Create your own dream job | Panagiotis Tsaggas | TEDxUPatras
The speaker, Panagiotis Tsagas, argues that the established path from university to corporate employment is insufficient, asserting that true success requires initiating self-driven, challenging ventures. He illustrates this by detailing his team's journey from being unable to find jobs after college to creating and refining multiple ventures, culminating in the platform *Susurus*. He advises audiences to always learn, surround themselves with smart people, and aim for work they genuinely enjoy.
## Speakers & Context
- **Panagiotis Tsagas** — Computer engineer, young entrepreneur, and startup enthusiast; speaker at the "Beyond the Known" event.
- Speaker context: Addressing an audience in Patras, detailing his company's journey, and concluding with advice for starting a venture.
- Initial feeling: Nervous about speaking at the event.
- Core belief premise: The established path (university $\rightarrow$ resume/job search $\rightarrow$ multinational company) is flawed because most people do not want to go to work.
## Theses & Positions
- The conventional career path ($\text{university} \rightarrow \text{resume} \rightarrow \text{job ads} \rightarrow \text{hired by MNC}$) is insufficient for professional fulfillment.
- The true path involves creating something independently, starting with an idea that needs to be turned into a functioning business.
- The process requires continuous learning, embracing new challenges, and finding work that aligns with personal passion.
- Success in entrepreneurship is not linear; "There is no right or wrong path."
- Advice 1: Always learn new things, especially when feeling like the smartest person in a room.
- Advice 2 (quoting Sam Altman): "whatever you do, build things and be around smart people."
- Advice 3: Strive to be in the "10% of people who wake up in the morning feeling like going to work."
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Startup**: An evolving business venture, often starting from a nascent idea, that requires iteration and adapting to unexpected challenges.
- **Business Plan**: A document used to capture verbal thoughts, record detailed profits/risks/losses/benefits, and visualize the "big picture" over a 5-year span; necessary for securing funding.
- **Open Coffee**: A global community event held monthly in cities worldwide, dedicated to bringing together new ideas, programmers, graphic designers, marketers, and students interested in turning ideas into businesses.
- **Susurus**: A specific platform designed to allow brands to advertise on blogs worldwide and measure the results of that advertising.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Starting a Company**: Must begin with a written business plan to structure goals, risks, and the long-term vision.
- **Securing Funding**: A remarkable business plan increases the chance of funding from private investors or European Union competitions.
- **Operational Structure**: Initial stage involved searching and experimenting in an office setting without a formal boss or hierarchy, driven by the desire to feel engaged.
- **Learning Gap Filling**: When reading resources led to a "dead end," the process shifted to mandatory in-person feedback from people knowledgeable in the field.
- **Maturity Through Programs**: Intensive, structured programs (like Cosmot) allowed the team to achieve in 1.5 years what they could not manage alone over several months.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **July 2011**: Three friends graduate, attempting the traditional job market approach; none secure jobs by the end of 2011.
- **Late 2011 (Post-Failure)**: The three friends and Tsagas pivot to opening an IT business providing websites and mobile apps for end customers.
- **Initial Phase**: Creation of a business plan, receiving government funding, and entering smaller/larger competitions.
- **Early Start**: Establishing an office and working without defined senior management or specific goals, staying late because it "made us feel better."
- **March 2013**: Implementing the Open Coffee event in Patras; this process boosted self-confidence and provided necessary networking.
- **Summer/October 2013**: Working on and launching the *Domin Style* social fashion application at a fashion bazaar in Athens.
- **Timing of Breakthrough**: Needing help after *Domin Style*'s launch, the team was directed to the Cosmot Startup program, which began shortly after.
- **Post-Program**: The concept evolved from *Domin Style* into *Susurus*.
- **Current Status (Implied)**: Thinking about expanding the business abroad.
## Named Entities
- **Ariardni**: Speaker coordinator who invited Tsagas to speak.
- **Sam Altman**: Source of the quote advising entrepreneurs to "build things and be around smart people."
- **Domin Style**: Initial application concept; a social fashion app to connect designers, bloggers, and users via photos.
- **Cosmot Startup program**: Intensive, four-month program for clueless people with ideas, offering mentorship and coursework.
## Numbers & Data
- Percentage of people who wake up with no desire to go to work: **90%**.
- Year of initial job market attempt: **July 2011**.
- Date of failure to find jobs: **End of 2011**.
- Event implementation date in Patras: **March 2013**.
- Date of launching *Domin Style*: **October 2013**.
- Duration of Cosmot program: **four-month** intensive program.
- Timeframe of initial struggles/learning curve: **1.5 years**.
- Year of talk (Implied Current): **July 2013** (when recounting events).
## Examples & Cases
- **Job Market Failure**: Three friends who applied conventionally for jobs in late 2011 failed to find employment.
- **Early Company Life**: Working in an office without a boss, experimenting, and staying late "because it made us feel better."
- **Community Building**: Hosting and participating in the Open Coffee events in Patras to gain help and feedback.
- **Product Evolution**: The initial focus on *Domin Style* (connecting fashion designers/bloggers/users) evolved into the more scalable *Susurus*.
- **Susurus Functionality**: A platform that allows brands to advertise on blogs globally and measures the advertising results.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Resume and Cover Letter**: Traditional, formal job-seeking materials.
- **IT Business**: The initial focus area for the venture.
- **Business Plan**: The foundational document for structuring the company's vision and financial outlook.
- **Open Coffee**: Global community event for startups, fostering idea exchange and financing.
- **Domin Style**: Social fashion application concept.
- **Susurus**: The final platform; enables global brand advertising and measurable return on investment (ROI) via blogs.
## References Cited
- **Sam Altman**: Quoted for advice on building things and being around smart people.
- **European Union funds**: Source of potential funding for a strong business plan.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Alternative to Traditional Employment**: Creating a startup from scratch, rather than seeking employment through an existing corporate structure.
- **Initial Learning Strategy**: Moving from passive reading of resources to active, in-person consultation and feedback.
- **Patras vs. Athens**: The choice to move for the Cosmot program meant rejecting "a quite tempting offer in Patras."
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The initial struggle highlights the risk of relying solely on formal education credentials and standard job market procedures.
- The initial feeling of success (e.g., winning awards after launching *Domin Style*) was insufficient because the team lacked fundamental knowledge on global scaling and implementation.
## Methodology
- Iterative development: The process moved from idea $\rightarrow$ business plan $\rightarrow$ initial launch $\rightarrow$ specialized training $\rightarrow$ final product refinement.
- Knowledge acquisition strategy: Supplementing technical backgrounds (engineers) with financial advice (friends from financial schools) and structured mentorship (Cosmot).
- Community engagement: Utilizing local networking hubs like Open Coffee for problem-solving and validation.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The path to a desired career is self-directed creation, not following a prescribed route.
- Continuous learning is paramount, especially when current knowledge feels adequate.
- Build things, immerse yourself in smart company, and aim for work that creates genuine enthusiasm.
## Implications & Consequences
- The entrepreneurial journey proves that initial structural barriers (like job scarcity) can be overcome by proactively creating structure and solving novel problems.
- The shift from *Domin Style* to *Susurus* demonstrates product evolution driven by recognizing the most valuable asset (high-quality bloggers/content).
## Verbatim Moments
- *"90% of people when they wake up in the morning have no desire to go to work."*
- *"How far away from the university there is to the job market, how competitive the landscape is to find a classic job, and why they weren't being hired?"*
- *"What he does starts with a business plan."*
- *"for the first is that you manage to capture the thoughts you have verbally on paper."*
- *"We didn't have a boss above us to guide us on how we should work."*
- *"Open Coffee is therefore a global community of new ideas and startups with an emphasis on innovation and financing methods."*
- *"We thought that was what we had to do."*
- *"So, whatever you do, build things and be around smart people."*
- *"make sure you 're in the 10% of people who wake up in the morning feeling like going to work."*