We, the Nokians

NOKIA connected people long before Facebook and long before the ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’ generation I once wrote about with sadness and disappointment. NOKIA equalled we, the Nokians.

It was end of 2005, winter time, my beloved time of the year. I was 27, old to some, very young to some. To me, I was a naïve yet alive kid. It was this advertisement in one of the most read Romanian newspapers “Romania libera” (“Free Romania”), whose headline read SKY IS THE LIMIT. Followed by a big, big black & white picture of a girl climbing a rock, wearing a helmet and hooked on a string. She did have a wide open smile on her face and looked beautifully daring and powerfully happy. “This is so me”, I told myself. Lucky enough, I always believed in hard work and clean paths; I didn’t care 1,000 people would have said that was not possible; because, you know, those jobs were already given, you needed connections… No way you’d get in just like that, by sending your CV and cover letter. But I cared little about all that. I didn’t have all that, but I knew what I felt. I knew there would be five doors closed into your nose till one opened. And I always took my chance.

So I didn’t say a word to anyone and applied to my dream job. After two months or so, four or five interviews and lots of tests, I got a call, shortly before my birthday, and I was told I got the job at NOKIA. My dream job, me, the dreamer I was and still am, my CV, my cover letter and my belief that sky was the limit.

You see, that’s just me. A tiny, little kid under this sky, which still lets us believe it is the limit if only we dear. Then and there, I stared a journey that was to last almost six years. Six years from the age of 27 to 33 it’s a life time. I grew up within NOKIA. I dedicated my heart and my mind to NOKIA. My whole being, my whole life for a while. And it felt right, because there was no lie.

What I did not know until the very painful end, is that relationships and trust can be badly broken under the will of making money provided that the will had become blind. I’ve always said I cared about people first, or at least as much as I cared about business. I paid my price and it felt the right thing to do along the way. And oh, how I know now, how many of us, the Nokians, had to pay when we ended up defending the very values NOKIA we knew had stood for: respect for people and their dignity, care for that the work environment would never become hostile and void, our willingness to listen to the hearts, not only the minds around us and inside of us. People around the world loved NOKIA. Genuinely loved NOKIA. And I believe they still do and always will. What a great feeling…

I write this for myself, not to forget how I feel today and because I had tears in my eyes for almost the whole day yesterday. And I write it as a THANK YOU note to all you, the amazing people I was blessed to meet, work with and befriend along my NOKIA way. We, the Nokians, rocked!

They say feelings become thoughts… It’s true.