How did your life change after that?
It changed so much that I moved from working nine hours a day to 15.
Surely you had periods when it seemed that everything was a dead end, you couldn't get any further. What helped you in those moments?
I'm an optimist. I know it's going to work out. Always.
I tell my daughters: "Do you know the difference between me and that man over there? He starts a great business and knows right away that the glass is half empty, so he almost certainly won't succeed. He takes on any task, but he has a negative attitude from the start. And the universe hears him: "Okay, whatever you say."
Whatever I take on, even when it seems like a completely lost cause, I know exactly I will have it work out. If it doesn't work one way, we'll try another. We may not get the results directly, but one way or another we will get them.
So you're a proponent of positive thinking?
I guess so. It doesn't all come from reading books, it's my gut feeling. That's the way it's always been. I know things will always work out.
When you have to talk about the results of your activities, in what “dimensions" or “values" do you do it? Do you have a specific system for evaluating the results, the impact of the project?
For example, we have satisfaction questionnaires for clients who have received our wheelchairs and questionnaires for people who have been in rehab. At the end of the course, they write down what they liked, leave their wishes, etc. It's all valuable feedback. Then we read it all out at the council. But live communication with people is always better. So, we started doing campfire gatherings at the end of the rehabilitation course. We roast shish kebabs, eat pilaf, and socialize with the guys in this informal atmosphere. That's much cooler. People relax and tell you: "Look, the main effect for me is not that my knee started bending or that I was able to leave the wheelchair and start walking with a walking frame, but that my kids, who had grown to hate me over the last three years, are now visiting me again. They took a two-month break from me and started visiting me, saying that I had become positive and interesting to talk to again and they wanted to communicate with me.” It's not often that you read this kind of confession in a questionnaire.