In May this year, I was asked to give a talk at an AISAC conference about start-up businesses. I was going through a bit of a dry spell in inspiration at the time and didn't feel qualified to talk to others about what little I knew. However I agreed even though I was afraid I wouldn't know what to say. I wrote everything down and it was a really good thing for me to look back on everything that we had learned from top to bottom and think about how far we had come. When it came time to talk, they had given me a half an hour window of time (which I thought could be too much) I talked for an hour and had to stop so the other speakers could also have some time. I had actually only talked through a quarter of the material I had prepared.

So below is the text I prepared for the talk

So where to begin Its really exciting to be here and to be able to talk to all of you, about something that i still feel i am a complete beginner and learning something everyday. Culture Exchange as you just saw is a really small company, but its pretty successful (i think) and its been really successful as a learning experience and as a totally home-grown, grass-root idea, that has been made by a few people, starting from zero. As you already may know, all of the owners of Culture Exchange are not from Serbia, and did not speak Serbian at the time of the opening of the business. Hopefully this will inspire you to see that anyone can do it, and yes, you can too. So it started with 7 young people, from all over the world, we met in Serbia, we were doing volunteer work and various other projects, building, teaching, working in separate jobs. I can remember so well that we were sat in our living room altogether one day and like we always did we would just sit together and talk about ideas, things we could do, joking around. and I said ‘You know what guys, i think we should dream some big dreams, what about opening a Café’ and everyone was like ‘okay’. and that was it, from that moment on, almost all my time and thoughts went towards this. At the same time, Simon (one of the crew) starting making bicycles in our basement, it was like a little workshop and he was down there for hours, taking apart bikes and experimenting in putting them together and he said that he would like to open a bike shop and so we put the two ideas together. So none of us had any experience in doing any of the things which we wanted to do, he started making the bikes then, none of us had ever made a coffee (some people can tell) and i had definitely never had any experience in making a business, paperwork etc. On top of all of that, it would be in Serbian, which would be in itself a challenge. Its so hard to piece the story together and to know which parts to tell you, as the whole story of CE is really complex and it grows longer and stronger with every day. We are still living in the adventure of it and its just the beginning .

So we had a few problems to solve before we could even get started. 1. We had no money 2. We didn’t have a clue how businesses work here We began right away to work on different ways to earn and save money for this. One method we used that was successful was to make a short video clip and put it on Indie-gogo site (talk about what that is) You can see it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jQgqaRaMGU ) So also I went on a bike trip with one friend to Istanbul, we saved from every available thing we had, whenever my parents sent me money, i saved every penny and spent nothing. We estimated we needed about 15 thousand euros to make the business and slowly we started crawling towards that goal We had some major setbacks along the way of course. Finally we had the money we needed to begin and all this time we were gathering information about how a business should start, and trying to find a location. It was very hard to decide which location to pick and even though in the beginning of 2012 we had the money needed, we stalled a bit on the opening to be sure we had the right place. Around that time it got very difficult for me personally to cope with all the stress and the pressure of the opening, I almost wanted to quit and leave as there was a huge amount of criticism and commentary on my shoulders, of what every person thought i was doing wrong and I just couldn’t agree on what location would be best. Something I learnt from that is the importance of having people there to help you and to give you the push you need off the ledge, when sometimes the final jump can be really difficult and you need those other strong friends or members of the team to add weight and encouragement on your decisions. On the otherside, something you need to realise is that as soon as you step out to do something different and take on a leadership role (especially when you have never done this kind of thing before) you become a bit of a target for people’s negativity and criticism and there will be many many people who will just tell you that it cant be done, that you aren’t capable, that it will fail, that you will be closed down. The fear and pressure hurt me a lot and when i look back at that time, i still feel like it was one of the hardest times of my life and every emotionally and physically stressful. You may lose your self-belief at moments like this, as I did, but the important thing is that no matter how you feel, you must not quit or stop trying, all mistakes are making you, making your story and its part of the learning process. Just like a baby learns to walk, you fall a hundred times, all those people around you can sit and laugh, but you are the one learning to walk, and walk you will, just get back up. As Theodore Roosevelt once said 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” If your dream is strong enough and that passion is in you, you know you cannot stop, it will take over your life and its always going to be for me ‘try or die’ there is no other way, you have to keep on, no matter how you feel about yourself So back to the story, finally we found the location and spent one month working together as a team to build the interior, we made everything, from the bar, to the tables, to the floor and painting everything. It began to take shape and the transformation was a beautiful thing to witness. Its wonderful to work as a team on a project like this, as your team are not just workers, they are passionate individuals who are committed (the power of teamwork). We built Culture Exchange together and are still doing it every day. Finally on June 29th 2012 we opened our doors for the grand opening, I always think that starting a new business is just like having a baby. First you have the beginning stage when you start trying for that baby, the idea comes, then you start preparing, just like the 9 months of pregnancy (though sometimes it takes a lot longer then 9 months to get that baby ready) then you have the hardest part, the actual part where you get it out there, opening it, just like the delivery, its so difficult, but as soon as you hold that baby (or that business) in your arms, you know it was worth it, then you have to take care of the little bugger for the rest of your life… yeah it’s pretty similar Ok so Culture Exchange opened and right away we just flew into learning about running a busy Café and Bike business, it was a shock to all of us and a great joy to see how people started coming to the café (one of my biggest worries was that no one would come, proving again how useless and crazy so many of our worries are) We started to be really active in the community, participating in the critical mass and other bike initiatives, this started to make the bike kitchen well known and we started to get orders for bikes. Also we hosted gigs, art galleries, poetry nights, comedy nights (epic fail) and just about every idea that we could think of or that others could think of… it was almost like anything was possible at CE. It’s been a real pleasure for me to see so many talented young artists do their first gigs or exhibitions at CE and to see them first on our stage, afterwards many of them have gone on to real strong advancements in the music or arts industry and i’m proud to say that we gave them the first little push out on the water to show what they have to the world.

One of our strong points i think is that we were so open to everything, we gave people a real sense of freedom, probably this is because we were totally inexperienced and sometimes knowing nothing is really a strong point and can give you so many out-of the box thoughts and the kind of belief that everything is possible, because you don’t know what is not done, or not possible. Advantages of being Newbie’s and foreigners • You don’t have many limitations on your mind • You can make an impact of being different and new • everything is more exciting and you see it all through totally new eyes, its thrilling and adventurous Disadvantages • You can get taken advantage of financially as you are more nieve • More vulnerability and lack of basic knowledge can sometimes give you setbacks • Not knowing anyone can sometimes leave you without a first base of customers • lack of knowledge of the language and legal system can put you at risk of the law enforcement when you don’t even understand properly the laws

So whether you are starting from completely scratch or you are full of wise experience, there are advantages and disadvantages to each aspect

So after Culture Exchange was established and running for around one year we had another huge groundbreaking change, this happened in a way none of us had ever expected as we were viciously attacked in an online portal by a young wanna-be journalist called Daniel Radzepovic.

This fame seeker wrote a slanderous and negative article about us, and as we all know how facebook and online activities work, the article spread like wild-fire. Creating a huge stir and massive controvocy about our little business. The article focused on some of our backgrounds in the group the Family International and dragged it into our business, out rightly lying about our activities, calling us a cult, religious movement , saying that we hosted orgies and other very scandalous activities (the article was titled Sex on a Bike) Its is important to note that our business has never been used for political or religious reasons. This young man even broke the ethical code of journalism by putting our names and address, putting our lives at risk. We instantly felt the shaking of this attack, in good and bad ways, All of a sudden we were on every TV station and journalists were asking to interview us and get our side of the story, people approached us on the street to talk to us about it, we became pretty well known (even if it wasn't for the best reason) We also got death threats and our window smashed. It was an incredibly stressful and difficult moment for us personally and for the business as we struggled to keep our heads afloat, answer the many questions and run Culture Exchange. Immediately afterwards the owners of Culture Exchange began to get their visa’s denied and were asked to leave the country. We had some legal problems with our paperwork and those were magnified and used to push us out as much as possible. We took several drastic steps to save the business and try and keep everyone in Serbia We hosted two press conferences in Novi Sad and Belgrade, where we gave our statement and opened (this was an amazing moment, as there were so many people who came to support CE, at this point i think i realised what an amazing effect we had on the community here and I am so thankful to every person that supported CE and stood up for us. Imagine the cameras and the people) We did a protest in the City centre to protest the way we were being treated After all of this, the government did not change their minds and in October 2013, all members of CE had to leave, apart from me (which was an obvious mistake) So the point in explaining all of this to you, is to tell you, that in everything you do, you will have many setbacks, attacks and people who want to tear you down. If you are making a difference you will get fought against. Some people love you, some people hate you, and sometimes those people want to destroy what you are doing. You must believe in your cause and have faith, all obstacles are there to make you stronger and just like working your way up a really big hill, after the tough work, you are stronger, fitter and ready for the next one. Don’t worry if you feel you are getting lots of opposition, the same has been true of everyone who did something worthwhile and if you see it in this way you will realise, there are no easy roads to greatness and the smooth path is often the path where you are really doing nothing. When you get a big fight, remember, everything is for your good, learn from your mistakes, get stronger, re-evaluate everything you do, and see how you can do it better, if it means enough to you, there will be a way.

After this, I had the new and difficult task of hiring staff, working to train them and figuring out how to run the business (the bike side) without my 6 partners. So far, its been great, and i have seen how it can run with the local people staffing and teamworking with me. Now 6 months on, there have been many lessons learned and many to be learned still. Every day i see how i can do things better, how there are many areas lacking that need to grow in. The good thing is that we can see how CE can still grow and we haven’t reached a point where we have stopped learning and stopped seeing that there is a way forward The rest of the CE team are now spread out across the world and we make plans for the next ones to open in different cities around Europe. Hopefully we will be expanding but if not I know that all the people who started CE will go on to be successful individuals, as they are creative, inspiring people who have a passion for change and new ideas No matter what happens to the business you have to know who you are Don’t lose focus on the rest of your life and swing out of balance As Steve Jobs said ...Stay hungry, stay foolish

Culture Exchange packed with people for the press conference in October 2013

Our protest in the city center October 2013

The AISAC talk