A 21-year-old wrote to me after spending time in Croatia. He was considering returning to Kosovo with around €15,000 in savings and trying a business idea he had been thinking about for months. He wanted my opinion: should he give it a go?
My reply was encouraging. At his age, I wanted him to see that trying, getting something wrong and learning can all be part of building something of his own. I did not have details about his business idea that would let me judge whether it would succeed.
What my own beginning actually looked like
In that reply, I remembered travelling alone to China at 21 for a factory investment. My wording prompted another question: how had I afforded it?
In the follow-up, I explained that I had become a shareholder and used borrowed money. I had not arrived in Kosovo with a large pot of savings. After my IT apprenticeship in Zurich, I started with CHF 3,000 saved. I later returned to Switzerland, worked as an IT project manager at Zurich Airport and took on loans.
Those obligations put pressure on me. In the video, I described how that pressure affected my own determination. I also said clearly that my route was not the right one for everyone. Watch the follow-up about my start.
Encouragement is not a guarantee
The viewer’s €15,000 and my CHF 3,000 are different stories, not amounts that establish whether a business will work. My experience explains why I encouraged him to try; it does not settle his decision for him.
The part I wanted to pass on was the willingness to begin and to learn from setbacks. Copying my debts was not the message.
Original social post · 2026-10-18