The One

Over the past few months I’ve come across this quote several times “One day someone will walk into your life and make you realize why it never worked out with anyone else.” – Unknown

Now, going by the usual photos that accompanies this quote, it is meant as a comfort for all those people who have not yet found that special person to share their life with – and in my opinion, a true quote. But this week something went ‘click’ and I suddenly saw this quote from a completely different perspective.

As an entrepreneur it describes perfectly when you finally find that person to seal the deal with, to become partners with, or that person that CAN help you get what you need.

This is where we are at now. Or almost are.

If this current person is The One, then the quote would ring true.

It would make us see why in 2004 the ‘mum and dad’ investors didn’t work out.

Why in 2005 the rescue package/venture capitalists didn’t work out.

Why in 2006 the Youth Academy funder didn’t work out. 

Why in 2011 the famous Armenians we approached didn’t work out.

Why in 2011 the Slovenian investment manager, who we spent seven months waiting for, didn’t work out.

Could this new person be it? He ticks all the boxes, even more so than we ever dreamed possible. There are so many positives. And we tried looking for negatives, but couldn’t come up with any.  

Only time will tell if this is it – a month or two should do it!

"A dream you don't fight for will haunt you for the rest of your life."  - Robots, the movie

A story of triumph

We love the Rocky movies.

They inspire, entertain and have you on the edge of your seat.
But only very recently have I looked into the Sylvester Stallone story, after my husband read about it and mentioned it to me. It's one of the most inspirational stories I've ever heard. 

It begins with Stallone being disfigured due to an incident at birth. You can watch the clip, which is Tony Robbins re-telling what his friend, Sylvester Stallone, told him.
Or you can read the story here.
Sylvester Stallone's main goal was to inspire people.

"The greatest revenge is massive success."
 

Perseverance to Inspire

The last two days I've had a blog post forming in my head. You know the feeling when things around you happen, or you read things, see things and it all links together, like a web.

To round out my post I did some research and came across a blog post by Growthink that basically said what I wanted to.

It includes seven (condensed) entrepreneurs' stories including Steve Jobs; Walt Disney; JK Rowling and more. The point made is perseverance. Not giving up. Anyone who achieved anything big had to be persistent and patient and never lose sight of the dream.

I will add to that list Abraham Lincoln, who lost eight elections and failed in two businesses before becoming President of the USA, at the age of 51.
Also Colonel Sanders, who was turned down one-thousand and nine times before his chicken was accepted once!

All this brings me to the book I'm reading at the moment:
This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
An amazing story of perseverance and purpose. The story of a strong woman who did what she thought was right, regardless of what a corrupt government said.
One of her most recent quotes, from her fanpage, while she campaigns for another term:
"Remember the race is not to the swift, but those who endure to the end will be rewarded for their endurance."

On that note, I will continue to sit on my hands and wait for these new developments to unfold.

Emotions

Have you ever had one of those weeks where so much happened in your life, but you feel like you haven’t achieved anything? That’s me this week.

While I had prepared family things for Valentine’s Day (baking, cards etc), I hadn’t, and couldn’t have been prepared for the onslaught of emotionally draining baggage.

Early in the week I found out a dear friend had made a short documentary about repatriating to Armenia. My husband translated for me as we watched. It left me an emotional wreck. What she was saying about the feeling of living in Armenia was exactly how I feel. Tears flowed, emotions that had been pushed down rose up and erupted.

This had followed a trip to the shops the previous weekend, where I had that familiar overwhelming feeling that I don’t want to be here, that I want to be living where I feel at peace and where I feel home is – Armenia. It’s a feeling that has never left me, and only becomes stronger since our return to Australia at the end of 2005.

This week has been full of emotions erupting about this subject, emotions that had been suppressed in order to function in day to day life here – an inner agony that I’ve had to silence.

Our children have known since our return that living in Australia is temporary. The dream has never died. Over the last 10 months we have worked very hard to get our project up and running again. And we thought we’d done it when we had someone very interested in a 50% partnership. It came to the stage of signing a contract and transferring funds. And then it fizzled out. So close, yet so far away. It’s the closest we had come since 2005.

Unless you’ve lived this, you have no idea – when you’ve worked hard to make your dream come to life and (finally!) you have someone who says “Yes, ok, let’s do it!” and that person continues to reassure you that “Yes, we’re doing it, there's just a delay in funds clearing and transferring”, and so you start planning travel arrangements, you start to tell family about it. Then that person fades away as if none of it was said – it leaves you crushed.

But because we’re committed to this cause, and it is, we believe, our life purpose, we WILL find a way to make it happen.

As Winston Churchill said “Never, never, never give up”

We will find that partner who shares our vision to (as my husband would say) ‘revolutionise Armenian football’. That person is out there, we just need to find them!

Yerevan United WILL return to Armenian Football one day, God willing. And then all those fans and ex-players that keep sending us emails, will rejoice!

Constantly improving

As we sit here waiting for the phone call that will change our lives forever, we read news from Armenia daily. Most of it is good: tax reforms; corrupt police being questioned, or fired; big business developments by international Armenian businessmen, in Armenia; public voicing their opinions etc.

Today I came across this article and thought it is such great news.

From memory, Orange Armenia received some bad reviews in the past for slow internet/bad coverage. But perhaps with improvements they now have the formula right.

With their investment in Armenia reaching US30 million by the end of 2011, I assume they are planning to stay.

This computer room they recently helped set up in Tavush village is an awesome initiative. Tavush village is in Tavush marz (state) in the North-Eastern corner of Armenia. Tavush marz is known for its mountain and forest scenery sprinkled with beautifully sited historic monasteries (ie absolutely beautiful). 

Two thumbs up for this project – a great way to connect villagers to the rest of the world.

Tavush marz

Faith and patience

Today, as we come close to ‘sealing the deal’, we reflected on wether we will remember the journey when we get to the destination. It’s been seven years since the dream was born, six years since the first attempt. Five years since the second attempt.

Five years of living a ‘normal’ day to day life, with a dream coursing through our veins as we rack our brains trying to think of ways to make it happen.

Five years of wondering if the dream will ever happen, while having the faith and patience to continue to dream.   

Seven years of listening to doubters around us, of being called selfish for pursuing something we’re passionate about, something we believe in. (we also have family and close friends who have shown nothing but support).

When the belief is so strong, you just know it’s all going to fall into place sometime, and you live every day not knowing when that ‘sometime’ will eventuate. But you just continue to go about doing what you need to do, trying different options, working on your plans, because you know soon everything will pay off because you have faith that it will.

So, now we are coming towards the end of waiting. Soon our life will change, and our children’s lives too, for the better. Soon we will be doing what we feel we were put on this earth to do.  

Pass me the remote!

So right now we’re waiting. We’ve come to the point where all we can do is wait, and have plenty of patience.

When you’re waiting for the meeting to begin negotiations on the deal that will give you The Dream, it’s like waiting for Christmas, without knowing exactly when Christmas will come.

Every day you go about doing normal every day things, speak to normal every day people, meanwhile you know that a snap of the fingers (or ‘the meeting’) and it all changes. The people you interact with, who know your story, and know how close you are to The Dream, are amazed by just how big what you’re about to do is. They nearly can’t believe that you’re standing next to them talking.

The only way I can describe it is surreal.

Today I was wishing I had a universal remote, like Adam Sandler in the movie Click, then I could fast forward this time to The Meeting and then (hopefully) The Contract Signing.

 
So close now…

I *heart* improvements

 

photo by Ani Melikyan


Back in 2005 I wrote about how the green areas around Yerevan Municipality were overgrown and how someone should introduce lawn mowers to Armenia. Well, you can imagine the smile that formed on my lips when I read this article on Armenianow.com the other day.

The Mayor said at a press conference that 1000 lawn mowers will be given to schools, kindergartens and condominiums for the aim of “proper implementation of green areas’ and lawns’ care” in the capital. :)

I was even happier when I read this article about the Municipality and UN signing a project on rejuvenation of the city.

This timing is wonderful given that Zvartnots Airport just got a makeover, and is due to open in October.

Can't wait to go back!

Like a hamster

As we patiently sit on our hands and wait for that phone call or email, we predict, dream and conjure images of what may be.

Our life these days is lived day to day, sometimes hour to hour. Because we know in a flash things could flip and my husband could get a phone call from New York or Monaco (or somewhere else) saying “Come and have a meeting” in which case everything would be paused and off he’d fly to that location.

I once watched an MTV interview with Jennifer Lopez, where the interviewer asked how she ‘made it’. The thing that stuck in my mind all these years is when she answered “It’s like you’re a hamster running on a wheel, just going and going, going to auditions here, interviews there, more auditions, more meetings. You just keep on going on and on. Then one day it all falls into place. You get that part or that record deal, and it goes from there.”

At the moment, we’re the hamsters on the wheel. I never knew I could have so much patience. 

When you’ve had a taste of the life that you’re working towards, you know what’s coming (well to a degree, because experience has proven you never really know what will happen). And you can’t help but compare that life to this.

That life is employing more than 60 people in Yerevan; working hard but loving every minute of it; full of excitement and doing what you think you were put on this earth to do (ie The Dream); being able to help more people than we ever imagined…the list goes on.

This is where we refer to ‘sliding doors’, in reference to the movie. Just by one event (telephone call/email/meeting/one decision) the direction of your situation/life can change.

Reminds me how my husband and I met, but that’s a whole other story…

The highs and lows

"It’s easy to be positive when things are good, but when things are hard – that’s when you need to remain positive." 

I read this quote somewhere not long ago. 

While working towards our dream we’ve gone through many hills and valleys. So many ups and downs, highs and lows.

We recently had a high followed by a low, and to be honest it rocked me. Not in the ‘he rocked my world’ type of way, but in the way when you stumble for a moment, almost fall, only to straighten yourself and keep going.

When you believe in something so much, when you know that God will make a way where there is no way, you can’t help but put all your hope into an opportunity that presents itself. 

We recently spent a month working on an updated business plan for Yerevan United FC. The excitement it created was reminiscent of 2004, and thrilling to say the least.

The near-sleepless nights, the research to gather current figures and facts, the putting your dream into words so that others (namely potential investors) can comprehend just exactly what it is that you’re so excited about – we relived it all.

Then there’s the excited talk about the possibilities about what may be. When your focus is so much on the possibilities, you tend to forget reality, and that I think was my biggest mistake.

Although I kept saying “It could go one way or the other, we just don’t know.” I know now that in my heart I 100% believed in a positive outcome.

And after it didn’t come (well it hasn’t come yet, I’m still hopeful J) I was a little shattered.

But now I’ve regained my balance and dusted myself off, I’m back on track, still with a heart full of hope, still the woman behind the amazing man.

At the moment my husband paces around like a caged lion, eager to pounce into action, to go back and re-start what he was put on this earth to do. To quote him: “Faith and Patience”. 

Last night we received an email from a dear friend in Yerevan who, out of the blue, met a Councillor from England who knows Yerevan United FC, and was very excited that said friend is good friends with the President of Yerevan United FC (ie, my husband). The Councillor eagerly provided all his contact details to said friend, so they could be forwarded to us. Surprisingly, he’s not Armenian.  

God will make a way where there is no way.

Life's good

You know that feeling when things just fall into place, and you are happy not just about one thing, but a few things and things in general? That’s where I’m at right now.

 I have just embarked on a Diploma of Publishing (Professional editing, proofreading and publishing), that I have wanted to do for years. I know this is so right for me, because I get excited when I’m studying lol.

We’ve just spent a week trying to fix our PC, to find out it was the graphic card that needed replacing. So all is now fixed and we’re ready for a very busy and exciting week.

I’ve also been getting involved in my online communities more, after all is said and done when you’re working/studying from home you can end up feeling a little isolated.

We’ve gradually done some adjustments and updates to Blanky4me.com which I’m happy about. One of them is cutting out product and categories to get back to why we started in the first place – making personalised blankets.

When it comes to our dream….well I’m not so frustrated anymore, at the moment anyway. Because I know if it’s meant to happen it will and it’s about the whole journey, not just getting there. So I’m enjoying the journey. This last week we finally hooked up on Skype with a very dear friend who lives in Armenia. I am so excited about this because just seeing him on the screen and chatting reminds us a lot of Armenia and makes it seem more real.

Struggling to express

If you get me talking about Armenia, I won't stop. And if you try to tell me things about Armenia that aren't true, I'll tell you straight how it really is - that's what comes from living there for six months.

Unless you've really been there, or even lived there, you really have no idea how much it can move you, how it can imbed itself in your heart, so deep that you can never remove it.

These days, living away from Armenia, I struggle to express my passion in writing. But, oh, when we lived there - I took a notebook everywhere because words would poor into my mind and out my pen a hundred miles an hour. And when I'd get back to my computer, my finger tips would hardly touch the keyboard as sentences seemed to put themselves together - as if Mother Armenia herself was writing through me.

A funny thing happened last night. We were at Carols at the kids school. I went to buy some things for the kids and spoke using as much Armenian as I know - the stall holders were baffled and couldn't quite believe their ears. I couldn't help but shrug and think - we're at an Armenian school function - where else are we going to speak Armenian at a function?!

If you want to feel truly Armenian, the only place on this Godly earth that you can is in Armenia, where you breath the air and gaze over the Great Mt Ararat as Armenians did 3000 years ago. You walk on the soil where Armenians fought, lived and died. Where you're amoungst Bibilical history that rivals Jerusalem (the Garden of Eden and Noah's Ark are both said to be in Armenia).

...and the dream continues...

I always love talking with my husband. Especially when it's about our future, our dream. It's also the thing I miss the most when we're apart. We can talk for hours non-stop, about our plans, business, the kids, travelling....anything really. On our first date 18 years ago we were together until 2am talking.

So last night we were talking about our dream and plans. We made an approximate date for moving next year, a goal to work towards.
The Hovivian Foundation has now been started, which is really exciting, even if the projects don't get started for another year or two, it's started.

When you dream about something for years, and then you begin to get prepared to fullfill the dream it is one of the most exciting feelings.

Chocolate - Armenian style

There was a report on the local TV station news here during the week - one that had our family going "ssshhhhh" and turning up the volume.
Last weekend the Guinness World Records certified that the largest bar of chocolate was created by the Grand Candy Factory in Yerevan, Armenia!

The bar of dark chocolate was made with cocoa beans from the African nation of Ghana. It weighs 9,702-pounds, and measures 224 inches long, 110 inches wide and 10 inches thick.

The chocolate will be served to the public next month!

I've been to a Grand Candy store in Yerevan - they're really great and their Armenian Delight (as opposed to Turkish Delight, which is a copy) is absolutely delicious!

Totally obsessed

Goals are such flimsy things. They can be made easily, and just as easily forgotten. I had a goal when I was a child, to be as tall as my 6ft brother, much to my parents dismay (it would be harder to marry off a very tall daughter!). I spent many days measuring myself and stretching so I could reach my goal.

I’m the type of person that writes down goals. I read somewhere that it helps to make them happen if you write them down (they appear less flimsy that way). So as you walk through our home you will see goal notes on the walls. The one I have in the kitchen reads “10 kgs in 20 weeks, by August 28”. I wrote that goal 18 weeks ago, when, after having baby #4 I felt I was ready to start my weight loss schedule again.

I have been successful before with loosing weight after having babies. After #1 I took my time, was casual about it and didn’t have a definite goal. After baby #2 I was slightly obsessed with losing weight and being fit again, so six weeks after giving birth I began my journey, with the goal to lose it by our son’s christening, six months later. I achieved this and got quite obsessed by it in the last few kilos. By husband actually suggested that “that’s enough weight loss now.”

Come along baby #3 and I was so eager for my six week check up to get the go ahead with getting back to my weight loss and fitness. I didn’t have a goal this time and it took 15 months after the birth to get back to my usual self. To lose those last few kilos again I had to be obsessed. But I managed it, and then got pregnant again!

So now I’m up to post baby #4, which is our last baby. I asked the physio in the hospital (after giving birth) exactly when can I start exercising! Now, I’m two weeks away from my deadline. My weight has been dropping off, I’m on my way, despite a few slip-ups and not finding the time to exercise until recently when I decided to put myself first (as a mother that is so hard to do!). The past week I have been obsessed about it, so I guess that means I’m going to reach my goal.

There is no doubt in my mind what my obsession to be fit, slim and healthy is due to. Besides wanting to live a long active life, I have a fear of being overweight/obese like my mother and sister. At the age of 18 I went to the doctor in full health just to ask her what could I do so I don’t end up overweight. She advised exercise and a healthy diet. 

I never did reach my goal to be as tall as my brother, but I think that has more to do with it being out of my control!

Photos of Life

I was going to blog about the biggest news in Armenian football for a while - that French-Armenian football star, Youri Djorkaeff, would like to coach the Armenian National Football Team, but more about that in a later post, because I found something today I wanted to share.

I came across this video on Facebook. It is quite well done, and it really shows the cycle of life. It provoked me to think about life as a whole, you are born, you live, you die. What will I be remembered for? Will I be remembered for doing things about the things I feel passionate about? Will people in the world know what I was passionate about? Will I just be another person who lives their life and dies without making (what I believe to be) a difference in the world?

Makes me want to, more than ever, do my dream.

What will you be remembered for?

What would you do if.....

Since money has such a great influence in our lives in this society, sometimes when my dream seems so far away, I ask myself what I would do if money was unlimited.

This opens up my mind to endless possibilities, it excites and ignites all those things that I deeply desire to do, but stop myself thinking about because of money. It can also help set goals, all be it very long term goals.

So what would I do if money was unlimited?

I would:

- renovate all the orphanages in Armenia, including new floors so the icey winter wind doesn't enter; make sure every one of them has heating, uninterrupted, in the winter; repair all the holes in the roofs; furnish each one. Also implement a committee who are the 'follow-on' after the orphans turn 18, so they are not shoved into society without guidance and counsel.

- reconstruct and repair all the highways leading to villages in Armenia. Those villages are such an escape and have their own whimsical beauty.

- build a handful more of 5 Star hotels in Yerevan, Armenia's capital.

- set up a funded committee that looks after all the tourist sites in Armenia, like the many churches, so that these places can be cared for as they should be. They are ancient, they are treasures (and I love them!!).

- following on from the above two, conduct a worldwide Armenia tourism campaign, like nothing that has ever been seen before, including television commercials, free holidays for travel agents and more. It would encompass the facts that Armenia is a spiritual land, filled with beauty beyond your dreams, with such a friendliness you won't find anywhere else. You will find it hard to leave, and when you do, you will start counting down the days until you return.

Armenia is so beautiful that it should be shared with all the world. Everyone should visit it at least once, to breath the air and feel the soil underfoot.

It's free to dream.

What would you do if money was unlimited?

At peace

When I was a child we had a small picture in our kitchen. It was of Jesus and it read "He is our Peace." As a child I always thought they had misspelt it and it should have read "Here is our Place." How the child mind works!

It's been quite a few years now that I have been conflicted and even guilty about where I feel at peace. I don't mean the place, like the church, the hairdresser etc, but the place where you feel it when you walk on the earth, when you breath the air, when you smell the surrounds.

From my experience, you don't choose it, it chooses you. You don't plan it, aim for it or have it as a goal - it overtakes you.

Gradualy I am accepting where I feel at peace. I was almost relieved when Prince Harry recently stated that he feels most at peace in Africa. It gave me the feeling that I wasn't alone in feeling at peace in a land that I wasn't born in, a land that I didn't grow up in, that I had no connection to until my adult life.

I did months of research, read countless blogs, looked at many photos and listened to a lot of talk about Armenia before we went there. But nothing could prepare me for the overwelming feeling I had when I put foot on its soil, breathed its air and absorbed the live culture.

Armenia is where I feel most at peace.

Your Calling

I was going to make this post about Armenia and my love for it, but the hot topic of discussion at the moment for me is ‘your calling’.

It all started with a discussion about image.
As I look around I see a lot of people who spend their life trying to ‘catch up with the neighbors’, trying to impress their friends. Name drop at every opportunity (and even when there is no opportunity).

We all know that money is power in this world we live in. Most likely that’s why so many people want it (money) and try to accumulate things with it, so they can be seen as ‘having money’.

So what does money and image have to do with your ‘calling’?

I guess that’s my point really. A lot of people seem to be content with having the ‘car/s, house, holidays’ life. Just living, really. Now, if that’s what they feel their calling is, then good luck to them! I find it hard to believe that God put the majority of people on earth, in this day and age, to just live.

I recently watched an interview with Alberto Cairo who is known as the ‘Angel of Kabul’. He left his very comfortable life in Italy 20 years ago to go to Afghanistan and open the Red Cross Orthopaedic clinic in Kabul to help people walk again after losing their limbs from land mines. Now 20 years later he is still there, still working, he’s trained Afghanis in his profession, helped educate some and is one of the happiest people I’ve seen. You can read about his story here.

Cate Bolt is another who has dropped out of the corporate life to pursue her calling. She’s an Aussie mum doing extraordinary things. You can read her story here.

A scene from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding comes to mind – when her mother says to her that they fled from the war in Greece and came to America so that she could have a good life. That was then – this is now. Is it really enough in this day and age, in the Western world, to just live? Just work, just eat, just watch tv?

Maybe the people I see just living haven’t found their calling, maybe they never will.
You know you’ve found your calling when you’re obsessed by it and when it’s so deeply lodged in your heart that you can’t ignore it or remove it.

For me, I live every day thinking of Armenia. To return, have a business that will support our family to live comfortably and to do our dream. To once again pursue our goal of owning and managing a ‘Westernised’ Premier League football club and to set up the Foundation which will have so many ways of helping those in need in Armenia – the orphanages, the young people with dreams and aspirations but no money to pursue them and so many more.

All this takes money. So I guess that’s the connection!

Our journey has been long and hard. Six years on, but I know one day we will make it a reality.

One of my favourite quotes is from the kids movie Robots: The dad tells his son “A dream that you don’t fight for will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

Have you found your calling?

A change of pace

I originally started this blog as 'All Things Armenian', to share my passion for Armenia. I haven't had the time to post much in the past, but I've now realised how much I miss writing. So I've decided to make this blog about my journey - my life, my loves and everything inbetween.

I'm passionate about many things, I have certain views about things and (after support from people close to me) I now feel it's time for me to share these.

I guess it's part of maturing, to be able to stand up and say "This is me", without being concerned what people think.

So, this is me.....nervous and excited at the same time.