?Once more unto the breach, dear friends?

All good things must end, so we can go on to experience other good things. This is my final column for Ve?ernji list. My management responsibilities at Gideon Brothers have made it harder and harder to write my column every two weeks. Truthfully, I never thought I would manage to continue building the company and writing for the past 2.5 years, but I did. However, it is time for a rest and a change. I think my kids will be thrilled not to hear - ?Be quiet, I'm writing.? ... at least for a while.

I have written over 100 columns under the rubric of Hrabro Naprijed, which as ?Go Bravely Forth? sounds odd when translated to English. In English, it might be best expressed in Shakespeare's Henry V, ?Once more unto the breach, dear friends...?.

The agenda behind writing this column has always been to avert a nightmare – the nightmare of my five kids asking me one day - ?Dad, why did you keep us in Croatia? Mom is American, you are Canadian and have worked in the EU long before Croatia joined, we could be anywhere.? The truth is that there isn't a good answer to that question today. Our economy doesn't produce enough well-paid jobs. Our justice system is a shambles and no one has faith in it. Our educational system continues to fall in objective quality as its costs go up. So, people leave, in droves. As it stands, as a father, I would be helping my kids the most if I trained them to leave the country.

In my 13 years here I have tried to figure out why Croatia seems to consistently fail to live up to its potential. As with most complex issues, there are no simple answers. However, I think our problem starts with leadership. Real leaders don't run from the truth or hide it. Real leaders don't surround themselves with lackeys, but with tough, smart and capable colleagues who help them discern the truth, not the illusions they want to be fed. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for such leaders, or at least enough of them. We are also severely hampered by a propensity to jealousy. Instead of building ourselves up to be better, bigger and richer, many here are happier to tear down those who have succeeded. It is a waste of talent and time, and creates a caustic environment which drives away our most capable people. I think the third major impediment to living up to our potential is our inability to see beyond our borders and our individual experience. The world is a wonderful place of beauty and opportunities, but you can't see them if you are petty. Bad leadership, jealousy and pettiness are the axis of evil which limits our potential and drives away hundreds of thousand of our best and brightest.

I naively thought I could beat back this axis of evil with my simple columns. The CEO of one of our biggest companies once asked me - ?Milan, what are you doing here?? I answered, ?I am pissing into the wind and making babies.? He asked how that was going, I replied, ?The wind is weakening and we have three kids.? Two additional kids and many winds later, I haven't stopped doing what I think needs to be done.

Two additional kids and many winds later, I haven't stopped doing what I think needs to be done.

I leave you with a smile and encourage you to be optimistic, be helpful, be brave ... as justice must prevail in the long run. Thank you. 

Image Credit: Ra?i? family

This is a translation of an original column that was published in Croatia's largest newspaper, Ve?ernji List, on November 25, 2019, where I write about leadership, strategy and change management. 

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