Husband, father, brother, friend, professor, priest, boss at work – all my men who have left a mark on my life. These are my knights.

On this Women’s Day, I thank them – each of them specifically – for caring so much and raising a woman that does NOT have to compete with them. With their support, they have built a pillar of stability different from them – but, above all else, important to them.

And the women who marked my life?! Well, there are many of these dragon-mothers who have left their mark on me – but I dedicate today’s few lines to the one who taught me the basics of entrepreneurship. To my aunt Ivka – a woman from a village, a farmer.

Even in the socialism era, she laid the foundations of competition in the production and sale of agricultural products. She has studied and learned a) the basics of capitalism in the markets from Zenica to Zagreb in b) the socialism era. She probably never knew how to define either of these two terms, but she understood them very well.

She would always say:

• Goods can be sold if my customers know that they are healthy and of good quality and that I am at the market in Zenica every Wednesday, and at the green market in Zagreb every Saturday.
• You can’t expect to earn by the grace of God if you don’t get up early and work hard.
• You have to have the best peppers and the best tomatoes, and always the best seeds and be the first one, but customers need to know that you have introduced something new to your product range every year that no one else has. (She couldn’t say the word “cauliflower” exactly, but she sold it, back in the eighties. Because no one but her had it then.)

Thanks to aunt Ivka for her knowledge of entrepreneurship, and to my knights for building a system of NON-competition with them.

It is important to have “cauliflower” in your offer.

Happy Women’s Day. 😊