Are there a lot of Bulgarians here?

No unfortunately there aren’t. Because of all these reason which existed until two years ago – the problems they were facing with the visas. Now this is no longer a problem which means they could go wherever they want, including here. However now they need the respective available funds.

Is there a campus?

We now built a campus for our university – for the students who come from abroad. We also have cooperation with dozens of American universities on the east coast, from where a lot of students are coming for one semester only which means that twice a year we have groups of 30 – 40 students coming. For them this is a great opportunity to live in a completely different culture. And since this is interesting for the Americans why wouldn’t it be interesting for the Bulgarians?! Many of the Bulgarian students are studying business regardless of where they are. Why not come here?!

A research just came out saying that the Greek students abroad are the most numerous compared to the population of the country. How would you comment on this fact?

It speaks for itself. In Great Britain there are 25 000 Greek students – the second biggest group after the Chinese. My explanation? Lack of trust on the part of the students in the educational system on one side and the incapability of the educational system to use properly the local talents.

This is pity…

Of course. Countries like ours – Bulgaria and Greece – have nothing else to count on. To count on our natural resources? On our energy resources? On our centuries old industry? Or on our vast territories and populations? As opposed to us the Greeks have a large Diaspora – 18 million people live outside. And what Diaspora do the Bulgarians have? Such nations can only count on their brains – the main capital which is also the capital of the 21t century. And a culture, a country which manages to utilize them acquires a strategically good position compared to the rest. Let us take for example Finland, which wins its independence in 1918. In 1991 70- 80% of its resources depended on the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union the unemployment in Finland reaches 20% and last year it was announced to be the country with the best developed economy. What natural resources does it have besides the lumber?! And a population of 5,5 million. However they started to invest in the brains and they have one of the best educational systems in the world – starting with the kindergarten and ending with the doctors programs. 

Each educational system is a mirror of the society. If it has decided to destroy itself, then the hit on the educational system will be the death strike of the society. Here at the Balkans we do not value our talents and we have not yet understood that the society is successful only when its talents succeed.

Now we are trying to discover the secret of success… How does a person develops himself?

It is not appreciated what you create nor the meaning and the significance of the intellectual product. The membership in the EU is a great opportunity, it is not an automatic solving of our problems. If we don’t manage to understand this it means we have learned nothing at all from the past and again we are waiting for somebody else to do our job. It was nice when for 45 years we were receiving free resources from the Soviet Union. Now again we are waiting to get the money of the EU.

It may sound rather pessimistic what we are talking about, however the pessimism ends when you realize the reality. When you realize what is you strategic advantage – you invest in it and you come out of the pond little by little. We have to appreciate our own value and do something right – more or less as much as we can whatever we can. At a conference in 1997 of Shell its vice president said that in today’s world of knowledge there are no big and small companies in terms of size, but there are organizations which know more and organizations which know less. And this refers to every field of the public life. There is no vacuum – you either succeed or you don’t, however if you don’t take a chance, how would you succeed? This is how I see the things.

What do you exactly do now in the scientific area?

Everything I learned and I am still learning I try to apply in my business. I have a company with Greek and Bulgarian partners in Sofia – “Institute for corporative development”. This is a consultancy company in the field of education, energy and corporate development. My life is everything I teach my students to put in practice, however my principle is to do what I say.

Can you make a forecast on how we will exit the economic crisis?

The world crisis did not start in September – smart people were talking about it two or three years ago. In 2006 a Nobel price winner had outlined the contours of the crisis. In such cases we have to ask ourselves one question – who wins? When somebody loses, another person wins. When many people lose, somebody wins a lot. The battle today is not for our pockets, but for our minds. When you have control over the mind you have control over the pocket. And the pocket now is much deeper than it was a hundred years ago. If you are brain washed it would be very easy to reach into your pocket and take what you have. Things are not at all pink, however we also have a greater chance. A chance to change something, to not be sheep.