Whoever manages to see the invisible can also do the impossible

Introduce yourself in a few sentences..

My name is Joanna Dimitrova and I am a financier and corporate manager – in short, to break the clichés and complex expressions and make them more understandable and acceptable, I try to do things right to achieve results that shareholders and company owners expect. I manage processes and structure organizational models to work effectively and efficiently. And things turn out well.

What did you dream of becoming in your childhood?

My childhood dream was to design clothing models and create them as well as arrange shop windows, which later became a hobby.

At what age did you earn your first money? Tell us an interesting story?

I started working during my first summer at the language high school after finishing 8th grade as a tour guide in several house-museums; I will never forget it, it was the beginning of July, there were groups of tourists to whom I told in Russian and English about the life and work of Geo Milev, about the Neolithic houses, and everything that is part of our history. Those were extremely exciting moments for me filled with joy and satisfaction because I was doing something useful and people were interested. At the end of the month, I received 60 – 80 BGN and gave it to my mother to contribute to the family budget. This made me feel useful.

What are the main factors and examples that build us as individuals at an early age and shape our interests? What is your recipe for curiosity, sources of information, and inspiration at this stage of our human development?

I think that curiosity is the main factor that shapes and builds a person. Without it and the desire to satisfy your insatiable desire for contact and learning new things that stimulate creativity and logical and unconventional thinking – to think "outside the box" and to step outside the accepted standards and norms that are possessed by everyone, nothing will come of it. To be different, unique, inimitable, and creative in solutions and creating opportunities. To go everywhere, to encounter different cases, people, to attend events of different caliber, form, content, to talk and meet different people. To touch and feel the pulse of the new and different, to escape from the model of imitation and repetition. Every day should be different and memorable for something.

Has there been any significant change in your perceptions in more mature age regarding what motivates you to do or not do something?

Well, NO, it just became wiser and more conscious, more logical and larger, expanded and supplemented with many differences and diversity, with usefulness and dedication to passing on to others. With great satisfaction and effort for even more news and creative actions and solutions that change conditions and people. It brings joy and satisfaction to look back and say to yourself… After all, it's not bad and it's worth it, keep going forward, it works!

Whose decision was it where to pursue higher education and what to study? Was that decision correct, viewed from today?

The decision was entirely mine, it is very individual for everyone and depends entirely on the nature and character of the person, my parents did not advise or guide me on what to study, they let me make decisions for myself from a young age and assess what is right for me from the perspective of my intuition and thought. Contrary to all other models, guidelines, and understandings, I did not start pursuing my higher education immediately after finishing the language high school; I simply went to Switzerland, looked around, traveled, gathered information, worked, educated myself, and learned, combining theory with practice, and thus I realized that finance and Management are for me because I was already practicing them and saw that something would come out of me. Then I decided that I would study and engage in Management and Finance. My father told me that nothing would come of it because it is a male profession and that I would return with my tail between my legs after the second semester and give up. I just smiled at him and said nothing. I do the same now with my son – the teacher should point out to the student where to look for the solution, but he himself must find it, not have it shown to him ready. The eyes can see what the brain can analyze and predict.

Share more about your interests, knowledge, skills, and hobbies?

Furnishing and design has been my hobby since I was 13, when I rearranged the furniture at home during the day and when my mother returned from work, she would go crazy about what I had done and put them back in their places. She just had a different understanding and sense and did not accept mine. Then I decided that the first thing I would do is buy my own home and furnish and arrange it as I see fit, and I did. I have been training badminton professionally since I was 10, but it is also my hobby to this day, sports in general, squash, and conquering peaks in the mountains. Reading analyses and legal literature, law is a huge hobby of mine; I just studied it as a core module in four semesters, but I did not continue it as a specialty, it just remained a hobby.

Would you change your profession today and which areas of activity attract your interest?

I would not change it, but I change and build upon the focus and perspective of things, the way and approach to different cases and restructuring existing models and ways of working, depending on the advancement of thinking and generating more effective and adequate strategies for realization and long-term results. Simplifying things without unnecessary complexity and burdening with facts and data – simply, accurately, and clearly!

They say that the personal brand is everything that people say about you when you are not in the same room with them. What would you like to hear today?

The truth! We live in an environment and setting of a two-way model – we say one thing, with a clear consciousness and conviction in our correctness, until life slaps us with a loud slap and we again ask ourselves why this is so and where did this come from now? Meanwhile, on the other side, someone told us things directly, without even thinking for a moment about how we will accept them and whether we will understand them at all; we simply reject them and forget about that person, erase them from our consciousness until…. things happen as we heard before the time we erased them, then even if late we call them if we have the courage or it matters to us and start asking why this way… Short memory is a very bad vice!

Emotional intelligence, adaptability, and flexibility, as well as our soft skills, are key conditions for success in recent years. How do you cope with the daily challenges of life to stay in good shape and mood?

I relax and meditate, I read a lot on the subject, and it gives me real pleasure to self-educate and self-improve for everything that is conflict and resolution, problem and delving into it until resolution, understanding the problem, the case, its depth and origin, its genesis and essence; then it is easy to unite people and delve into the logic and explain everyone's behavior and consider their actions and role in the conflict, opposition, or different perceptions and imposing it with the method of force and coercion. As for our mood – it entirely depends on ourselves, not on others; if we are at peace and balance deep within ourselves, nothing will affect us; wisdom and reason filter and generate feedback and calmness in reaction and exiting conflictual and unpredictable situations. For this, improvement and experience are needed. And time is precisely for this – patience and perseverance!

What are the most important conclusions you have made so far about maintaining proper communication considering the different characters of the people you meet daily – colleagues, friends, close ones?

There are no bad or incomprehensible people – there is simply a wrong and improper approach to them, a wrong attitude, misunderstanding, and not putting oneself in the other's shoes. For everything in life, there is a reason and consequence; if a person thinks and asks questions and answers themselves, they will reach conclusions they have not reached before, thus gaining competence from every case or situation. Anger and bitterness, hatred and animosity or malice are the wrong teachers that lead the individual to the abyss and their downfall. Happiness lies in acting correctly, being self-critical towards oneself. The more, the better. It is not the quantity that matters, but the quality, because let us not forget that even in our daily lives, quantitative accumulations invariably lead to qualitative changes. And the result of this is not beneficial and good for anyone.

What do you think about money? What is their influence on your life? What is your advice to people who often ask themselves questions related to money and how sufficient they are?

Money is an important dimension and consequence of what we do! As a financier working mainly with money and building a strategy for money, I will say the following: Money is a means and a great motivator that leads and drives the world and us in it, a valuable resource that creates goods and utility, satisfying efforts and hard work and realization of ideas, creating stability and security for most people until the moment the boundary is crossed and one moves to the other side where greed lies. Once you reach this phase, there is no turning back. Up to that point is human; beyond that boundary, a person becomes a slave to money and their own greed, which leads them to where they model their sense and insatiability for more and more, and there is no stopper there… From that point, there is no return to normal.

Money is a means – valuable and important, behind which stands aspiration, desire, and satisfaction of needs; for the most part, they serve as justification for many of our actions, but they are in the name of something that is still good for humanity, as they are one of the engines and motivators for its progress and success. But they are not everything, and not everything is at any cost!

What is the most valuable career advice you would give to people?

Do what is your calling and brings you joy, satisfaction, and you see meaning in it; rejoice in the small successes and the benefits from them, because that is the meaning of life - to enjoy what we do and leave behind memories for which, looking back one day, we can say: Well, it was worth it, did I really do that?

The art that a person inevitably reaches one day is to make the impossible possible. The eye can only see what the brain can assimilate. Never stop trying, dreaming, never give up and do not surrender, and however difficult it may be, it becomes easy; it only takes patience and persistence. The rest is faith and motivation!

KEEP WALKING!