Thirty Minutes to Think

Dear friends,

I’d like to share something very personal with you.

On 23 February, I flew to Kyiv to celebrate my birthday with my Ukrainian girlfriend – probably not the smartest decision I ever took.

Given the belligerent noises coming out of Russia, we had discussed what to do if the worst happened: I would return to Switzerland and she would stay with her family in Ukraine. But to be honest, we didn’t think a full-scale military attack was very likely.

We were wrong.

On the night of the 24th, at 05:00, we were woken by the hotel’s fire-alarm. We turned on CNN and watched live as the first bomb fell on Kyiv’s international airport, where we had landed only hours before. The sound of the detonation hit our ears a few seconds later.

We were hustled into the basement of the hotel for safety along with all the other guests, mostly media. The talk was mainly about how to escape. In the hotel basement, I met a German journalist who was leaving Kyiv, and we decided to team up. His wife was a journalist who spoke fluent Russian, and she was able to find us a car – quite an achievement at a time like this.

So we picked up the car. On the way back to the hotel, I texted my partner to ask if she wanted to join us. She decided to stay. We left Kyiv and headed for Lviv, 800 km to the west.

Of course, every man and his dog was heading out of the capital and the roads were solid. This trip, which would normally take about 24 hours along Ukraine’s modern motorway network, took us a full 24 hours.

We were fortunate that my friend's wife – the journalist – was monitoring our drive via Google maps and warning us of Russian airstrikes along the route.

In Lviv, she organised a car and driver to take us to the Polish border, about?270 km away. But this is where we made a mistake: we paid the driver in advance. In the end, the driver kicked us out 30km from the polish border – we had to walk the rest, luggage and all, with strangers helping us along the way.

Finally, we arrived at the border, together with thousands of others. It was nightfall by this time. As you can imagine, we were very happy. We thought it was all over. But it was not. There was still 4km of “no man’s land” to cross. We stood around all night, too cold to sleep. People were passing out all around us; ambulances would arrive to whisk them back into Ukraine proper.

The next morning we finally arrived at the border crossing that led to Poland. But Ukrainian soldiers refused to let us through. Given that fighting-age Ukrainian men are not allowed to leave the country, they probably assumed our foreign passports were forged. Only women and children could leave. It was chaos. My friend’s wife organised a fixer but warned us that he may not be trustworthy. In the end, we declined - the risk was simply too high.

All this time, we were in contact with our respective embassies in Belgium and Germany. But they couldn’t tell us why the Ukrainians were not letting us through. We recorded a video and posted it to a Polish Facebook group. Some members of that group contacted the Polish border police to alert them to what was happening. But no dice. We remained stuck in no man’s land.

Meanwhile, a TV crew from @RTL Croatia became aware of our plight and tried to get us out – unsuccessfully. They then contacted the Croatian embassy, who contacted the Germans and the Belgians. Finally, the embassies got together, realised what was happening, made some calls, and wheels were set in motion.

Soon after, a diplomatic car passed through the sea of bedraggled humanity, scooped us up, and we were through.

Why I’m telling you this story? Because this experience taught me a lot.??

1.)?Focus on a key objective

2.) Build a team. Don’t go it alone. And enlist others to your cause.??

3.) Trust your instincts, and make decisions. No decision is worse than a bad decision.

I don’t regret this trip, disastrous as it was. And with the help of my new friend, my girlfriend was able to get out too. She is now safe in Poland. We were lucky. My thoughts are with her parents, who are still in Ukraine.

So - thank you, dad, for teaching me the importance of focus (Principle 1)! Thank you John Mullins, my Professor of Entrepreneurship @ LBS, for teaching me the value of teamwork (Principle 2). And Thank you Joergen, Katja, and the RTL television Crew for your support - and for trusting your instincts! (Principle 3).