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Albania is in a precarious situation at the moment. We are faced with a prevailing cultural acceptance of complacency and corruption. This reality had periodically made itself known to me during my summer trips back to Albania. Truthfully, however, this had no bearing on my life back then. I was living and studying all over Europe, and had no aspirations of returning to my country, so I simply did not pay it any mind. It took me moving back here during my master’s thesis for these realities to become too overwhelming to ignore. As a bit of context, I completed my thesis on agriculture in Albana at a time when the IPARD corruption scandal was in full bloom. This isolated incident, I thought, would be enough to fuel a people with indignation and repulsion, and force them to take action. In reality though, much of everyday life in Albania continued as it had. There was no fury from the people. There was no reaction. It was all, just so very normal. I hated that.

In many ways, I am understanding this country for the first time. But despite the state of affairs, and the palpable disillusionment that people here so avidly feel, I decided to come back for good. You may ask ‘why?’, especially since nowadays when you talk to someone who’s just graduated from university you get the sense that they cannot wait to hop on the next plane out of here. There are a few reasons why I chose to stay, but the most important ones for the purpose of this piece are the following;

Number one is opportunity. I believe that in a country where progress and development is stagnant, there is room for young, tenacious, bright, and ambitious people to ‘fill in the gaps’ that state institutions are not able to fill. Two professors from Harvard Business School wrote a book on this very topic of ‘Winning in Emerging Markets’. The authors note that ‘institutional voids’ emerge in such markets because there are missing intermediaries between service providers and service acquirers, or simply put, when there’s a missing link between buyers and sellers. For the sake of example let’s take people who want to buy a car, and people who want to sell a car. These two simply cannot find each other in Albania unless they, or a friend of theirs, knows of a car dealership in the neighborhood. I chose the car example because there is one Albanian entrepreneur that’s filling this particular institutional void just as you’re reading this sentence (see our article on a new startup called ‘Harnex’). This young innovator has become the bridge between automobile buyers and sellers by making an online space where the two can find each other.

But it’s not just about buying and selling cars online. Think of road infrastructure connecting traders of the North to those of the South, think of enabling online payments and eliminating the need for cash, think of companies that can help you with market analysis, talent acquisition companies, investment funds, food safety intermediaries, and many, many more. In an emerging market like Albania, where industrialization has not taken place, where there’s economic liberalization and where foreign aid is significant, young entrepreneurs have a chance to ‘strike it big’  in a way that is virtually impossible in Germany, or the UK, or any other developed markets where Albanian graduates take their talents. Coming back to Albania can be a real possibility for the diaspora that’s up to a monumental challenge. The point here is that there is so much opportunity for young entrepreneurs, and the reward for doing things right is truly enormous, and that’s exciting!

Number two is about pursuing excellence and setting an example for the ‘Next, Next Generation’. Excellence in moral values, excellence in work ethic, and excellence in ideas. This is sorely lacking in Albania. Why must our ‘examples’ of success be individuals who cheat the system for personal gain? In what possible reality can it be that people who lack any semblance of a moral fiber, a good education, and a desire to be competent succeed more than people who uphold those qualities? Number two is about setting the standard and drawing a line in the sand and saying “I refuse to cross one millimeter over this line”. We need people who uphold such values to take center stage, we need it now.

Number three leans on the previous point because we talk about social responsibility, and we talk about cooperation. Our country has forgotten what it is to cooperate, we have forgotten what it means to do the right thing by your neighbor. If we can find our way back to these virtues we can start the change, we can start to Reimagine Albania. Only in great numbers can great things be achieved. Rome was not built in a day, and it certainly was not built by one man, not even a thousand men. Great things take time, they take vision, and they take cohesion. We need to ‘rally the troops’, if you will. We, the ‘Next Generation’ who shares a sense of social responsibility and the tenacity to succeed to find each other.

Well… those are some of the reasons why I chose to come back.

If you like the thoughts being shared here, consider signing up to our newsletter ‘Reimagining Albania’. New ideas are in the works all over the country, and you don’t want to miss out on learning about it. You yourself can be a part of the initiative. We will be organizing a meet-and-greet soon for young entrepreneurs, and we’d love to have you over! So sign up and let’s get the ball rolling together.