How growing up as an outsider helped me in life

[Music]

my name is christo i come from bulgaria

a place you have heard of

fewer know about and even fewer have

visited

now i’m not here to speak as a founder

of a successful international company

i’m here to talk from the perspective of

an outsider

and even though that word might have

negative connotation

i’ll show you how it gave me an outlook

on life that i’m grateful for to this

day

bulgaria by itself is a sort of an

outsider country

the thing is within it i was considered

an outsider too

which in my early days bothered me

back then bulgaria was under communist

rule

so everyone and everything had to be one

and the same there was a limited amount

of cars

a limited amount of shops and quite

frankly a limited amount of thinking

in school everything had to be the same

as well

down to the hand that you write with

i still remember how i got punished by

teachers

for riding with my left hand instead of

my right one

as everyone else

the beginning of the 90s communist

regime went down

and that’s when we started noticing

separation of the classes

and the different difference between the

people

and young christo at that time was a

skinny guy who was just struck by

puberty

had almost no confidence and considered

myself to be an absolute outsider

as any teenager i really wanted to be

part of the

caucus crowd

i come from a single mother household

and with a limited resources most of our

quotes were bought from a second hand or

thrift store shops

and they were far from me as cool as

they are right now

so i had a jacket i used to love wearing

and the cool kids love making fun of it

and that was the first time i was pushed

away from something i really wanted to

be a part of

luckily with the western culture

i got introduced to snowboarding and

that was

something and nothing i had ever seen

before

it wasn’t just a sport it was an entity

so much style so much music so much

ideas

trends it was completely different world

i felt such a deep connection i wanted

to be a part of it

and this time i wasn’t taking no for an

answer

sadly i was

far away everything was happening 6 000

miles away and not only that but it was

expensive as well

my brother and i knew there is no way to

ask our mom to get a snowboard

but luck would have it she saw how much

we loved it and liked it

scraped together little she had

and got us a board yeah it was a single

snowboard that we had to share

but we would hike the waco hill right

next to our house

every day and taking turns

by ourselves in the snow

and we got deeply involved in

snowboarding we start reading about it

we start like watching movies

and some certain snowboarders made

a good impression to us a better

impressions people like jp walker jamie

lynn peter line

those guys were heroes of different

magnitude

they had their own style and everything

looked

everything they did look right i’ve

thought how amazing

is to live like them travel the world

being truly ones

filming and saying tricks and living

life to the fullest

snowboarding became the thing that gave

me a meaning

and created a world that i desired and i

could fit into

at that time there was a rise of

snowboarding in bulgaria

and i thought that with a little push

from a company

like international company it could be

even better

so i thought to send an email to the

biggest company

back then snowboarding company back then

and um asked them if they would

bring some of their team to bulgaria

and it might be a random email to them

but

after that it was really something that

changed my

life i wrote a i simply wrote to them

there is a rising snowboarding community

in bulgaria and if you guys come here or

bring any of your writers

a lot of people are going to get excited

and they’re going to

be more involved into snowboarding

and i’ve got a reply

this time it wasn’t a thrift store

jacket stopping me

i was left with two options do nothing

because no one will help

or do something because no one will help

jim ron says happiness is not an

accident

nor it’s something you wish for

happiness is something you design

so it worked save up my save up money

and i bought my first computer and

camera

we started traveling around bulgaria

with my friends and

brother filming ourselves snowboarding

presenting the snowboarding as we wanted

to see it

and uh everything that we did started

making some sense we wanted to show it

to the local community we started doing

premieres

i remember our first premiere had not

more than 10 15 people

but the last one that we did had over

500 people

outdoor camping with us for a weekend

so eventually we drew a community of

like-minded people together

and we we felt that we are doing

something

and the whole culture of snowboarding is

built around what music you listen what

quotes you wear

what inspires you and what brands you

and uh for some reason we felt a lack of

companies

and brands that refract reflects our

image here in bulgaria so we started a

distribution company and we start

bringing like-minded companies from the

states to bulgaria

we had no way of knowing that other

people in bulgaria

here would be interested in those brands

but we felt so attached to them that we

trusted others would do

as well and this bridged the gap of

6 000 miles for us although virtually

we had finally met people from the

industry

and uh we were doing so well so

i thought we can do something more

we can create content for them so

another email

was sent and this time asked

ask not asking but instead offering

and the email was saying hey guys we can

create content for you

that you can promote and use globally

and i felt this it’s going to be one way

going to help them

have content to share any other way it’s

going to promote the local scene

and i’ve got a replay reply

and that email was the last time it was

proven to me that if you want something

you have to create it give it a live and

if others like it

they will join and so

we come to resto from the present day

now i run a company that sells to over

20 countries

globally a brand that is worn by

hundreds of thousands of people

across the world it’s a simple product

that does not necessarily play

a huge role in humanity however we still

manage to build it in a way

that inspires people to inspire

themselves

a vast community of outsiders a family

in which you

are encouraged to be yourself embrace it

and love it

our mother is born in bulgaria rised in

the world by the stinky family

but just a product won’t do it do you

think that uh

a simple product as a sock would do it

it’s not the product it’s the idea

behind

it it’s the message that you have it’s

what you stand for

and how you present it and

through everything what we did we

managed to bring people

some of the most influential

snowboarders to bulgaria

we had them snowboarding with the local

communities with the local kids

we had them filming for their movies

even filming for our movie as well

and so you see i needed to be an

outsider to find

that idea to find a love and to want to

share to

the feeling with others escaping the

void is about being

fearless with your desires and seeking

out what

gives you energy snowboarding gave us an

energy

and excitement that we had never had

before

it was glimpse of lights and we dove in

headfirst

regardless the circumstances if you open

yourself

to what energizes you the world has a

way

of shaping itself around you in this

whole process i realized

that being an outsider is only a frame

of mind

it isn’t a law of reality one is only

outside from the perspective of others

who are inside

their own way of their own thinking and

living

by following our desires and creating

our company

we have built our own insight and gave

people

a place to fit in we are only in the

void

when we don’t embrace our individual

individuality

and don’t find communities who support

if you can’t find those communities then

you must create them

if you feel drawn towards something

you’re not

the only person feeling that way

even if it seems that you are complete

outcast to everyone

around you yeah they may cause

losers but the good thing about being a

loser is that you don’t have anything to

lose

thank you