Every day, we search the web for impactful content produced by Sandboxers. Once a week, we choose the most inspiring, funny or brilliant piece and repost it here on our blog.

This week Konstantina Zoehrer shares a story of love, determination and entrepreneurship. Check out the original story here and give Konstantina a follow on Twitter.

One year ago, I went to one of the concerts, I will remember my whole life. It was U2 performing in the Olympic Stadium of Athens. While «I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For» was sounding, I wanted to call a very special person, the person I was falling in love with. It had the taste of being a teenager, the same sweetness and anger, full of dreams.

During the following months this special person, saw me presenting myself to the entrepreneurial community as a wannapreneur and finally young entrepreneur, saw me stating his question (Why should somebody abroad come back to Greece in crisis?) to the Primeminister of the country, being offered a place at a leading University…and sending him greetings through a radio night show on the web. Shortly: Loving what I was doing.

It was a time, when people told me that I was wrong, crazy, unreasonable. Yes, I was and still am. People are used to name things to put them in little boxes with names, and I could not understand the whys yet. While listening to U2, I was just who I was, same for him, who was believing in me.

In the «traditional» business world, I needed to use a title, or whatever was naming, what I was doing, in a fancy way. Being just me was not enough at that time, but proving them wrong and making it happen always is, for the right people to be beside you.

During the last year, I was pitching my ideas, my work to some known entrepreneurs in Greece (and some outside Greece), or people that call themselves entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial spirits. Feedback was most of the time, quite turning me down, telling me that I am too young to know, that I am a communication person and not a business person (Is not a lot of business operations based on communication?) and that I should not try to get into shoes too big for me and focus on the romantic blog posts I was writing in Greek on (That was an interesting statement, I have to admit).

I started traveling for work and leisure in order to open myself to new things and to implement better thinking out of the box, without patterns that kept my focus in the wrong direction.

Berlin: Meeting some of the brains and souls behind Silicon Allee and 6Wunderkinder.
Athens: Meeting Loft2Work.
Vienna: Meeting STARTEurope.

In Berlin, I experienced that all the comments, I was told as feedback, simply were not true. Silicon Allee was in its first steps and became a reality for the entrepreneurial ecosystem some days after my departure from Berlin. 6Wunderkinder and their Wunderlist became a part of my everyday work flow. Silicon Allee and 6Wunderkinder are an inspiration of strong will and flexibility, both assets needed in the business world.

In spring, I met Sophia, Olia, Andreas aka Loft2Work and people that had no reason to believe, in what I was saying. In the end, I was just a girl talking a lot and very passionate about entrepreneurial culture and social entrepreneurship. Meanwhile. I joined the team and I am very excited to build up, one of the country’s first social businesses.

This summer, I met the team at STARTEurope, while they were running the preparations of the upcoming European StartUp Festival, StartUp Week 2011. Again, there was no reason to trust a young woman, who was not running a company yet at that time. But they did and supported my efforts during the last two months, difficult weeks, working on a vision of entrepreneurial culture.

Today we heard a lot about Steve Jobs. If the Jobs era teaches us something, than sure it is about how important culture is, whether it is corporate culture or mentality. He thought us that passion is not only a buzz word, but “«following your heart and intuition» is not sentimental but a whole life theory.

It is the first time, I see my name printed with «Social Entrepreneurship» written below on an invitation, I felt as an honor. These days, I also got some organizations and companies supporting my efforts and during the last weeks I got also some entrepreneurial inspirations on board of it. It will be announced soon and it is just a small step forward but I enjoy the journey, even if this means that I have to be patient a little bit more than I thought I could. be.

This post was my way to tell the story behind two simple words like «Thank you» to all those who support and believe.

Returning to the romantic story I was mentioning at the start: The special person came into my life at a point, I was not well. He was watching from a distance and he intervened. Maybe unconsciously but he was there, letting me be just me without the mails, calls and meeting, just me, and reminding me that if I do not enjoy the journey, it might not be my journey and that I had to believe in it first. We lost the connection, but he came back into my life as a friend, when I was more than just ok, having won my various struggles and «simply loving what I was doing». Making it happen.

“If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.”
- Jane Goodall

So the year 2009 is over and with it the first decade of the new millennium. A perfect moment to look back and ahead to assess what was and what will be. We already did this for Sandbox with our Year in Review and Roadmap for 2010 blog posts.

But of course, it’s not just about us. What else happened? If you have trouble remembering, this great video from Newsweek should get you started: It summarizes the last decade in 7 breathtaking minutes. To dig a bit deeper, we recommend the New York Magazine’s exhaustive “Encyclopedia of Counterintuitive Thought” for the last decade (including the realization that amateurs are better than experts and that being smart doesn’t get you ahead).

But there was also a lot going just last year. We’ll just point you to this long collection of “2009 lists” where you’ll find everything from the freakiest commercials to the best red carpet moments of 2009.

And what will 2010 bring us? We don’t know exactly, but these ten great business ideas from last year might prove disruptive in this one. We also liked some of HBR’s “breakthrough ideas” for twenty-ten, and we agree with basically all of the web trends predictions that CNN published.

Whatever 2010 wil bring – we’re excited that it’s here!

Image by Hamachii on Flickr

Nico has co-founded Sandbox and is currently working on a list of topics that WE think will be huge in 2010. We’ll publish it here in a few days.

GEOLOCATOR (new!)

The Geolocator is a great tool to meet fellow Sandboxers when on the way. It also gives some statistics about our travel habits: ever wondered how many kilometers Sandboxers travel every year?

INTRODUCTION CONCIERGE (new!)

Feeling lonely in a new city? Looking for someone with specific knowledge in the Sandbox network? Our Introduction Concierge will do everything in his power to answer your request.

COWORKING (new!)

Are you looking for a temporary office somewhere? Maybe a Sandboxer can help! Check out this map, and if you have a free space in your own office, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

RESOURCES (new!)

Access a great list of resources selected by the community and by the Sandbox team. Learn about academia, business & career, starting up, how to find employees, innovation, leadership, networking and others.

IDEAS (new!)

Access a stream of fresh ideas and discussions by fellow Sandboxers. Ask your questions, help other members, or post your craziest ideas and the most inspiring links you come across!

COUCHSURFING

Are you traveling and are looking for a place to stay? Do you have a
couch or a spare bed that could be used by fellow Sandboxers
visiting your city? Try Sandbox Couchsurfing!

AMBASSADORS

The Ambassadors are the core of our offline network. They are among the best connected people in the network, organize local events and are your main point of contact in all the cities where we are represented.

Antoine is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Sandbox. He is flying to Berlin tomorrow morning where he will attend the Palomar5 final Summit, together with a dozen other Sandboxers from all around.

Niamh Hughes, one of our beloved Sandbox members, recently attended the EYP London “Women in Enterprise” event and has written a beautiful report about it.

She recently graduated from a 4 year double-degree programme with a Bachelor of Arts in International Business & German from Dublin City University, Ireland and with a Diplom in International Management from the European School of Business Reutlingen, Germany.

She is Co-Founder & Organiser of AperiTWeat London, an Aperitivo event for Twitter friends. Enabling twitter friends to meet offline in a fun environment over drinks and free Italian tapas!

Niamh’s energy also shows in her recent charity projects: She was a member of the ESB Radler 2008, a Charity Cycle from Germany to Ireland (1,700 Km!!!).

Check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.

Johanna is currently interning with Sandbox, she assists the team in various areas and is currently focusing on community management. She loves exercising a lot and just discovered the lake of Zurich as one of her favourite places to swim! You can find her on facebook here.

Update (11.03.2009): Thanks to all your votes, Fredrik has been selected to the final! The winner will be announced at Universum Awards 26th of March in Stockholm. Stay tuned!

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Cast your vote! Fredrik Hagenius, Sandboxer and co-founder of the Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden – our partner organisation in Sweden – is currently one of five nominees to become Business Student of the Year in his home country.

To support him, go to this page => enter your (valid) e-mail address => press ”skicka!” => verify the e-mail sent to you. The vote is open until March 9.

In 2008, Fredrik has been developing and managing Campusbokhandeln, the mission of which is to act as a marketplace for second-hand university books. In 2008 the business has expanded from Örebro and is now also established at Karlstad University. Campusbokhandeln has begun to donate 1 SEK (€0,10) to the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation for each book sold. The company has a total of nine employees.

Fredrik has also been Project Manager for SM i Ekonomi (Swedish Championships in Economics). He is the co-founder of the Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden, a network that aims to connect, educate and inspire young achievers from Sweden in the age from 18 to 30, that counts 150 members.