To family

This month’s gratitude email is dedicated to people in my life who played a role so that I can study, work and be where I am today.

I’ll start with my parents. 

You see, my parents dreamt of discovering the world but they couldn’t because of communism. After the revolution in 1989, they joined the entrepreneurial wave opening serial business in logistics, retail, hospitality. I saw my parents with 0 training or models in business, create, run and grow businesses. 

They improvised, they adapted, they learnt on the fly and they found ways to give me and my brother a better life.

We both had a chance to go to university abroad and that, for me, changed everything.

I owe them a lot. 

Next in line are my first two bosses at the luxury yacht builder where I worked after graduating in Germany. The Dutch man in charge of yacht sales and the owner of the company took me under their wing (I was an Eastern European in a family owned German company in 2004 so I wasn’t really welcomed by my colleagues) and helped me both at work but more importantly, when I decided I wanted to go to INSEAD for my MBA.

Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to get the job, to keep the job and then to get into INSEAD and pay for it.

Finally, I am grateful to the McKinsey partner in charge of my final evaluation. 

He called me one day and told me this: “There is no reason for us to let you go, but there is enough evidence that you don’t fit in the company culture. I will submit my recommendation based on what you want. So, do you want to stay with McKinsey, or do you want to get out?” 

I wanted to get out; I was there for 2 years and could not find a single person to look up to and want to be like. Not one. And yes, I did not fit with the company culture.

I am today running for 10 years a travel business in Romania because of a lot of people. But in my top 10, these are pretty high up and I am forever grateful to each one of them for having my back when I needed it most, for caring about me.

Who are you grateful for and played a key role in your life? Let them know.

Raluca