?? Master in the making ??

Last month, I officially graduated as a Master of Science in International Business degree from Maastricht University in the double-track specialization Entrepreneurship & SME management and Strategy & Innovation. While being relieved that I can conclude this part of my life, I am gladly looking back on my university times in the Netherlands. The most valuable thing that I have learned in the last years? I am grateful that Maastricht gave me the chance to practice and work in such a culturally diverse environment. The university and its surroundings gave me the chance to understand cross-cultural teams and how to work together with people from all over the world. Now I am looking upon the future and am curious to explore the upcoming opportunities in life.

The high school year in Cali ????

I remember saying goodbye to my family at the boarding gate of Frankfurt International airport in Germany. It was summer of 2009 when the 16-year-old me was ready to embark on his first long-term journey abroad as an exchange student at a public high school in beautiful San Diego, California.

I had this internal drive that made me want to go out and see what it is like to live in another country, visit a school there and learn the local language. As I already had the desire to work in an international environment, I wanted to become fluent in English. Another underlying desire of mine was to become independent and learn how to deal with things by myself. Furthermore, I had a strong wish to live near the ocean instead of the middle of nowhere. Therefore, I was determined to go to California or Florida. And yes, I partially got inspired by movies and series to live the California lifestyle. It was not much off the real thing, and I often had the impression this whole experience could be a movie.

I cannot stress enough how lucky I got with my host family. While they never planned to take in an exchange student, through a huge coincidence they received a forwarded mail from me. I found this website that hosted college students and I started E-Mailing random hosts. Only a quarter replied to me, and all declined because I was too young. One woman forwarded the mail to my later host mother. After about 30 emails back and forth, everything was planned and settled. Time to hop on a plane to the United States - Cali bound.

My host family gave me the best exchange experience I could have asked for and I quickly became part of that family. The wording ‘host' family had quickly been replaced by turning into my ‘American' family and I became their ‘German’ son. While the plan was to stay for one semester with the option to extend to a year, on my very first phone call with my parents upon arrival, I told them that I would stay a full year. And so I completed the senior year of high school, got my driving license in Arizona for 40 bucks and gained an American family. To this date, I feel like I have a second family on another continent and I am always looking forward to coming back to visit. 

Since this exchange year, I have been curious to explore what the world has to offer. The hunger to see and explore more only grows with every experience. On another note, my personality changed a lot during that year from being a shy guy at the beginning to being open and outgoing. Whenever around other cultures, I try to experience them to the fullest and make connections with local people. As the saying goes, the shortest distance between two people is a smile. Smiling is a universal language and I have been practicing it a lot for the past decade. People sometimes ask me why I smile so much, but how couldn’t I? You never know what is really going on in another mind but with a smile, you can always brighten someone's day.

Fietsen and biertje - Studying in Maastricht ????

I have every reason to smile about what life has given me in the past decade and more. I am beyond grateful for being able to see so much and explore the world. The high school year in the US made me want to continue studies in English and be immersed in an international environment. 

Whenever people ask why I studied in Maastricht, the following reasons were decisive:

Firstly, Maastricht University enables a wide range of studies in English. Also, it is a public university which means it is not so heavy on the wallet at about 1.000€ per semester. Secondly, the problem-based learning system with small tutorial groups enables students to quickly form close relationships. While tutorials had up to 15 people, the group works often consisted of 3 to 4 people with the goal to be as diverse as possible. Those students were from all over the world makes it a necessity to understand how to work in cross-cultural teams. Group assignments of three or four people were more than common and the tutors always tried to make them as diverse as possible. Finally, Maastricht University and SBE have a great reputation. In 2019, the QS World University Rankings named UM along with the ‘top 50 under 50’ and 23rd best young university worldwide. After completing my Bachelor's and Master's degree at its School of Business and Economics, I can say that it was fully living up to my expectations.

With such a diverse cultural environment, Maastricht has given the space and resources to develop myself academically and professionally. With this experience, I was also able to reflect on how one could easily stay within their own comfort zone and fall into a bubble trap of people from your own origin. It comes naturally and is difficult to avoid. It is easy to fall into the country bubble trap because of the same background, culture and language. Similar to the country bubbles, students often fall into their faculty bubble and rarely move out of it. However, the university tried it’s best to always make the group projects as diverse as possible. In the end, it is always up to ourselves to be open and inclusive. 

And this is what I appreciate the most about studying in Maastricht. You met people from every corner of the world and form close relationships with them. My best friends during my Bachelor's time were from Bulgaria. It was not rare that I would be the only foreigner around a group of 10/15 Bulgarians. Looking back, I appreciate getting to know the Balkan culture through them. Spending time with them taught me a lot about their values and made me understand why they behave the way that they do. One thing is certain, you can always count on them and they would never let you down.

Bom dia - Exchange time in Brazil ????

A mandatory part of the International Business undergraduate studies is to complete an exchange semester. With almost 200 exchange university partners, the choices are to be found in almost any country of the globe. After having lived in North America, I was looking forward to spending time in Latin America as well. I settled for Universidad de Sao Paulo (USP) in Brasil - being the third-best South American university.

Why Brazil?

I had spent 2 months of winter holidays in Brazil during my bachelor's and got familiar with the culture already. My partner at the time being from Sao Paulo, I quickly learned that things simply work differently than in Europe. Additionally, living in a country is always fundamentally different than visiting it for a holiday. Truly living in another country allows you to learn the local language, form a close relationship with its people and get to know the culture in depth. 

Picking up the Portuguese language during the exchange period changed my experience for the better. People really appreciated the trying, although it obviously took some time to learn as a Gringo from Alemanha. One of the best places to learn the language was the handball practice, a sport I have been practicing since elementary school. I was the only foreigner of 15 people and could understand the team plays without understanding the language through my experience in that sport. Furthermore, from the day I arrived in Brazil I was warmly welcomed by my partner's family. The kind warm-heartedness of Brazilian people is something that impressed me the most about this country. After being immersed in an American family, here I was being part of a Brazilian family. And I really mean it as family, I felt more than comfortable living in Brazil spending the semester with them. Likewise, these are relationships that I like to keep alive for the rest of my life and its been working so far. Catching up years later in other parts of the world is always good and I try to do this as often as possible.

As part of the Bachelor studies, I had the privilege of doing an exchange semester. And that you can do almost anywhere in the world. With almost 200 exchange university partners, the choices are to be found in almost any country. After having lived in North America, I was looking forward to spending time in Latin America as well. My partner at the time being from Sao Paulo, I settled for Universidad de Sao Paulo in Brasil. I had spent 2 months in Brazil during my Bachelors and got a bit familiar with the culture already. Living in a country is always fundamentally different than visiting it for a holiday. However, picking up the Portuguese language during the exchange period changed my experience for the better. People really appreciated the trying, although it obviously took some time to learn as a Gringo from Alemanha. One of the best places to learn the language was the handball practice, a sport I have been practicing since elementary school. I was the only foreigner of 15 people and could understand the team plays without understanding the language through my experience in that sport. Furthermore, from the day I arrived in Brazil I was warmly welcomed by my partner's family. The kind warm-heartedness of Brazilian people is something that impressed me the most about this country. After being immersed in an American family, here I was with a new Brazilian family. And I really mean it as family, I felt more than comfortable living in Brazil and being around for half a year. Likewise, these are relationships that I like to keep alive for the rest of my life and its been working so far. Catching up years later in another part of the world is always good and I try to do this as often as possible. 

?? Moovers Student Moving company ???♂?

I set up a student moving company in Maastricht, called Moovers. Moovers aims to help students to move their furniture and belongings within Maastricht, the Netherlands, and Europe. Many times, new students would arrive in Maastricht and had no idea about the city. Over the years, Moovers helped hundreds of students move. It was fun seeing and hearing their excitement to study here while coming from far-flung places such as China, Panama, Suriname, Brazil, South Africa, Morocco, Saudi-Arabia, India, Indonesia, Philippines and so on and so on. I was one of their first points of contact and tried to make their start in the new environment as smooth as possible. Not only was it fun to meet them and hear about their home, but also this job felt more fulfilling helping people to set up their new homes when they were somewhat lost. When you deliver a bed to someone who has literally nothing in their room but a suitcase until 10 pm at night, you can be sure they will be very thankful. And it is something that made the job a lot more fulfilling for me.

Next to this, it gave me a first-hand view on entrepreneurship which grew into one of my biggest passions next to travel and sports. Founders Club Maastricht also had a lasting impression on me. It gives people in Maastricht a platform to gather for entrepreneurial events and exchange thoughts, knowledge, and experiences. I started out myself with the moving company. But of course, I could not have done it alone without the help of my dear friends such as Lyubomir, Yavor, Tobias, Daniel, Justus, Lukas, Laszlo and so on. It also taught me the importance of friendships and trust. I will gladly look back onto my student time in Maastricht and will always remember the good times we shared. The friendships I made in this place are ones that will reveal for a lifetime. You guys are my Maastricht family and I cannot wait to see where things based on Maastricht relationships will lead to in the future.

?? Travel and the power of positive psychology

Having been to 40 countries and having lived in seven of them around the world including Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Netherlands, Philippines, and the United States has left a lasting impression on me.

“All roads lead to Rome”

In life and entrepreneurship, we come across challenges that can be overwhelming at times. The thing that traveling has taught me about the understanding of the world is that there is a solution to everything. Everybody feels stuck at something at some point in life and I am no exception. Seeing the good even in the worst situations, always helps me to arrive at a workable solution. The power of a growth mindset is one of the most important things we as humans can learn. I turned from a shy and quiet boy into what some would call a world citizen. Where did it all start? The urge to get out of my comfort zone and the familiar environment has led me here. Closing this excerpt of my thoughts, I thank my parents for everything they have done for me a million times and I would not have arrived here and been the person I am without them. Now I am ready to start another chapter in my life. I dearly wish it to be full of intercultural learning and social environmental fulfilling.

So let’s rock on! 

Feel free to get in touch with me!