This is how it looked like last summer. It’s pretty cool and nice. But you gotta mind your back and know what’s going on in each area of your life. Otherwise you won’t make it for a long time.

Let me tell you a story.

I started a project in 2014: I wanna bring my life into full balance. In the end of 2016 I will have all different elements of life in fully harmony with each other. That meant that my work, economy, love, family, hobbies, everything would be in perfect harmony with each other.

That’s what I did. I needed to find a work. Applied to 10+ places. Got into an insurance company, called ACE, which was operated by a well-experienced customer service company GoExcellent. In a nice area in Munkkiniemi at Kone’s old building I served hundreds of insurance customers, made most of them (hopefully) satisfied and in addition sold a huge amount of upsales for them. According to our managers I was performing superbly, especially on upsales. I got 2-3 special prizes, got into our GoSocial team, got bonuses, and a few uplifting comments: “Lauri when you are present at workplace, others are also performing much better. That’s how crucially important you are for the team.”

Wow.

Where was it based on? I really enjoyed my work. It was a 9-to-5 job, but it suited very well for me that time. Regular salary, around 2200€, no stress in the evenings and weekends, an opportunity to develop my skills, a nice environment with good people around. Not bad at all.

I got great hobbies too. I played football regularly in a new Finno-Russian-Spanish Legirus Football Team in Korso, close to my father’s place, got condition up, interesting things to do, played guitar regularly, saw my Chinese friends weekly, and even joined a new entrepreneurial club in Aalto University’s space.

Got a balance, got things to do, got friends and (some) family around, got my economy in good order, started to save for an own house, was improving my skills in a new entrepreneurial area. Wasn’t bad!

My life was in good balance, I was feeling well, I was performing well, and I started to get more and more different opportunities – it started to show off.

I was chosen as special representative in ASEM Youth activities, especially in Hangzhou Asia-Europe Youth meeting. I used my argumentation skills learnt in the insurance company and was able to get +2 people in to the team – and negotiate us visas in 45 minutes from the Chinese embassy. Off we go!

I wrote a report and a few weeks later I was asked to start planning an event in China for Slush. A month later I was asked to really go there. That changed everything.

Everything which I had build consistently had got me up into this in less than a year. Wow.

I could have said no. But I didn’t. I took the challenge and left almost everything I had built here – for the greater cause. And soon I was in China in a totally new challenge: to build the coolest entrepreneurial event China has ever seen. On my own. Jesus.

It was such an inspiring challenge and I felt that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, which you cannot say no to.

Maybe I should’ve?

No, I should not have.

What followed was a trembling, giving, insightful, unforgettable journey into the centre of Chinese people, business, culture, diplomacy and the rise of new Chinese wave, which is changing the whole world. That’s how I felt. It was a dream coming true. So I took it.

Yes, we got the event done. We got great feedback, we had an amazing team of people, we sacrificed a lot, but did it for the higher cause: to build bridges over two things we love: China and Finland – hopefully the world too. Also to inspire other people and help China to kickstart it’s own ecosystem. These were the official goals. And they are pretty much, what we truly wanted from it.

Yes, the event was well done. Regardless of the challenges. We made of course many mistakes and can hopefully learn well from them, but we had an unique experience many will never experience even in their entire lives. It was something truly unique.

So it was a good thing to do. Of course. To try out, to make it work.

But: it came with its price. Nothing is free. People who achieve something are often always ready to put a lot of stakes in order to reaching it.

My biggest price was the loss of balance.

The balance I had built in the previous year – which started paying off a lot – was damaged, broken, and got me almost under the waterline. It’s not a state anybody would like to be. Yes, the responsibility is mine. I am the one who put myself into that state of affairs – and I am the only one who can restore it. That’s what I’m going to do in 2016, restore my balance of life.