“The thing about going into the world is that motivation, curiosity and interest are really central”

 

 Misha (Michael) Glenny is an esteemed British, award-winning journalist and broadcaster. He is multilingual. He specialises in global organised crime, cyber-crime and southeast Europe. Three of his most successful books (McMafia, DarkMarket and The Balkans) are dedicated to these subjects respectively. Arguably, his most successful work is McMafia, a non-fiction book about global crime.  In order to write this, Misha Glenny went on a three-year trip around the world, potentially risking his life, talking to numerous criminals. McMafia was so successful that it was made into a television crime drama, a series that won an international Emmy Award.

 

I had the honour of hearing Misha Glenny speak about his books, his life and his inspirations and I learned much about crime and the Balkans. When I asked, ‘What advice would you give to the young people of today?’ he replied:

 

 

“The thing about going into the world is that motivation, curiosity and interest are really central. For example, I learned languages not because I was particularly good at learning languages but because I needed to learn languages in order to do what I wanted to do, i.e. go and live in other countries, study other countries and learn about their people. Motivation is really important. You need to find out what you’re interested in, what really drives you and then follow that, supercharge it. You have a period in your life between the ages of 14 and 40, where you have boundless energy, and you can achieve fantastic things. You really have to exploit that energy because after about the age of forty or fifty, you begin to lose that drive that you once had.”

 

 

Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Misha Glenny found a passion in journalism from a young age and it took him far. The message I think we should all take from Misha Glenny and Mark Twain is, hopefully without sounding cliché, to follow your dreams.