by ANITA TREGOVA, Community Host Alumni at the Impact Hub Budapest

When I arrived at the Impact Hub Budapest in February 2018, I saw that people come and go here, but somehow the Impact Hub adapts itself to help accelerate each and everyone’s plan, project or path. As I entered this community, I had this trembling feeling in my soul that I’m going to be the exception. I’m going to be the one whose plan is not going to evolve. I’ve had ideas for so long, tried so many ways, and still, I felt I was not moving an inch forward with my project, no matter the effort.

Then… the magic of the Hub got to me.

I made a decision to get more involved. I immersed myself in the projects, solved daily challenges, got to know the people. I began to have those may be small, but very human and meaningful connections. In a short time, I became a face you could see every day at the Hub. I invested my time, my enthusiasm, my ideas, and my soul into the Hub, and it seemed so natural because that’s what people do in a place where they feel like home.

When I had ideas and intentions but didn’t know what to do with them, the Hub gave me a community of like-minded people where I could finally ease up because I realized that we all have similar struggles when pursuing our own projects. Getting over them and succeeding is not a rare, fairy-tale-like miracle, but a result of a lot of trials of countless methods and the power of having the right conversations.

The atmosphere, the mindset, and the people made learning about how to build a social entrepreneurship into a series of meaningful conversations and one day I noticed I was building something new inside my head. The Hub was there to give me a peaceful (but not too heavily silent) place to be productive and get even more motivation from all the people working beside me on their own project ideas. I materialized what only existed in my head this way. The concept and the plan were born and developed there, but I had to go outside, to the Bistro, for the name to come, as a joint effort of enthusiastic Hubbers: Moti.

With the name, the concept, and the plan ready, I needed a place and participants who would commit to taking part in an 8-week long training course which I designed to support people in times of change and transition. The Impact Hub was there to offer me a venue, and all of my 10 participants were either Hubbers or friends of Hubbers. And I’m pretty sure if I would stay here, then the Hub would have helped me to develop my idea to the next stage as well.  Moti has now grown from a not-even-existing-in-concept into a complete eight-week long training course that had its validation the same place where all major events happened to it: at the Impact Hub Budapest.

The first season of Moti has now ended and the ‘winds of change’ are flying me to Stockholm, where I’ll be hosting at the Impact Hub Stockholm and growing Moti further. I know it is still in its very early stages, but the Impact Hub Budapest gave Moti a fighting chance, and I am grateful for it. I have grown, learned, laughed, rushed, created, talked, fist-bumped, got, and smiled so much at the Hub in the past 7 months.  This engagement has meant so much to me and I cannot begin to describe how very grateful I am for all of these experiences. I have become one of those people that I was so afraid I would never be when I first arrived at the Hub: I joined, got involved, created a project, got tons of help to develop and bring it to life, and now I am moving on… The REAL magic is that this whole process felt like the most natural thing ever, because of the mindset of the place.

I am one of the many people who got wings at the Impact HUB Budapest. Now I need to learn to fly.

THANK YOU. These are 2 simple words, but please feel them in a way as I feel when I say that “You were the first ones in two years who looked at me and my idea in a way that gave me the push I needed to make it into a reality.” Again, Thank you and until we meet again, – Anita Tregova