1 00:00:07,275 --> 00:00:08,706 Everything that I am today, 2 00:00:08,706 --> 00:00:11,853 and everything that I do, is based on what I've been through. 3 00:00:11,853 --> 00:00:15,078 Especially for the last ten years. Because before that -- 4 00:00:15,202 --> 00:00:19,589 I am thirty today, thirty-one in fourteen days -- 5 00:00:19,589 --> 00:00:19,590 before that, 6 00:00:19,590 --> 00:00:24,852 the first twenty years of my life were absolutely wonderful. 7 00:00:24,921 --> 00:00:27,098 I was raised by wonderful parents, 8 00:00:27,098 --> 00:00:31,489 who gave me love and taught me what's important in life. 9 00:00:31,489 --> 00:00:36,631 I was able to travel a lot, I was very active, I was playing piano, 10 00:00:36,649 --> 00:00:39,170 I was very active in sports as well, playing tennis. 11 00:00:40,814 --> 00:00:43,175 And all of that opened many doors for me. 12 00:00:43,341 --> 00:00:47,155 So right after high school in Ljubljana, 13 00:00:47,155 --> 00:00:53,919 I was invited to go study to the United States, on a full athletic scholarship. 14 00:00:53,981 --> 00:00:59,500 I came to California when I was eighteen with a full scholarship, 15 00:00:59,500 --> 00:01:01,829 everything in front of me, 16 00:01:01,829 --> 00:01:06,959 and I was feeling so lucky. What could even go wrong? 17 00:01:07,590 --> 00:01:11,249 Everything is perfect, I'm at the top of my life, 18 00:01:11,249 --> 00:01:14,220 I'm 18 and I have so much more to give. 19 00:01:14,220 --> 00:01:20,177 Well, 10 years ago, when I was 20, all this had a rather scary ending. 20 00:01:20,701 --> 00:01:25,933 Something happened to me that was definitely my first turning point in my life, 21 00:01:25,933 --> 00:01:31,473 and completely changed me, I can see and feel that very strongly today. 22 00:01:31,473 --> 00:01:34,823 Since I was so active and involved in everything 23 00:01:34,885 --> 00:01:41,987 I didn't have much time for partying, going out, boys, flirting. 24 00:01:43,095 --> 00:01:46,107 When I was 20, I got my first boyfriend. 25 00:01:46,107 --> 00:01:50,555 He was very involved in basketball. He was on the national team. 26 00:01:50,555 --> 00:01:55,926 He was my first love, the first guy I held hands with in Ljubljana. 27 00:01:56,742 --> 00:02:01,814 We were together even after I went to the United States, even though I knew 28 00:02:01,814 --> 00:02:06,157 it was a big challenge, since I was so young. Was it going to last or not? 29 00:02:06,157 --> 00:02:08,114 But destiny took it's own way. 30 00:02:08,114 --> 00:02:12,171 One day I called my father home, and said, "How are you, dad?", he said 31 00:02:12,171 --> 00:02:17,240 "Ana everything is fine --", we were just having a casual conversation 32 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:21,750 but I felt immediately that something was wrong. Ten minutes later he told me 33 00:02:21,750 --> 00:02:27,868 that my boyfriend died instantly in a car crash. We were both 20 at that time. 34 00:02:27,868 --> 00:02:37,592 I can honestly tell you -- I have to zoom into present now because today his father passed away -- 35 00:02:38,054 --> 00:02:45,753 it is really hard, I just found out a few hours ago. I'm zooming back to past now. 36 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,876 When my dad told me, my whole world collapsed. 37 00:02:49,876 --> 00:02:52,906 Nobody could really understand me, I was half the world away, 38 00:02:52,906 --> 00:02:59,272 I was by myself. I had friends there but they didn't really understand me because nobody knew truly who I am. 39 00:02:59,272 --> 00:03:05,083 So I got really depressed. I was down, emotionally completely broken. 40 00:03:05,991 --> 00:03:12,823 I lost faith in life, which I had so much before because I thought nothing could happen to me. 41 00:03:13,808 --> 00:03:20,450 That's when it started. I got really depressed, I flunked out of college one semester, took a break. 42 00:03:20,450 --> 00:03:23,197 Playing tennis kept me going. 43 00:03:23,197 --> 00:03:27,957 Through these couple of months I realized that this [person] wasn't Ana. 44 00:03:27,957 --> 00:03:31,164 I couldn't always be like that, this isn't what I am supposed to be. 45 00:03:31,164 --> 00:03:38,247 So I somehow stood up, finished college with very good grades. I came back to Slovenia. 46 00:03:39,123 --> 00:03:42,817 I still wasn't being myself, I was still trying to find my way. 47 00:03:42,817 --> 00:03:47,547 I came here and did my Master's [degree] in a year and a half, realy easily. 48 00:03:47,547 --> 00:03:53,749 Every time I put something in my head, I know that it's only a matter of matter of operative work [to do it]. 49 00:03:53,749 --> 00:03:59,797 So I finished my Master's with a ten. Good job, Ana! Not so proud of that today. 50 00:03:59,797 --> 00:04:03,979 I'm much more proud of what I feel and what I do currently. 51 00:04:03,979 --> 00:04:09,462 I got a job which was very good, for two years, in a huge pharmaceutical company. 52 00:04:09,462 --> 00:04:15,306 Very good experience, but after two years I realized this is not making me happy. 53 00:04:16,291 --> 00:04:20,843 I was put in a little box, I couldn't think with my own thoughts and my ideas. 54 00:04:20,843 --> 00:04:24,782 So I quit. Everybody asked me if I had a back-up plan. 55 00:04:24,782 --> 00:04:27,047 "No, I don't know what I'm going to do." 56 00:04:27,047 --> 00:04:33,313 I did a few things in between, and then I met some people from Switzerland and Lichtenstein 57 00:04:33,313 --> 00:04:40,211 and saw a huge opportunity in solar energy that was evolving fast in Slovenia in 2009. 58 00:04:42,196 --> 00:04:45,865 I agreed with them to open a daughter company in Slovenia, 59 00:04:45,865 --> 00:04:48,192 develop a huge business development project 60 00:04:48,192 --> 00:04:53,058 which would have been the biggest in solar energy in Europe if it had succeeded. 61 00:04:53,058 --> 00:05:00,080 I devoted my entire one year in this project, involving a lot of companies from here, 62 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:06,212 Unicredit Bank, lawyers, Ernst&Young, quality control management team from California, 63 00:05:06,212 --> 00:05:09,492 from Germany -- it was really huge. 64 00:05:09,492 --> 00:05:15,968 And after twelve months, the investor, my mother company told me they don't have any money to invest. 65 00:05:16,015 --> 00:05:18,788 The entire project flopped. 66 00:05:19,773 --> 00:05:25,127 All the costs that occurred were left on me, so I paid for everything. 67 00:05:25,127 --> 00:05:31,190 So because of this project, today I have a loan. I was really disappointed. 68 00:05:31,190 --> 00:05:37,752 This was another huge disappointment in my life because I devoted so much of me, 69 00:05:37,752 --> 00:05:41,800 and failing one more time left me without words. 70 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:45,250 I mean, what else can happen to me? 71 00:05:45,250 --> 00:05:50,654 When I was going through all of that, I realized there must be something good about that. 72 00:05:50,654 --> 00:05:56,487 There must be a way for me to find. So I stood up again, and again something hit me. 73 00:05:56,487 --> 00:06:01,695 A couple of months later, something bad affected our family. 74 00:06:05,372 --> 00:06:10,763 My mom, 67 at that time, was diagnosed with a very rare dementia disease. 75 00:06:10,763 --> 00:06:15,790 It's not Alzheimer's, it's frontotemporal dementia, and there is no cure for it. 76 00:06:15,790 --> 00:06:20,221 For the last 3 years, my mom doesn't really remember who I am. 77 00:06:20,221 --> 00:06:24,501 Maybe 20 per cent of time she knows who my father, my sister and I are. 78 00:06:24,501 --> 00:06:28,959 We've been trying to be very strong and supportive about that. 79 00:06:28,959 --> 00:06:34,279 So, many things happened to us. And all of that evolved and awakened me 80 00:06:38,649 --> 00:06:45,559 to become who I really am today. I realized that you have to live a raw life, 81 00:06:45,559 --> 00:06:52,808 you need to go through a raw life, experience bad things, and embrace them with open arms 82 00:06:52,808 --> 00:06:58,740 to fully understand who you are and to really find your inner morals, value, truth, and honesty. 83 00:07:00,479 --> 00:07:07,057 What kept me going for the last 10 years, was a strong feeling I couldn't describe years ago. 84 00:07:07,057 --> 00:07:11,630 But I could finally put it into words a year and a half ago. 85 00:07:11,630 --> 00:07:15,143 I was running and I said, "This is it. This is who I am." 86 00:07:15,990 --> 00:07:20,761 It's called TRUHOMA. This is my engine, my soul, how I survived until today, 87 00:07:20,761 --> 00:07:23,386 this is what kept me going. 88 00:07:25,294 --> 00:07:34,725 It's the belief in me, in totally honestly saying to all of you "This is what you get." 89 00:07:34,725 --> 00:07:38,828 No hidden motives, just truly and honestly me. 90 00:07:38,828 --> 00:07:43,515 I will tell you what TRUHOMA means. It's a very strong word and statement. 91 00:07:43,515 --> 00:07:47,962 It's applied to three basic things in life -- true and honest marketing. 92 00:07:47,962 --> 00:07:52,297 Today I have two companies, I'm not dependent on anybody. 93 00:07:52,297 --> 00:07:57,144 We're very innovative and we've just been starting for the last three years. 94 00:07:57,144 --> 00:07:59,548 It's really hard but I'm aiming for the longterm. 95 00:07:59,548 --> 00:08:04,732 I believe if we are true and honest at what we do, we will be the winners in the end. 96 00:08:04,732 --> 00:08:08,782 This is what I apply in my work, through true and honest marketing. 97 00:08:08,782 --> 00:08:14,767 Further, true and honest management is the second important thing in companies. 98 00:08:14,767 --> 00:08:21,281 You have to have true and honest people, and everybody that relates and coexists in the company 99 00:08:21,281 --> 00:08:24,768 and creates a successful business story. 100 00:08:24,768 --> 00:08:30,911 But the bottom line of everything I believe we all are, is true and honest mankind 101 00:08:30,911 --> 00:08:39,154 which means that we are truly and honestly in sync with ourselves, and what we do and believe. 102 00:08:39,154 --> 00:08:44,509 This is what kept me going for the last 10 years and keeps me going now. 103 00:08:44,509 --> 00:08:47,226 I will show you a perfect example 104 00:08:52,704 --> 00:08:57,332 that totally describes true and honest mankind and the TRUHOMA movement. 105 00:08:57,332 --> 00:09:01,423 This is my charity that I do, only in my spare time. 106 00:09:01,423 --> 00:09:07,485 It's called Anina zvezdica (Anna's little star). It's whole concept is basically 107 00:09:07,485 --> 00:09:13,036 to collect unperishable food for people that are socially disadvantaged. 108 00:09:13,036 --> 00:09:21,404 First af all, through Anina zvezdica, I and my team want to prove that you don't need any money -- 109 00:09:23,866 --> 00:09:26,161 in my example, I am not in the green, 110 00:09:26,161 --> 00:09:30,505 I have a loan because of my business fiasco from 2 years ago. 111 00:09:30,505 --> 00:09:36,557 So you need no money, you need time and devotion, and it has to be 100 per cent. 112 00:09:36,557 --> 00:09:40,499 So that's what we are proving with Anina zvezdica. 113 00:09:40,499 --> 00:09:46,408 The second very importiant thing and motive is to help people in need. 114 00:09:49,455 --> 00:09:54,418 The third and most important motive is to bring all the people together and show 115 00:09:56,588 --> 00:10:02,283 if we all have true and honest mind, we can do something seriously miraculous here on Earth 116 00:10:02,283 --> 00:10:06,629 and I think this is what has been missing in the last years. 117 00:10:06,629 --> 00:10:10,905 Especially since the materialistic phenomena has been here. 118 00:10:12,659 --> 00:10:19,994 On the one hand, I'm grateful that we are in crisis now because it is finally awakening us 119 00:10:19,994 --> 00:10:23,007 and showing what is truly important in life. 120 00:10:23,007 --> 00:10:27,536 I think that Anina zvezdica has been proving this for the last three years. 121 00:10:28,860 --> 00:10:34,135 It was funny the way it started. All my life I knew I wanted to help, 122 00:10:34,135 --> 00:10:36,252 it was just a matter of time when to start 123 00:10:36,252 --> 00:10:41,317 because I trust everything has to happen with a reason and spontaneously. 124 00:10:42,133 --> 00:10:45,198 In January it will be 3 years since my first action. 125 00:10:47,260 --> 00:10:52,962 For my birthday I didn't want presents, I just wanted my friends to come 126 00:10:52,962 --> 00:10:54,759 and bring some food. 127 00:10:54,759 --> 00:10:59,462 I wrote them an invitation saying, "Come, bring some food from your closets, 128 00:10:59,462 --> 00:11:05,351 you don't need to buy anything. We can hang out, chat and see what we can do." 129 00:11:05,351 --> 00:11:11,768 Everybody loved my idea so much that in the end, we made 37 happy families. 130 00:11:11,768 --> 00:11:13,381 It was a great feeling. 131 00:11:13,381 --> 00:11:16,913 The problem was I didn't know any of these families. 132 00:11:16,913 --> 00:11:24,628 So I connected with a social organization in Šiška, Ljubljana, that helped me find these families. 133 00:11:24,628 --> 00:11:29,167 I told them I really wanted them to have kids, and they said no problem. 134 00:11:29,167 --> 00:11:32,600 Every time I bring food, I meet them and talk to them. 135 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:35,007 It's not like I give them the box and say bye. 136 00:11:35,007 --> 00:11:36,633 Why do I want to talk to them? 137 00:11:36,633 --> 00:11:41,037 Because the fourth motive od Anina zvezdica is maybe to change their lives. 138 00:11:41,037 --> 00:11:44,851 I ask them, "What is your problem, why are you in this situation? 139 00:11:44,851 --> 00:11:47,968 What is the solution? What are you going to do?" 140 00:11:47,968 --> 00:11:53,682 The most rewarding thing for me is an example from last year when a family came to get food 141 00:11:55,236 --> 00:11:58,731 but this year they came and they brought food. 142 00:11:58,731 --> 00:12:00,750 They changed their life story. 143 00:12:00,750 --> 00:12:05,105 I want to inspire them and motivate them to change something for themselves as well. 144 00:12:06,598 --> 00:12:11,192 The second charity action took place in April 2011. 145 00:12:16,376 --> 00:12:20,703 I made a website and told my friends to please invite their friends. 146 00:12:20,703 --> 00:12:24,987 We expanded a little and in the end, we made 105 happy families. 147 00:12:24,987 --> 00:12:29,312 The feeling was great because at that time I realized this was a good idea 148 00:12:29,312 --> 00:12:32,776 because people started to believe in my organization 149 00:12:32,776 --> 00:12:35,318 because there was no Euros transfered to the account. 150 00:12:35,318 --> 00:12:37,384 Everything was just seen in food. 151 00:12:37,384 --> 00:12:43,312 And for the third charity action, a lot of companies said they want to be part of it, too. 152 00:12:44,682 --> 00:12:49,865 There were two channels of co-operation with companies. 153 00:12:49,865 --> 00:12:53,428 One was that companies, which produce food, donated it. 154 00:12:53,428 --> 00:12:58,554 The other one was to involve employees who started gathering food in their company 155 00:13:02,340 --> 00:13:04,054 and then they brought it to me. 156 00:13:05,777 --> 00:13:11,660 Furthermore, kindergartens, elementary schools, highschools, faculties joined me. 157 00:13:11,660 --> 00:13:15,370 When I see little kids aware of what is going on in their lives -- 158 00:13:16,724 --> 00:13:21,640 that there is poverty and hungry kids around them, it's like education for them. 159 00:13:22,779 --> 00:13:26,235 It's very important that they know what's happening, at their young age. 160 00:13:27,205 --> 00:13:32,509 Last year we made 523 happy families. It was just great. 161 00:13:32,509 --> 00:13:36,575 Many people say I have such great PR, but I don't have any. 162 00:13:38,375 --> 00:13:41,362 All the media are contacting me by themselves. 163 00:13:41,362 --> 00:13:45,328 Why do they do that? Because they believe in the story as well, they want to be a part. 164 00:13:45,821 --> 00:13:49,204 Media are tired of only talking about bad things. 165 00:13:49,204 --> 00:13:53,571 They want to share the good things, finally. So it's awakening for them as well. 166 00:13:54,264 --> 00:13:58,668 This year in April, we made another progress. We made 700 happy families. 167 00:13:59,315 --> 00:14:04,264 This was an even bigger logistic and organizational project. 168 00:14:06,249 --> 00:14:11,295 More volunteers, my little stars, joined my project and we are all fully devoted. 169 00:14:12,957 --> 00:14:16,042 Now, my fifth action is just finishing. 170 00:14:16,749 --> 00:14:19,707 Not yet, I still have a lot of work. 171 00:14:19,707 --> 00:14:24,851 In two months, today is my first day off. Before, I was working all the time. 172 00:14:24,851 --> 00:14:28,224 I have my job in the morning -- I'm also a speaker -- 173 00:14:28,224 --> 00:14:32,053 and in my free time, which is totally devoted to Anina zvezdica, 174 00:14:32,053 --> 00:14:34,606 this is what I do, because this is what I love. 175 00:14:34,606 --> 00:14:38,380 And along with my little stars, this is what we achieved. 176 00:14:38,380 --> 00:14:41,481 We have more than a hundred people involved that helped. 177 00:14:41,481 --> 00:14:45,268 We have more than 50 educational institutions that took part, 178 00:14:45,268 --> 00:14:49,402 we have more than 90 Slovenian companies that took part, 179 00:14:49,402 --> 00:14:53,248 and most of all - I don't even know if this figure is all right - 180 00:14:53,248 --> 00:14:57,746 because I think it's more than 40 tonnes [of food]. 181 00:14:57,746 --> 00:15:02,399 We will make more than 2500 happy families before New Year. 182 00:15:02,399 --> 00:15:07,390 My goal is to share the food with them by December 28th, and I hope to do that. 183 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:13,419 (Applause) Thank you. 184 00:15:22,896 --> 00:15:25,798 Many people ask me why I do so many things. 185 00:15:28,629 --> 00:15:32,014 They just end up in such a beautiful mosaic, 186 00:15:32,014 --> 00:15:35,383 all of them together, and I learn from myself. 187 00:15:36,153 --> 00:15:39,571 It's something so beautiful and I want to share it with everybody. 188 00:15:39,571 --> 00:15:44,243 Today I know why I am here -- I want to inspire everybody to change the world, 189 00:15:44,243 --> 00:15:48,043 to make it better, and most of all, I want to connect people. 190 00:15:48,043 --> 00:15:53,792 I think with Anina zvezdica I've proven this. I want to share it on other fields as well. 191 00:15:53,792 --> 00:15:59,107 Why do I want to do this? Because I strongly and unconditionally believe 192 00:15:59,154 --> 00:16:04,574 that everybody in this world is true and honest mankind. 193 00:16:04,635 --> 00:16:06,611 We're all TRUHOMA. 194 00:16:06,611 --> 00:16:09,032 Thank you. (Applause)