A gala with entrepreneurial and transformative overtones

Arantza Arruti Leave a comment

El pasado 20 de octubre, se celebró en el paraninfo de la Universidad de Deusto la Gala de On 20 October, the Deusto-Santander Entrepreneurship Gala was held in the auditorium of the University of Deusto, hosted by Garbiñe Henry, director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit (IEU) of the University of Deusto. One of its objectives was to recognize the more than 1,400 participants of the various training courses offered by the IEU of the University of Deusto, and promoted by Deusto Emprende and Banco Santander through Santander Universities. These include creaction!, DeustoSTART I, DeustoSTART II, Practicum Emprende, and the Deusto Emprende Week which, by the way, started on Monday.

In addition to having the privilege of attending the Gala, being able to participate in their programmes is a real honour (I can’t deny it, and I recognise that part of my heart is still in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit).

Today I want to share with all of you some of the recommendations shared by one of the star guests, Hasier Larrea, founder and CEO of Ori, “a robotic furniture startup that reinvents spaces”.

Hasier is considered by many to be one of the success stories of Basque entrepreneurship, so I hope his recommendations help you, as they are helping me.

  1. Fall in love with the problem.
  2. Surround yourself with the best, feel small, that is how we learn.
  3. Learn continuously because the world is constantly changing.
  4. Talk to people, understand their problems, and compete against luck.
  5. Persevere, be stubborn, plan, be flexible in tactics.
  6. Lead, listen to the other person (even if you are the last to speak), cooperate with your own team, apply the formula “Know How, Do How, and Know How“.
  7. If you have to “fail”, then fail and move on, but “Never underestimate the heart of an entrepreneur” and believe in yourself.
  8. People will remember very well how you finished, but not how you started, that’s why you have to know how to manage your exits very well.
  9. “Working on something we like is passion, working on something we don’t care about is stress”. Find your own Ikigai and strike a balance between work, family, health, friends, and soul.
  10. Life is about collecting moments that make us smile.

As Hasier said:

Entrepreneurship is about transforming education, medicine, architecture, in short, transforming the world.

Thank you for following there.

Perseverance or balance

Arantza Arruti Leave a comment

This morning (on any given day of the week) a video about lbalance.king.w “popped up” on my instagram account. It’s not the first time, I admit, but this time it made me think about one of the characteristics of P.E. It’s about perseverance.

Some of you may be wondering what this account has to do with perseverance. It is very simple. What made me think about perseverance was the number of times the “man in the video” (sometimes accompanied) has to repeat his “attempt” to achieve his goal (balancing between objects of different materials, sizes and weights).

It is true that it makes you wonder whether the videos are real or not. If they are not, I am left with the need to underline this quality of P.E. Because the truth is that perseverance has been with us since childhood. Think, for example, of how many times a child falls down and gets up again when learning to walk.

When babies are learning to walk, they fall on average 17 times an hour. Given that frequency of falls, you might think their little brains carefully computed all that negative input so they could learn from their errors. Apparently, that’s just not so. Babies don’t change their behavior based on negative feedback, according to researchers at NYU’s Infant Action Lab… Their drive to get from Point A to Point B makes a little thing like falling inconsequential in the scheme of things. And when they do fall, it’s a low-stakes venture with extremely rare negative consequences. So off they go, toddle, tumble, toddle.(Compton, 2021).

And you, do you persevere? Have you ever stopped to think about what it is that makes our perseverance diminish as we get older? Is it a question of culture? or of education?

I invite you, just out of curiosity, to visit the lbalance.king.w account and see if that makes us a little more aware that not everything in life is a gift and that perseverance together with effort are great qualities that, hopefully, will continue to accompany me day after day.

Thank you for still being there.

Fair saturday awards

Arantza Arruti Leave a comment

I don’t know if you still haven’t met Jordi Albareda and Saioa Eibar… Have you? And if I mention Fair Saturday…, how about now? Good, because Jordi and Saioa are its founders, two great people and, in addition to that, entrepreneurs. Always willing and ready, and with a project that I wish was created before.

Last Saturday the 26th of September they called us again for an award event that was born in 2017. It’s really special. Through the awards, they recognize the initiatives of individuals and organizations that get to inspire and question us, that have demonstrated a social impact on different levels, and that are based on art and culture. Oh, and their mission is to generate more inclusive, fair, and sustainable growth (Fair Saturday’s own goal). If you don’t know about it yet, I encourage you to keep reading because the projects, and especially the people behind them, deserve it.

This year, I was especially excited to be at this awards show because I had the pleasure and honor of talking a little bit with Rana Dajani, one of the most influential scientists of the Islamic world, founder of We Love Reading, and whom I met in May of 2021 thanks, of course, to Fair Saturday. I admit that, while I was excited just by knowing about the project, being with her made me confirm that dreams, which sometimes feel impossible to fulfill (especially in some countries), are not that impossible, as long as we make an effort, are determined, put our heart on it and are brave. Thank you, Rana, for your proximity, but especially for what you’ve achieved: inspire hope, make us grow and believe, and empower many children, young women, and women from all over the world through reading. That’s what Rana has achieved, and I think it’s GREAT!!!!!

“Since 2006 it has expanded to more than 60 countries all around the world, founding more than 4400 libraries in a variety of communities, both rural and urban, as well as in refugee camps.”

This is not the only awarded project and person, so let me present you the rest of the winners:

Musicians without Borders, from Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra, from Seoul (South Korea), Apropa Cultura, in Barcelona, but with Basque roots, Playing for Change Foundation (Santa Monica, USA), Pabellón Número 6, award that was collected by Ramón Barea (Bilbao), Candoco Dance Company (London, UK), Garabide Elkartea (Aretxabaleta) and Nuccio Ordine as the honor award.

As I don’t want this post to get so long, I invite you to visit the Fair Saturday website to learn more about each project.

Thank you, Jordi and Saioa, for supporting the culture and art, but especially for getting us closer to the kind of people you introduce us to every year. Today this is for you.

Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.

Dispelling the myth about social entrepreneurhsip

Arantza Arruti Leave a comment

Today’s post was not this one, but I admit that, by chance, while I was looking for information for “the post I was writing”, I came across a video that I liked. It could not be otherwise, I confess. I have a special affection for Ashoka. The video I am sharing with you today seems very clear and direct.

What do I like about this video? Above all, I like the fact that Maite Arango y Alexandra Mitjans, two women from different generations of Ashoka, talk about social entrepreneurship. Among the keywords of their conversation, I share with you the following:

  • Work
  • Challenges
  • Solutions
  • Innovation
  • Initiatives
  • Impacts
  • Contribution
  • Legacy
  • Technology
  • Humanity
  • Ethic
  • Education
  • Awareness
  • Commitment
  • Empathy
  • Sustainability
  • Conviction
  • Collaboration (intergenerational, institutional, organizational, corporate, global, international, etc.)

¿What is your main option? Difficult, right?

Thanks, Ashoka, for your daily work.

I will be back in two weeks. Enjoy June.