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Vasco arrived in the office well prepared. He had looked at the company website and if not entirely au fait with what The Fry Group did he had a good enough grasp. Vasco had a good level of confidence and what I enjoyed was the number of questions he asked and the fact that, from time to time he noted the answers.
After a quick ‘get to know you’ we moved directly onto our weekly management meeting, as Vasco is studying graphic design I thought some feedback on our brochures might be useful – he looked, he made notes, he feedback and it was an interesting exercise. From here we moved to a lunch where a fund manager was presenting his global economic outlook and provided us with a nice lunch. Back to the office for some more client work and then some client ‘phone calls - keeping in touch the cornerstone of relationships. Sadly I missed the reception due to a prior commitment – such is life in a small business!!
There are many skills required to be an entrepreneur, some you can teach, albeit some with mixed success, others you cannot. Two things that I hope Vasco learnt were that you need to be able to carry out more than one task at a time or at least move between tasks very quickly and (importantly as I mentioned to him ) efficiently. You also need a good amount of energy and drive – a desire to succeed. This applies to entrepreneurs in big business as much as it does in small start-ups. If Vasco has these two qualities together with his enquiring mind and very personable character he will be a natural leader.
It was an enjoyable day for me – different, rewarding and ultimately enjoyable. I can certainly recommend it to others.
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It is true that we need to start from somewhere, and I can say that my starting point was JA as it really helped me grow and improve myself. It started with a mini-company we created in school where I was vice-president of manufacture, then the competition with other mini-companies in Bratislava and now, the Leaders-for-a-day. The most exciting experience I have ever had.
I had a great time with new people from all over the Europe and amazing day with an amazing leader, Geert Vaerenberg at Manpower. This experience gave me a lot. I have learnt important things that can help me further more in life. I got a lot of useful advice, such as how important it is to listen to people, your colleagues and employees, and try to understand and cooperate with them, have a good relationships with them and, most of all, everyone can be content and do their work properly - and with excitement. It also helped me much in my personal side, because I needed to overcome my fear and anxiety. I want to thank Mr. Vaerenberg, Manpower and JA Europe for helping me have one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.
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I had expected a lot from this experience but I could never imagine what this experience really has gave me, I had the chance to follow a great Leader, his name is Neil McMillan (Director Advocacy and Political Affairs of Eurocommerce).
First of all I have to tell you that I was really new into this world, I had knew almost nothing about his job and company, so the morning session had started with a short summary about what the company was doing, then we attended a food council, it was really insipiring seeing a company that could bring together all this distributors on the same table talking about common issues, then we had some smaller internal meetings, we had a business lunch organized by the Metro group, the argument was food wastage, it was a really intresting discussion, after the lunch we had some other smaller meetings.
But the really Intresting thing apart from the job was his life experience, he had told me all about his past, starting from the studies, his work, his career, because i’m sure that it is very important to have a guide at this point of life, I had a lot of great leaders to follow, but they were very far from me, they were only in the news, but meeting a leader like him that has shared a whole life of great achievement with me and gave me some great tips was really helpeful. I think that the smile that you see in the photo is the starting point of my career so if someone his going to ask me in my future when i have decided to become what I’m now I will remember the date of 14/10/15 and the name of this great man. Leaders are first human being and only after that they are successull man and womans, that it’s the essence of what I learned.
But in this three days I have met also some other wonderfull people, first of all the JA staff, they have organized this great day and prepared me for having the right attitude for enjoyng the Leader For a Day experience in the best way, but the best persons that I’have met were JA Alumni from all over Europe, they all had some similar past experience like me and the same expectation from life, in their eyes I have saw a bright Europe and future, we were the leaders of that day and of all the days that are yet to come.
I’m very thankful to JA Europe for this great experience and to EuroCommerce.
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Being a part of Leaders-for-a-Day 2015 was definitely an unforgettable experience. I had the chance to shadow young and inspirational director of New Europe Group Alexandros Koronakis and be myself a journalist in Brussels for one day. At the beginning of the work day we had an interesting interview with a politician from Italy. It was really great to see the process of making an article for the upcoming New Europe newspaper.
The busy work day continued at Residence Palace at the Digital Single Market summit, where my leader was moderating two sessions. I could hear informative discussions on digital development in global and European context. The insight into the leader’s day gave me a good overview how to be well-organized, keep confident in every situation and communicate with different international leaders. These are definitely the skills that I need to succeed in nowadays competitive labour market.
Apart from this, L4D project gave me an opportunity to extend my international network and meet 36 another ambitious and inspirational young people from all over Europe. Being among these enterprising students gave me a lot of motivation to work hard and develop my dreams into reality. L4D project also made me realize how much I would like to work abroad in an international company. In fact, these young entrepreneurs could actually become my business partners in the future.
All in all, I lack the words to describe these amazing days we had in Brussels. I am cordially thankful to JA Europe, Alexandros Koronakis and 36 young ambitious students, who made this special experience happen and were part of the memory I will definitely cherish forever!
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Being a part of the JA Company Programme and receiving the ESP certificate enabled me to visit Brussels, where I had the chance to meet another 35 incredibly talented, pleasant and ambitious students from all over the Europe and shadow Mrs. Michaela Šojdrová, member of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats), during her work day in the European Parliament.
My day in the Parliament started with joining a working group, where my leader had a one minute speech. A serious theme was being discussed and I was overwhelmed with the overall atmosphere and fascinated by the interpreters above translating the speeches into different languages.
After she finished her speech we hurried for an appointment with the German ambassador into the German embassy in Brussels and then we went back to the Parliament for lunch.
Later during the day we had one more appointment with the Hungarian member of Parliament and I also got to know all Mrs. Šojdrová's assistants, visit their offices and shadow their work a little bit too.
It has been a really busy and exhausting day, but I really appreciate this opportunity, because I could really see what the job as a member 
of the European Parliament involves and what responsibilities does it take.
I am also very grateful for being able to make a quick speech at the Entrepreneurial School Awards supported and hosted by my leader the day after. The event gathered several members of the European Parliament, European Commission officials, JA Europe board members and teachers. I was pretty nervous to speak in front of such an important audience, but everyone made me more comfortable by their positive and nice attitude.
I would like to thank JA Czech and JA Europe for making this amazing experience possible and especially big thank you to the JA Europe's team, which guide us through our trip in Brussels and enabled us to have such a great memories that I will never forget.