How growing up as an outsider helped me in life
[Music]
hi
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
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
like
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
us
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