Why did you go to SSE Riga?
Before SSE I studied in Estonia, in Concordia. My parents sent me there and said that I have to study in English. We didn’t know anything, we didn’t search, there was enough money for Concordia so I just went there. After that my Latvian friends told me that you are so smart, you have to go to SSER. I didn’t know anything about it at that time, because SSE marketing sucked. And then we made a bet with those Latvian guys that if I get admitted they will give me a box of vodka’s and….they still owe me that until now J The admission was easy, because the Latvian guys in Concordia were from the first gymnasium and they had the previous years’ exams. They brought me the exercises and I looked through math. And everything else was about how lucky you are. You knew Eng lish, logics... Now I wouldn’t pass that exam.

What do you do in life now?
I talk. I am a country manager for an IT company Nexum in Lithuania. We do IT system solutions for insurance companies. We established quarter a year ago and now we gather people and sell air, because there is nothing and we have to sell it.

Shortly describe how you were studying in 1, 2, 3 year at SSE?
I didn’t study much. In the first year I studied a little, in the 2nd finance, in the third year accounting and I was writing thesis very strongly. I liked the thesis because there was a challenge, you set an aim for yourself, you know what you want and you just do it. We can describe that this school is not suitable for those who come here right after school. I think that all those who are admitted after one year in other universities will achieve much more, because SSE limits you a lot, you get a very decent intensity of studies and you don’t have a good understanding about business when you end the school. It is true, because we are good financial specialists; actually… we are not good specialists anywhere except finance. Our school produces financial specialists. Marketing and creativity is what you learn in an art school, not in a business one. It was good for me, because I spent one year in another university, itwasn’t too intense after that and I was able to make an overall view about business. SSE program isn’t well thought about. You start with EBP, you are being taught business philosophy which has to be presented after that when we graduate. Because all the philosophy of entrepreneurship sometimes is not understandable at all for 19-18-year-olds. People just cram it and know only buzzwords: creative destruction and entrepreneurship. A person doesn’t know what business is and you are teaching him what entrepreneurship is… it is the wackiest solution that can be there…

Did you change in SSE?
Very little. And during SSE I lived alone. I didn’t participate in all those talks during the study years as well. Before the studies started, I found a flat and I lived alone. Sometimes you feel lonely, but you also aren’t such a part of the band and it isn’t so bad. Of course, it’s a bit pity that I don’t know them and if our business ways would meet, it would be difficult to evaluate who is who. And look at those who were living together and what they had to experience, beare in mind that sometimes everyone was talking about each other. It is a part of the SSE culture, where everyone is very ambitious. And I am very happy that I didn’t live with someone because I am very talkative and I might have been theking of gossips. I was in the last page of the Insider very rarely. I am more on the media now than I was on the last page of the Insider at those times J I think that SSE people don’t know me very well. It was cool at SSE because no one pissed me off at home and everybody was a friend. In our course girls were quite good, there was where to grab J Estonian girls were always interesting.

How do you evaluate where you are in life now comparing with where you would like to be?
Well…. about 20%, 30%. But on the other hand, comparing where I am and where I could be it might be 70%. Now maybe I haven’t yet developed the competence for who I would like to be. The main roads for me are the professional side and the music side. Some time ago there have been more ideas and more roads. Actually, I would like to have my own business and then it would be 100%. Working in a corporation is not interesting, unless you manage a very big company. If you graduate a business school, your aim should be that. I think it is very stupid that a person studies in a business school to become an auditor… go to a college and study accounting there for four years. You have been selected from many candidates to push your country forward, not to do balance sheets.

When did you get interested in music?
Many years ago. I was going to a music school, my brother also was going there. We started playing guitars at school, and it developed that way. We have made a few records. We were just playing and didn’t think about that very seriously. Then we made a band with the neighbours. And the band stayed the same until now. We went to the Eurovision when we were fully formed as a band. And that’s it.

How was the Eurovision for you? Were you nervous singing in front of a huge crowd?
I had already forgotten the Eurovision. There was nothing so special… You go on the scene, the music starts playing and you just sing. I felt very good, especially in the Siemens Arena (the biggest concert hall in Vilnius), the more people, the better. I wasn’t worried at all, there were so many posters with me on them. Everyone was shouting “round and round” (the main motive of Tomas band’s song). I think that in Athens it would have been even easier.

You were extremely good at entertaining the crowd, is that your natural ability?
I think so. Even in the school times I was very good at making presentations. I like to talk and sing in front of people. For me it is more difficult to communicate one to one than with a group of people.

What qualities are the most important for a person to be successful?
A person has to be inventive, creative, optimistic and positive. And I think it is very important that a person is a pedant, that he or she would do everything, including the smallest details. People just limit themselves and don’t have more creativity and such people can’t be successful. They are good executives, but they can’t think of something very new. It is also very important to be stubborn and diligent. However, if you are diligent, but you don’t have creativity, then it is no use.

What about the case of SSE, are you more likely to be successful if you work more at SSE?
I think that people who were working at school gain a lot and they live happily. But all people get tired and the question is when you will be tired of studying. A person can’t go forever like that. I think that the diligent people live better than the “jerks” until the “jerks” think of something. And when the “jerks” think of something, the diligent start working for them. The diligent get an “insurance” that they won’t die from starvation J. A creative “jerk” doesn’t get that “insurance” and he has this higher degree of risk. And those “jerks” at SSE are different from the diligent, because they have more creativity and they will work when the life presses on them. And if there will be a war, or all Lithuanians will come back from England, they will become very diligent and start working to keep their jobs. To be diligent is not difficult, you just have to focus and work. SSE “jerks” aren’t less smart than the diligent, they just work as much as they need and that they wouldn’t be thrown out. But, when they are pushed, they work and that can be seen from the reexams. In SSE everyone is pretty much on the same level in terms of smartness, but the creativity level differs. If you can’t create and you can’t understand that you don’t need 180 and it would be good to have 120, you are likely to work as a financial analyst or auditor. I can guarantee that all the people who have excellent averages or somewhere close to 150, about 80% of them have monkey jobs in the financial sector as their first step. I don’t care what they do after five years, because after 5 years we all are smart.

What would you like to say to SSE students?
If there will be a case some time that I might have to select you for work, if I wouldn’t be thrown out as such a “jerk” J, then better don’t have an average higher than 160, because it is the least important thing. If you are a top student, don’t come to work here, because those points sometimes hide the personal qualities which are the most important in business. However, the knowledge is important and for the “jerks” I would like to say “study more!” And for the diligent – instead of reading an additional chapter or footnotes, read more Financial Times and the Economist. Expand you outlook, check CNN news and CNBC. Half an hour a day, no need for more. Also check the Russian and American news so that you know what is happening on both sides J I think that you will all do great and you all study in a great place. Lastly, if you need an internship, you can contact me.

Back to article list