despite detailed analyses, every single action

can be considered for risky if the company is not run-ning according to patterns of success. After the years we try to adapt the scale of risk proportionally to our financial reserves.

What is the best thing on being an entrepreneur?

“Sky is the limit.”

What is the worst thing on being an entrepre-neur?

The extent of responsibili-ty not only for myself, but also for my colleagues.

What do you think a per-son needs to become an entrepreneur?

Most important quality for an entrepreneur is the staying power. Except for that one has to define clear vision and values.

What is the key to your success?

You must not be afraid of mistakes and losses.

The Path to Success -Slovakia

Pyhäjoki high school in Finland is participating in the AVITAE PROJECT, an international project bet-ween schools from different countries. In this project there are seven different schools from Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Greece, Denmark, Finland and Cyprus. Stu-dents are visiting each ot-her in almost every country, and they will meet the local people and get to know each other and the culture of the host country.

Related to this, Pyhäjoki high school had a day, the 28th of May, on which the students participating in the project told about their ex-periences and about what’s still about to come. All the students of the high school and the last grades of the secondary school were able to take part in the day. The-

re was a short presentation on every country in which we were told some basic facts about the countries, about AVITAE and about visits that had already been made or will be made in the future. There were also two foreign teachers communi-cating with the school via Skype. Delia Tocchini from Italy started the interna-tional day, and in the after-noon Ourania Karantzeni from Greece told some facts about AVITAE. Everybody was very happy to have the-se international guests, and they gave something really special to the day.

Heidi, 17, and Matias, 18, told about their visits to foreign schools with their classmates. Heidi was very impressed by her trip to Greece, and she and the ot-her students had a conver-

sation about their journey and experiences with the listeners. Matias, who visited Denmark, had prepared a game with his fellow travel-lers. The listeners made up a problem, which they then were supposed to resolve together.

Mostly the day was about learning something new about the AVITAE-project and the host countries, and mainly just having good time together. The project has been going on since last autumn, and it will continue still two years. The project will be finished in two yea-rs, in the autumn 2017. The whole Pyhäjoki high school is very happy to take part in the project, and we hope and believe that everyone is able to understand how rare and special this occasion is for us.

One day of AVITAE

Liikenne Grekula is a taxi and bus company which is probably known by almost every person in Pyhäjoki. It has started wor-king a few years ago. Entrep-reneur Toni Grekula can’t say an exact day or year when he opened the company. He says that he started driving a bus little by little. The first bus for the company was acquired in 2008 and taxi licenses in 2010. Nowadays Liikenne Gre-kula has 9 to 10 cars in profes-sional traffic. Grekula has always been interested in cars and ma-chines. Even so, when he was little he didn’t dream even a bit of being a taxi- and bus driver, not to mention being an ent-repreneur. However the first school year’s taxi trips, which were driven by Kaino Kaivoso-ja and later by Pentti Grekula, have stayed in his mind. "May-be something was ingrained in the little boy's mind." Even so, his career leading to the traffic sector is also due a lot to the demand for taxi and bus servi-ces, rather than searching for a specific sector. Some people think that the entrepreneurship is a lucrative thing, but before the first actual profits you must do much work. The taxi and bus business is challenging also that in the respect that the equip-ment costs a lot and it has to be replaced and maintained regularly. Especially when star-ting the company’s whole fun-ding causes trouble, and most need to pay in instalments or use bank loans. Also because of this results and first real profit

to turn out be very challenging for the entrepreneur and the company’s starting years might also feel unprofitable. Probably exactly for this reason getting first the profits were very inter-esting and rewarding for Greku-la. Good side of entrep-reneurship is often described as 'the freedom of the entrep-reneur' and the opportunity to influence their own salary. Ho-wever, Grekula says, that things don't always go that way. Ent-repreneurs freedom is often overstated. The entrepreneur's life is uneven and not as safe and steady as the salary worker's life. In business, the hardest part is its absoluteness. Espe-cially small business owners are often forced to leave for work without looking at the clock. Also competition in this industry is hard. Ho-wever, entrep-reneurs are needed, it's a fact. Wit-hout entrep-reneurs there wouldn't be as many jobs, and it's of-ten said, that entrepreneurs build the Fin-nish economy. A c -cording to Grekula, an entrepreneur has to have

courage to take risks, he has to be hardworking and also a so called workaholic. The risks of being a businessman are normal to him. He tells that he won’t take risks in traffic at least on purpose, but on the other hand in the working life he tells that he takes maybe too many risks.’’But on the other hand a businessman must always have faith in success.’’ Responsi-bility is also required from a good entrepreneur. Especially, if an entrepreneur has his/her own employees, he/she has to take care of them and always remember, that they are as im-portant as you are. In the life of an entrepreneur, family is also in the business, and he/she has to therefore also get some

flexibility and faith from them. ‘’Family is an important thing in the life of an entrepreneur.’’ Entrepreneurship is like a lifes-tyle, whereby the whole family lives’’, says Grekula. His own family supports and also helps in hard moments; without their support it would be hard to keep on and succeed. Every entrepreneur

surely hopes for success. Actu-ally there is not key to success, you just have to be hard wor-king and hope for the future. In the life of an entrepreneur achieving success means that you will lose some of your free time. Grekula wouldn't say he is successful yet. In his opinion his success should be recon-sidered in 15-20 years. The

success doesn't come quick-ly, meaning that you can’t get money instantly. The profits you get will probably be inve-sted back into company and true success can’t be known until the end of the business." An entrepreneur's life has its price", says Grekula, " but I am happy with my choices”

The Path to Success -Finland

A.V.I.T.A.E August 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15sivu 8

How did you realize you wanted to become an entrep-reneur and how did you start your business?

Well, I grew up deaf myself and met a great deal of people in my youth who’d never given a second thought as to what it felt like being deaf and therefo-re had a lot of questions. I felt there was need to create some platform to provide informati-on about the deaf community and give answers to all these questions. Up until then there weren’t a lot of means for my peers to learn about sign lan-guage in Denmark. So “Tegns-tuen” was created, as one of the first places to do so.

Was this a job you had wanted as a child?

Yes, I think I always wanted to start something up myself. As a child I also wanted to be an aut-hor or a journalist, so I guess it must have been in my genes ever since childhood. For me it was just so interesting to do something like this, something that also fits the life I lead. As an entrepreneur you can deci-de for yourself what you are to do and what ideas to work on, which I find very exciting.

Was it hard to turn your first profit?

Back when I started Tegnstu-en, I didn’t think all that much

The path to success -DenmarkBy Bianca Rasmussen, 2.j Ørestad Gymnasium

about money. I was focused on working on my idea and making it a reality. Money just sort of came along the way, but it de-finitely wasn’t my top goal from the beginning.

How did it feel to turn your first profit? Well it was great to get your first paycheck, of course - the fact that other people actually wanted to pay money for what I had spent my time working on was really awesome. You feel reaffirmed in the value of your product and your labour.

Would you say you take a lot of chances?

Yes, often I do, I think you have to as an entrepreneur. When you get a good idea, it’s just all about holding on to that idea and keep on going.

So you’re not afraid of failu-re?

No, because by making mista-kes you simply get new ideas out of it. All entrepreneurs live by their ideas - one mustn't give up! If you like feeling safe and secure, you should find a different line of work - as an entrepreneur you have to take chances!

What would you say is the best thing about being an entrepreneur?

The enormous amount of pos-sibilities - you can do whatever you want to! If you are willing to try something new, it’s just so interesting to see what you can achieve. It’s incredibly gi-ving, being an entrepreneur, because you gather so much experience during the process.

Info:Mette Bertelsen is 33 years old and resides in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mette has a degree in E-business, cand. merc. (it) from the IT university of Copenhagen. She started the business “Tegnstuen.dk”, which offers courses in sign lan-guage and equips deaf and hearing people with the means of communication between each other, in form of lectu-res and materials. Furthermore, Tegnstuen offers external education and information workshops for school children. Their newest project is E-learning, an online portal that provides education on sign language as well, to meet the high demand and reach out to the deaf community.

What is the worst thing about being an entrepreneur?

The uncertainty. You never know about the economy or what the end result of your ide-as will be. You just have to take the risk and try to be a good negotiator. But of course the unknown is also an interesting and exciting part of my job.

What do you think a person needs to become an entrep-reneur?

You can’t be afraid to try new

things and you have to be good at setting your mind on somet-hing and stick to it. Apart from that, being organized is a key-word - and thinking out of the box. It would be a good idea to have a sparring partner, to help you come up with new ideas. The person’s goal should be executing great ideas, not just the money.

So what would you say is the key to success? To stick to the idea you want and not give up on it.

Hotelova akademia, Slovakia

We decided to connect AVI-TAE day with the celebration of 10th anniversary of eTwinning on 7th May.

AVITAE students prepared a nice presentation about the project and invited all teachers and students of our school to visit a classroom prepared for the celebration.

Mrs Katarina Biela, the head-mistress of the school opened the whole event and welcomed AVITAE project coordinator Delia Tocchini, who was present online – through Skype call.

Students of the school accom-panied by teachers visited the classroom and had opportunity to see the presentation of the project, activities and pictures. AVITAE students and teachers were ready to answer all ques-

tions and were proud to be a part of Erasmus+ project. All students and teachers were in-vited to join the project and get prepared for the next project meeting that will take place in our school in October.

The students enjoyed the ex-hibition, talking about the pro-ject and discussion with the participants of the meeting in Denmark and Greece. In addi-tion, they had opportunity to taste some sweets and a big cake made for this special op-portunity.

The most interesting part of the day was the skype call with the students and the teachers of our partner school from Den-mark and Cyprus. It was great to see enthusiasm and real joy of the students communicating together online.

AVITAE DAY -Slovakia

A.V.I.T.A.EAugust 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15 sivu 9

The European Programmes team of Laniteio Lykeio decided to organize a common event in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of eTwinning and all the European Projects running in our school during the school year 2014 – 2015.

The event was held in the se-cond week of May and lasted three days. During these days

an exhibition in the school’s main hall opened where the ac-tivities of all projects were pre-sented through photographs, posters and students’ creati-ons. Furthermore, all students were invited to attend the ce-lebration which was organized in the school’s historic library where a small birthday party was held, complete with a birt-hday cake for eTwinning. The

party included presentations of the eTwinning Programme and platform, as well as, of all the European Projects our School had participated in.

The exhibition in the school’s main hall remained opened un-til the end of the school year.

AVITAE DAY -Cyprus

Thanks to our Erasmus pro-ject AVITAE, in May 2015 we had the opportunity to meet a very famous Italian entrep-reneur; during the meeting we asked him the questions that had come out of our AVITAE students’ sessions in ARTA, where we learned what it means to develop an entrapreneurial mindset - which is substantially the aim of our project. Thanks to this initiative we got to know Mr Attilio Attilieni, the founder of the world-famous Lelly Kelly brand: in 1992, together with his wife Mariella, Mr Attilieni had the idea to launch a new young girl-focused footwear and accessories trend which in the early 2000s made the com-pany achieve an annual turno-ver of over €60 million. Thus, the company’s earnings let the brand open up to foreign mar-kets in the EU but also in the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Sales abroad now represent up to a third of the company’s total turnover. This our interview to Mr Attilieni:

How did you start your busi-ness?

When I got out of high school (I was a student of this same school), I decided to go to the UK to improve my English, and when I made my way back to Italy I came in contact with

Italy’s very dynamic and well promising shoe business which was at the time able to heavily attract US buyers. In my fami-ly, which had been running a shoe manufacturing company for years, I had been appointed to be in charge of our American customers. Yet, my mind was heading somewhere else...

How did you realise you wanted to be a businessman?

I never actually realised it. Still nowadays I do not consider myself a businessman but so-mething like a creative person; however, after so many years spent in the business world, the others look at me as to a busi-ness man, but I’m not one.

Have you always wanted to be a businessman?

No, in fact my call was to the world of journalism and politics; but my family needed me to help them with their business, so I had to give up my call and be supportive. From those days until now, I’ve been here in Italy selling shoes.

Was it hard to make the first profit?

First of all, I never consider my activity in terms of profit-making. I’m interested in buil-

ding success and in creating new things; profit automatically comes next, but it’s the least important thing for a real bu-siness man, contrary to what many people think.

How did you feel the first time you made a profit?

The first time I made a profit, it was thanks to the Lelly Kel-ly shoes and I was very happy: I was happy to see that I was better than my competitors, that I was making a product that customers liked and, as a consequence, I was happy for the profit.

Do you think it is better to take risks or to analyse the market?

This is a very important questi-on, because it goes straight to the heart of the problem, which is whether you are or you are not an Entrepreneur. If you think too much, all this thinking may end up in a failure; the gre-atest success is always achieved through instinct and intuition; if you use your instinct, indeed you have a better chance to make your project or idea work. Yes, we have to take risks and it’s not always necessary to analyse the market.

What are the best and worst

things about being an entrepreneur?

The best thing is to be able to create somet-hing, to know that you are better than your competitors, to see that you can satisfy the needs of the market and of your potential custo-mers. The worst thing is that if you don’t put a stop sometimes...well, your job can negatively affect your life because you never stop working, and there is no room left for the rest.

What do you think a person needs to be an entrepreneur?

You cannot learn, either you are or you are not an entrepreneur. To better understand my words, just read entrepreneur-ship-related books writ-ten by analysts and by sociologists: they basi-cally argue that you’re supposed to have an entrepreneurial mindset to become a successful businessman, and that cannot be built from scratch but just imple-mented once you were born with this gift.

The AVITAE Students at Liceo Machiavelli in Lucca interview Italian entrepreneur Attilio Attilieni, founder of the Lelly Kelly shoe brand

A.V.I.T.A.E August 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15sivu 10

A cultural week is celebra-ted in our high school eve-ry year and this event was chosen to show our AVITAE project to all the communi-ty. From 13th to 17th April our students had the op-portunity to know about the project through a poster which summarizes the con-cept of AVITAE, the schools involved and the dates of the mobilities.

We also showed some

posters elaborated by the students about the origin of entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean sea: trade routes, products, coins. Hermes, the god of trade, played a special role in our day, with a amazing picture. Many students enjoyed the exhibitions, guided by the AVITAE teachers and stu-dents.

In addition, AVITAE stu-dents went to different clas-

ses and talked about their experience in the project showing the activities they had done: prezzis, prototy-pe designs, power points, videos, pictures… They answered all the questions asked by the other students and invited all of them to participate. All the students could appreciate the dif-ferent educational oppor-tunities that these kind of international meetings can offer them, feeling that the

Canary Islands are closer to Europe.

To finish off the week, we had the performance of a puppet show called “Travel with Aeneas”. Aeneas was one of the heroes of classical times who persistently tried to succeed despite all the troubles he had to encoun-ter. An ancient model for any modern entrepreneur.

AVITAE DAY, FEELING PART OF EUROPEIES CANARIAS CABRERA PINTO (TENERIFE)

Our school decided not to have a special AVITAE Day as the visit of the part-ner schools to Arta was late in the school year. We felt that the presence of all our friends here had made a great impact on the local community, school teachers and students, parents, and to the people of Arta in ge-neral. Everybody still speaks about the experience and we still get congratulations on the event. However, the last day of the school year we got the school staff toget-her and we presented them the educational material and

methods we used for the development of the project, the educational skills we aim at promoting and of course the outcomes of the first year of running it.

Avitae Day -Greece

A.V.I.T.A.EAugust 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15 sivu 11

Our AVITAE Day took pla-ce on Sat 23rd May at our Committee Room, which is called, in high-sounding La-tin, the Aula Magna. At the meeting there were a good number of students both from our school and from se-veral middle schools in Luc-ca (those who last February enrolled at our Liceo), alum-ni, teachers, parents and the deputy to Lucca’s Lord Mayor, Ms Ilaria Vietina. The event was introduced by our teachers’ opening speech

Liceo Machiavelli’s First Avitae DayOn Saturday 23rd May our Liceo organized its first AVITAE DAY. An unforgettable opportunity to build the school of the future

(By Class IB, with special thanks to I. Tabaku)

Special thanks to our Spanish partners who kindly sent their AVITAE DAY poster to us to share it. So we just translated it in Italian!

and by Ms Vietina’s saluta-tions: she delivered a poig-nant talk on the importance of the European Dimension at school, and in fact we were all hanging on her en-couraging words which also promised us help and sup-port for the AVITAE Final Event to be held at our liceo in March 2017.

The first session was then dedicated to a number of fi-nal year students who have gained important experien-

in Arta last April as a ready-to-leave-senior-student! She was so enthusiastic about it that the young students’ eyes started to glisten!

The second and final sessi-on was directly held by our class, who split into different groups to offer the audience various standpoints on the project’s life: the first group was in charge of the AVITAE newspaper both in its digital and paper formats; some of us had to illustrate the paper and explain the decisive role of our Finnish partner school in the production of this im-portant output. Our “Oere-stad Team” (those among us who had been to Copenha-

gen: Filippo Ficini, Camilla Angelotti, Meave Buchigna-ni, Noemi Biagini and Bian-ca Vannucci) illustrated to both students and parents their amazing visit at Oere-stad Gymnasium last Janua-ry; no wonder they used a digi-diary for the purpose! The audience was in their grip all the time and looked at Oerestad’s futuristic ar-chitecture and design with amazed eyes! The third par-ty was of course composed of the “Mega Penta”, the five among us who had taken part into the Arta meeting (Ilda Tabaku, Pietro Mei, Ilaria Nenna, Chiara Bartoli and Irene Petroni); they pre-sented the lykeion, illustra-

ted the places of interest they had visited and tried to explain the meaning of their newly-acquired entrepre-neurial lexis: entrepreneur-hisp, risk-taking, innovation and branding etc.!

At the end of the day, all the guests were invited to join a gourmand buffet pre-pared by our mums, gran-nies and aunties! There is nothing better than food to conclude such a pleasant meeting. Food and its so-cializing power…..but this is another chapter of the story, to be started in Bra-tislava in October 2015, at our partner school Hotelova Akademia. See you there!

ce in the field of European matters. First, we listened to student Kevin Spagnolo’s clarinet performance; Kevin is a final year student at our school but last year he went on a special leave to join the Rai (Italian Tv-Radio-Broad-cast) Juvenile Orchestra in Rome as a leading clarine-tist. He is currently a mem-ber of the Berliner Philarmo-nic Orchestra and a student at Genève Conservatory. A truly European Ambassa-dor! Kevin entertained us

with some Berio pie-ces for clarinet solo. Second, Alessandro Agnitti, another fi-nal year students, reported on his par-ticipation into the national competiti-on called “Citizens of Europe, Citizens of the World”, which was promoted by our Ministry of Educati-on and by Tuscany’s Educational Depart-ment. The competi-tion was dedicated to Italian politician Luciano Bolis, one of EU’s founding fat-hers. With his essay on the future of the EU Alessandro got the first prize and has now become a member of the Euro-pean

Youth Federalist Movement. Last, final year student Irene Petroni told us about her participation to the AVITAE meeting

A.V.I.T.A.E August 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 6 . 9 . 2 0 15sivu 12

Made by Elias Hirvikoskifrom Finland.

BIOGRAPHY

Paris is a passionate communi-cator and a serial entrepreneur. He holds a BA in Communicati-on Science, an MBA in Strategic Management, and is one of 30 globally certified trainers on Osterwalder’s groundbreaking Business Model Generation methodology. His solid backg-round is comprised of serving major Canadian organisations at senior management level, lobbying government, and fa-cilitating and training throug-hout Europe, America, and the Middle East. Aside from being co-founder and Director at Open Box Communication, he is also the co-founder and COO of ENERMAP (a Cleantech star-tup) and co-founder and Direc-tor at Chrysalis LEAP, the first accelerator platform in Cyprus. Paris effectively combines his background in public relations, communications, crisis mana-gement, and his skills in facili-tation, training, and strategic brainstorming, into a portfolio of services that delivers results in a sleeves rolled-up type of approach.

Skills

Training & facilitation, Leader-ship development, Business model innovation, Strategic thinking & planning, Public speaking, Change management

How did you start your busi-ness?

I quit my day job together with a colleague and we dove in the deep end by committing to our goal: to start our own business. It took a lot of hours of hard work and a lot of determinati-on, but when you decide you are going for it, you are uns-toppable.

How did you realise you wanted to be a businessman?

I’ve always had the urge to be in control. This urge of mine was satisfied as long as my supervi-sors gave me enough freedom

to do what I wanted, the way I wanted. When I lost that aspect of my job, I knew it was time to do something about it.

Did you want to do this job when you were a child?

I had no idea what “this” job would shape out to be. I knew I wanted big things for me and I knew I wanted to continue growing as a person and as a professional. The job itself is a vehicle. The innate desire in me since I was a child was and is to always enjoy the journey.

Was it hard to make the first profit?

Yes. It’s one thing to get paid; it’s a totally different story to make a profit. During our early stages we had no idea what our own time was worth, and since we are a company providing services, not selling products, we had to learn how to adequa-tely cost our time.

How did you feel the first time you had a profit?

Relaxed. It wasn’t about being excited. The feeling we had was more of a reassurance that we can indeed make a living from this new venture. As an entrepreneur you always wor-ry about what’s in the bank. Many people make the mistake of overreacting the first time they make a profit and begin to spend a bit more freely. For us it was important to change our mind-set into a savings mode and to not think of our profits as cause for celebration, but as a small pat on the back that we are competent and that the market desires our services.

Do you often take risks?

Every day. If you don’t you might as well be an employee and stop dreaming of entrepre-neurship. Taking risk is analogo-us to the concept of cash flow. The concept is simple in that in order to generate more cash, your money needs to flow. For it to flow you need to take the first step, which is to spend

it. That said, it makes sense to assume that without spending money you cannot make money i.e. be it for marketing purpo-ses, purchases of assets you need in order to delivery your service, research & develop-ment etc. Every time you spend you take a risk. Every time you say no to an opportunity in or-der to focus on what you do, you take a risk. Every time you try something new and spend hours and hours developing it, you take a risk. Risk blends with the air you breath, without which you begin to lose the very essence of being an entrepreneur; the thrill of the ride.

What is the best thing on being an entrepreneur?

You get full control of what you make of your life. I’d rather be an entrepreneur and make mi-nimum wage, deciding every day how I spend my time, than become a factory assembly line worker for a company that uses my capabilities to buy yachts and expensive cars for its sha-reholders. I exaggerate the op-tions available to me, but in my mind that’s how I make sense of the world. We probably get one chance to go through this lifetime and I want to make the most out of it.

What is the worst thing on being an entrepreneur?

Decision overload. If you are uncomfortable taking a stan-ce and making a decision, this will throw you off balance. As an entrepreneur you never get the “down time” you need to relax properly. You hear peop-le saying that they will turn off their phones and go on holiday. Sure, that’s nice, but if you run your own business it’s not that simple. Your business becomes part of you, and you care for it as you do for a child or a pet. Would you leave you child un-cared for at home and go on holiday? The Holy Grail of ent-repreneurship is when you fi-nally reach the level that allows you to be confident in a team of people that will watch your

An Interview with Paris Thomasback as you take a break from it all. Make no mistake about it; it takes years to get there.

What do you think a person needs to become an entrep-reneur?

Passion for what they do and the understanding that time is running out. The first allows you to bring your A-game to your business and to be bet-ter than anyone else while still enjoying the ride. The second is what I consider the jet-fuel that carries you through in tho-se difficult times when everyt-hing around you is collapsing

and you begin to wonder why it is you’ve chosen this path. Knowing that time is running out and that you have the ur-gency to do something during the time you have, is one of the things that tweaks my focus and allows me to get back in the game, as difficult as that may be.

What is the key to your suc-cess?

Communication. If you can present your ideas and not be afraid to network, you have a better chance at making your business successful. There are

plenty of exceptions of ent-repreneurs who built an app from their basement and beca-me millionaires sitting behind a computer screen. They are indeed the exception. For eve-ryone else, you will have to get out of the building and talk to people: your customers, your partners, your investors etc. Being good at talking is key.

A.V.I.T.A.EAugust 2015