Vision
When I was about 17 years old and spending my summers at meditation retreats in Asia and Europe, an Indian sadhu whom I met like Alexander the Great on the banks of the Indus River told me that I should bear the name Aruni because it reflects my inner character and all that I should become. Aruni means the chariot driver of the Sun, conjugal devotion, and glowing gold. I have always highly valued all three aspects – the sun, the purity of a woman’s true love for a man, and gold jewellery. I want my life's work to embody all three symbols. The sun is in my eyes a symbol of a successful person, a complete individual, and an effective leader. The sun shines on all people equally. It does not discriminate between different ones. For him, no one is an enemy or a friend. The sun has his own charisma, his own power. He is independent, yet he benefits all. We all feel good in his rays. And he brings out the best in us. Optimism, will, confidence and conviction in our own vision, creation, dream and mission. We all feel stronger and more confident on sunny days. I want my work to reflect all the strength, playfulness, beauty, completeness, passion, resilience and tenacity that I see in my character on days when the sun shines in my soul.
As a psychologist by profession and a lover of the wisdom of the Stoics by passion, as a long-time practitioner of meditation, and on the other hand as the daughter of a financier and an author, I have always carried within me a yearning to understand the soft, psychological and metaphysical sides of business. The play of energies, emotions, intellect and other elements of life in a complex set of rules that, like quantum physics in physical nature, determine the success of one's life – one's ability to achieve one's goals. Ancient leaders collected their own such insights, as exemplified by the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which originally was written solely as a dialogue between the ruler and himself, for the purposes of his own self-reflection and reconciliation with life. No one, however, collects these insights from current leaders or winners in the fields of economics and politics. My intention is to dive into the souls of these leaders by creating a safe space where they feel safe enough as interlocutors to be willing to open up and share their life wisdom with me. I want to share with readers the insights we have gained together during our conversation. Insights concerning the psychology of success, the psychology of self-mastery and, as a result, the realisation of one's own ambitions or vision.
My mission is also to show how all three areas – being a fulfilled human being, an achieved professional figure, and an accomplished individual – are closely linked, how psychology is extremely important in business, and how all the greatest triumphs take place in the immaterial dimensions of life, while material outcomes are only the realisation of a sharp and innovative vision, a love of creation, and a desire to bring something new, something unheard of, something that is beyond the ordinary, something supreme.... Capture this infinite dream and, on the way to it, embody the inscription from the Oracle of Delphi “Know thyself” – and you will conquer the world, accomplish your mission as a human being, and fulfil your deepest longing. Gifted in the art of writing from an early age on my mother's side, and with an interest in the search for life's meaning and the exploration of Eastern cultures, I soon began to realise that my mission in life, as I see it at the moment, is to discover the psychology of winning, leading and ruling the world. And that is in my own eyes, and in persuading the leaders of our time to start leaving behind their own Mark Aurelius Meditations – and I make and publish transcripts based on conversations where we take time to meet, sit down and elaborate. I see my work as different from any other texts about leadership simply because my motivation comes from my heart and a deep understanding of the business and political world I have been developing since my earliest years, yet also from my ability to create an environment in personal contact where people feel they can trust me, that it is safe enough to be open with me and let me bring out the best of their core, the cream of their wisdom, charisma, and inner strength. At the moment my work is not profiting me in any way; I am simply following what I feel is my mission and my unique ability in this life. I think that while many people can do many things, very few can do this – read, capture, and share the quintessence of the souls of this country's most eminent, successful and far-sighted leaders: politicians, entrepreneurs, managers and winners from all fields, spheres and generations.
I have decided to pour all my heart, passion and determination into this project. I believe that my strong will and desire to bring this mission to life will help me overcome all obstacles and to remain forever different from all others like me. The black featuring in my own personal brand represents strength, elegance and sophistication. It reflects my willingness to explore, embrace and scrutinise even my dark sides. On the other hand, confidence, courage and resilience. The colour gold embodies success, abundance and high quality. It reflects the warmth and positive energy that I love. It stands as a symbol of success that not only satisfies one's own ambitions, but brings something beyond to all. The colour white symbolises clarity and openness. The graphic design of the publication incorporates elements of classical, gothic and feminine sensuality. I want this work to reflect me. My vision. My charisma. My heart. And the fire inside me, something that pushes me to run faster, reach farther and dream the more impossible every day.... With love, passion and the conviction that together with my interlocutors we have created something worthwhile and priceless for this country, still so young in its own way, but so beautiful and so incomparable in terms of quality of life, the Republic of Slovenia. Minka Borec
A message from the author
The three words I think describe me are courage, passion and honesty. I wish my readers come closer to the perception of life as a game in which we are all dancing our own dance. Natasha's Dance is the title of a wonderful work, which one of my interlocutors has contributed a great deal to the publication of. How to dance this dance – the power to choose the choreography, style and elements of this dance lies in the hands of every individual. I wish to pass on some of my vitality, enthusiasm, optimism and happiness. I have been accumulating all of these things for a long time, and at the moment they are so overflowing in me that I want to pass them on. Beyond the epitome of wisdom and beauty, the intertwining of the light and dark sides of success stories, I want my work to reflect the attributes of all my craziest dreams, darkest fantasies and most beautiful visions. All my aspects and atmospheres of nature, of antiquity, of the Renaissance, of quiet luxury, of oriental harems, of ruined castles, the clarity of Marcus Aurelius, the innocence of Mary Magdalene and the decadence of Byron – all combined in a beautiful mosaic that conveys to the world, along with the essence of my interlocutors, the essence of the one asking the questions. My pivotal message and values are that we should observe life without ideology, impartially. That we all have something to learn from successful individuals who have come far, regardless of any moral obstacles or some dubious things that someone might have done with their power. The ability to climb to the top is the key to becoming a holder of power and shaping the face of the world. Personally, I believe deeply in Plato's idea that only mature and self-reflective individuals can be good leaders.
I would like to dedicate the last words of this book to thanking all of the interviewees. Each interview is like my child, my special product. My grandfather asked me which I think is the better interview – Janković or Kučan? I honestly don't know. I answered that I like each of them in their own way. Kučan has stayed with me as a President who loves War and Peace and Mt Triglav in the moonlight. With Janković, I will never forget the yellow impressionists behind his back and his devilishly playful smile: “Minka, you use the word power too often. You are tempted by power, aren't you?” But the mayor says it in a way that you can't resent. I would like to thank them for restoring my faith in life and in myself. I still remember the coffee with ... and with ..., the gifts that someone gave me now and then to say thank you. They showed me that a woman's energy can be appreciated even in the harsh world of business. I don't know, maybe, as Janković says, I really do like power too much, but I can't describe the silent happiness smouldering within when I sat opposite Jože Mermal on his yellow divans and knew that I was welcome there. That my unique talent will be appreciated. And my personality accepted. Accepted by few of the most successful businessmen in the country. I am also grateful to all those who refused to participate. Each one of them ignited a new fire in me, a new spark and new determination to keep biting, to reach even higher, to sharpen my persuasion tactics, to reconsider and make the whole project even better, even more impactful and even higher in quality.... Each one of them helped me to decide that for each no I would not get ten yeses. Maybe not with him, but with someone much more suited to the role I wanted him to play in my master's thesis and the wider project of publishing a book and setting up a website.
I have never been enough for my broader environment to which I am immensely grateful for all the wonderful memories and the ‘ironness’ I have been brought up with. Not attractive enough, not successful enough, not charismatic enough, not quite able to prove that I have what it takes.... For them – the most successful economists and politicians in our country – I was enough. The fact they believed in me is the best foundation I could have had for my life. The best balm for my wounds. Wounds that we all carry within. “People without pain are not people”, says the Mayor of Ljubljana. I am grateful to Aleksander Mervar for helping me find contacts, for always seeing the potential in me. I am still grateful for the feeling of triumph and enthusiasm that came over me when Brodnjak told me that our LinkedIn interview had reached half a million views. I am grateful to each and every one of them. For a fraction of the feeling of triumph and the confirmation to myself that I am enough – enough to live, enough to deserve a place in this world. Talented enough, interesting enough, driven enough and stubborn enough that maybe, just maybe, one day I will succeed in something eternal, brilliant, unique.
I remember with a smile – a sincere one – the moment when someone who I had reminded of his phrase “you must not go beyond your principles” told me that he now takes those words back.... I don't know where life will take me, but I will always carry them with me. My interviewees. Their essence, which I have done my best to cement into words – for the generations after them and after all of us. For me, they will always be the best, the most beloved, the most charismatic people in the whole world. I am not drawn abroad, despite my grandfather's persuasion. I love Slovenia. I am grateful to all the businessmen and politicians – those interviewed and others – who have helped to build it into the beautiful country it is today, and is extremely attractive to live in. An independent country. A country in its own right. A unique country. And they have contributed to the fact that today I am proudly Slovenian wherever I go. My work aims to convey the message that Slovenia needs to question thoroughly why there is so much contempt for successful businessmen and politicians. Perhaps it stems from our own hypocritically hidden inability to admit to ourselves that we are wrongly judging ourselves for not achieving what they have. And we want them to fail so that we can safely remain in our comfort zone and mediocrity. Leaving this somewhat controversial debate aside, I want to convey to the generations that will grow up with and after me the message that spiritual, mental and social health is vital for long-term success and how we should take care of our basic needs before anything else.
About the author
I want my work to speak for itself. I don't like people who sit in front of you and start showing you web links to their articles, justifying their success and sending you photos of their cars or properties. Who am I? I often remember that rap by Eminem from my childhood. “Whatever you say I am, I am”. I have been told many times that a single story of questionable reputation about me will ruin my career. I don't believe it myself. On one hand, I agree with one of my interviewees that any kind of attention is proof that you are alive. Yet, on the other hand, I do not want to be and I hope I will never be one of those people who like to spread or listen to rumours. I have heard stories of this kind and that kind about many of my interviewees. Until I had evidence, I never judged. If I formed a certain amount of respect from the public image, I always went up to them, looked them in the eye when they sat opposite me, and developed my own opinion. From what they communicated to me non-verbally and verbally in our conversation. As Emerson says: “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears that I cannot hear what you say”. At the end of life, everyone gets his own judgement, whether God exists or not. How soundly you sleep at night is also a ‘judgement’. How happy a person you are. How easily you forgive. And how much positive energy permeates your being day after day.
Whether narcissistic or naïve, I want to retain some of the reserve, the magic, but also the sincerity and purity of my message. I want people to take me seriously and professionally, to understand that playfulness is part of my nature, but kept for specific areas and spheres of my life. If I want to teach my children (if I ever have any) anything useful, I would like them to be able to see the irony in themselves, in life and in business, in addition to a strong will, a clear vision, and the ability to stand up for themselves. To keep their humour and their perceptiveness. To remain committed to their mission and their calling with all their heart and soul. To never be afraid. To take risks with joy. To leave the world something to outlive them, but never selfishly promoting their personal myth. To save themselves for a small circle of friends and acquaintances, in the shade. Even their public image, if built, would be only a pale reflection of what they really are or will be.
I was educated at the Bojan Ilich Primary School, at the II. gimnazija Maribor grammar school, I was awarded a master's degree in psychology from the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana with an average grade above 9, and I completed the Young Managers Programme and the General Management Programme at the IEDC Bled School of Management. I am thinking of continuing my studies at the IMB at the School of Economics and Business in Ljubljana. But I believe that formal education does not define a person. For me, a person is defined by the fire in their heart and the passion in their soul. The ability to see beyond what is known. Conquered peaks no longer interest me, I don't even think about them. As the Mayor of Ljubljana says: “In life, you must always have a goal. When you get bored, you just need a new goal”. I want to remain somewhat out of the limelight also due to the nature of my work. I want to enact my mission of putting the essence of key political and economic figures into words. To list what I enjoy in life – weightlifting, Pilates, Russian classics, philosophy, fast driving, interior decorating – seems to me in the spirit of modern influencers who are not among my leading role models. I want my actions and the energy I bring to the people I work with to speak for themselves. In a light true to my basic vision of life and the values I cherish the most.
I have always wanted to study a combination of economics and psychology, with occasional forays into philosophy, medicine or comparative literature. Today I see that, as Gregor Golobič and I noted in our conversation, my mission has found me. Somewhere at the intersection of all my passions and interests. I have been meditating and doing Pilates regularly since the age of 14 – it is my way of venting that keeps me grounded, keeps me alive, helps me remain childlike, genuine and authentic in the depths of my soul. My passions are Asian philosophies, Russian classical literature, Renaissance architecture, ruined castles, and the history of powerful families like the Borgias, Romanovs, Tudors and others. I have had my share of sleeping on the floor, travelling through Asia and climbing the peaks of the Himalayas, watching Swargarohini in the starlight and bathing in the sacred rivers of India or the muddy lakes of Africa, living with the Aghori who meditate using skulls and searching for the meaning of life, searching for myself. I have had my share of living in the most luxurious resorts on the globe and listening to the ocean in the hammocks of houses on the water on paradise islands or in the gilded rooms of One&Only and Bulgari hotels. There is a time of asceticism in life and also a time of hedonism, I would say. There is a time of self-discovery and a time of self-oblivion. “There is a time to be born and a time to die”, as a former President stated in a speech, based on the words of a Biblical prophet. A time to plant and a time to harvest the fruits of one's labour, of one's life.
My grandma always said that she prayed that we – all her descendants and grandchildren – would always remain the favourites of life. Gods’ favourites. On this ever-turning wheel of fate. My mum says otherwise. Sitting under a lilac bush, drinking her fifth filtered coffee, she often says, with the slight smile of a woman who has seen too much and yet, at 60, retains a hint of her unfathomable beauty and mystery: “Minka, the ones that the gods hate – they grant all wishes. That is my life lesson”. This brings me to Russian literature, so dear to me, and to one of the country's presidents, who, by a twist of circumstances, found himself among the people I interviewed. My grandma always said that Natasha Rostova is what all women want to be, but are not allowed or able to be. Natasha has always been very close to me. It was as if a part of her beats in my heart. But from Tolstoy's eternal classic – which in my eyes is a fresco of life, as I would like this work to become a fresco of the souls of the leaders of an age – I recalled something else about Natasha. “Natasha had too much of something”, said the old countess. “Something too much for her to ever be completely happy”. A curse and a blessing. What is what? Who would know. Perhaps you can only assess this in retrospect. Like many things in life. As one of our few statesmen says. Perhaps only Mt Triglav in the moonlight holds all the answers. Bodrum at night, with thousands of yacht lights reflecting in the surface of the sea. Or the silence of the ocean in the Maldives, when you think you’re at the end of the world and the end of the universe. Alone with yourself. Alone with your actions. Alone with the essence of your soul.
About the publication
The purpose of the book-in-progress is to convey to a wider audience the wisdom, essence and deepest insights of Slovenia's most influential, most capable and most distinguished managers, business owners and politicians with regard to the laws of life, success and triumph. I want to share with readers the insights we gained together during our conversations. Insights concerning the psychology of success, the psychology of self-mastery and, as a result, the realisation of one's own ambitions or vision. My basic values are to be politically neutral, but also neutral in favouring any interviewee over others. I simply want to convey the essence of the leaders I have chosen to work with to the world as impartially as possible. It is only and exclusively my perception of how I understood their words and the rules of life they explained to me as principles and key determinants of their success in life. With my book, I seek to evoke emotions in readers that make them feel strong, empowered, enthusiastic, free and bold. Inspired to live their dreams, with an atmosphere of exuberance and aesthetics that the graphic designers, under my watchful guidance, have together helped to breathe into our work. I want them to be purified by the beauty of the image, yet also by the richness and spiritual depth of the content. I want readers, after putting this book down, to feel free, alive and encouraged to become the best version of themselves, and to realise their true essence. To never stop searching for their inner child, their mission, and to abandon the prejudices about power, wealth, sexuality, the need for conservatism or envy that are very common in Slovenia.
When published, the work will contain extended versions of all the interviews, shorter versions of which I will gradually publish on my blog. It is a comprehensive fresco of the souls, characters and essential charisma of Slovenia's leading businessmen and politicians. It is a book that I believe any Slovenian interested in business, politics, the mentality of winners and the laws of top success should have on their shelf. I also warmly recommend myself for any possible sponsorships and donations as I am currently covering all of the costs of the website, language editing, translations and advertising entirely by myself, with the support of private donations. Still, I believe that we can also find a win-win situation with organisations that see the value in my work. Who, or rather which chapter, in my book is my favourite? I can't decide. Each chapter has a special charm, a special essence for me. I had many doubts about Snežič. Yet, in the end, I gave in to my soft spot for liking eccentric, extremist individuals. My love of all things controversial, striking and provocative. I took a calculated risk. That I want him in my collection, no matter what.... Where does our desire to succeed come from? From a lack or excess of something within us? Who would know. Maybe from both. I will leave the answer to the reader. Let them find it for themselves and for all the ambitious individuals around them. Questioning the concepts of power, ambition, capital and the responsible handling of all of the above is one of the controversies I would like my work to stimulate among Slovenian decision-makers. Just questioning whether leaders are the kind of people they would like to be regarded as at their own funeral. Are they themselves leaders they can be truly proud of? And were their moral and human, inner personal compasses where they once wanted or saw them to be? It seems crucial to me that leaders never stop mastering within themselves the ability to become masters of their minds, their emotions, their reactions, their dark and bright sides and, in turn, their own world. Hence the poetic title – The dark and bright sides of ruling the world. Our inner world.
