Acknowledgment

I extend my gratitude to Saša Arsenovič, Alenka Bratušek, Blaž Brodnjak, Gregor Golobič, Zoran Janković, Katarina Kresal, Milan Kučan, Anže Logar, Jože Mermal, Aleksander Mervar, Dušan Mes, Stojan Petrič, Vesna Prodnik, Aleš Rojs, Branko Selak, Iztok Seljak, Ivan Simič, Rok Snežič, Tibor Šimonka, Janez Škrabec, and Tim Žagar for their charisma, motivation, knowledge, experience, and implicit insights into the psychological principles of success and victory in business, politics, and life—insights they forever passed on to me through this project we co-created. Marcus Aurelius (2002) writes in his Meditations that he did not merely read the wisdom found in the books his teachers recommended to him. He absorbed it into his DNA, quoting it throughout his life and drawing strength, clarity, and antidotes from it for all the temptations of power and prestige that became constant in his daily life. In a similar way, I feel that I will carry the insights of my participants in the background of my psyche, wherever life may take me. Their words will guide me, direct me, and give me wisdom and inner strength in moments of difficulty. A special thanks also goes to all the other individuals who shaped me into the researcher capable of carrying out this extensive, psychologically and professionally demanding work, and who instilled in me the first ideals of Plato’s philosopher-king.I wrote this work in a kind of obsession with success, when “you don’t see the hours” and “the stars shine brighter for you.”If something like Voldemort’s Horcruxes exists in life or can be created, then this work is surely one such piece that will always carry part of my soul. The energy of passion poured through me just like one of the participants describes her temperament—as “water crashing over obstacles.”

The ups and downs of the process and my personal reflection on this work can be summed up with the words of Ivanka Trump: "In the world of business and politics, there is a pervasive darkness. A darkness that, to some extent, affects everyone who touches this world. But I was never interested in the darkness. I was interested in the legacy I would leave behind. To touch one soul or a thousand is the same to me. It means leaving a mark. With your work, from your heart, leaving your pebble in the mosaic of the bigger picture of life, society, politics, and the economy of the world in which you play your role.""Who is a good leader—the one who leads through the arch of victory, or the savior who shows people that they are the change they are looking for in him?"—these words from one of the participants left a particularly strong impression on me. Or the words of another: "A good leader, one who wants to create new leaders, better than themselves, gives away the glory. Be better than me. Let that be your goal." 

With one of the participants, we developed a thesis that became a kind of red thread throughout this master’s thesis: that “successful people are fascinating because they have not only understood the principles of power or capital; to win and survive at the top, they had to understand the principles of life.” The stages change, the actors change, but the rules of the game remain the same, writes Marcus Aurelius (2002). The rules of the game and the principles of success remain the same…They are the same across all levels and eras—only we, the people, perform our roles on different stages of life and at different ages, through the billions of soul-rotations in the universe. Old souls simply play more complex games, as one of my final participants said. “Psychologically healthy individuals rarely succeed. No one normal is willing to put in as many hours as it takes to truly make something work. But people who are a bit unhinged—those are often the best ones.” In my own way, I would say that I have always liked living in the shadows. In the shadows of the decision-makers of a certain time. I learned early on that the backstage is better than the headlines. I am grateful to Slovenian businesspeople and politicians that I could absorb at their feet the timeless psychological principles of success in business, politics, and life. If it’s true that a happy person is one who brings happiness to others, I hope that on their own journeys, they will always be accompanied by the blessings of all the optimism, joy, passion, and inspiration that they poured into me during our co-creation of this master’s thesis.