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Leaders-for-a-Day Experience: Dimitrios Ntaras

There are few life changing experiences in life, those worth to be mentioned in a “Describe an experience that has shaped you” college application essay. And I’m more than thankful to have just participated in one of such, shaping memories to last while enthusiastically establishing a close network of friends, both junior and senior leaders, all with the same vision: to promote entrepreneurship, to inspire and keep being inspired every day that passes. And the opportunity to participate in “JA Europe Leaders for a Day” was to me the key to two days full of inspiration and self-discovery.

Going back to Greece, myself, a 17-year-old apprentice and an entrepreneur with minimal experience, can consider all the aspects in which the aforementioned program has changed me, and there are lots of them. While in Brussels, I came in contact -during the program warm-up- with a range of interesting people, mostly young leaders of my age, 36 amazing people, gathered together and sharing unique stories of each, discovering what differentiates and what unites us. We truly became a team, not only enriching our knowledge, but going to a whole different level when it comes to life-revolutionary experiences, of those in which you can indulge yourself in fully only when you totally open your mind and horizons. To such point, it hit me how my character as a young adult ready to make my part to a better place of my world has changed, my perspective much larger to that of before I got the opportunity to the program.

At the end of it, with my expectations of it fulfilled as they were, I know I have taken advantage of being a leader for a day through establishing most valuable acquaintances, opening myself to others, subject to positive changes and influences, and in fact working for a short time in the most real accessible workplace of the future through the mentorship of an experienced senior leader - in that order, heartfelt thanks to Xavier Hormaechea, Director of Public Affairs at UCB who got to make the grand finale to an experience that taught me so much, and my dear appreciation for all he showed me. And so I found myself at a workplace that I have an ambition of leading as I was most certainly taught to, in a few years. Together with the people, dear friends that supported me in these first steps, young partners in ambition.

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