Maria Nikolaidou

• busy streets, the smell of car exhaust
• overlapping chatter, the sound of many people talking at once
• the bright electric lights of the stock exchange
• carefully analyzing possible investments, comparing the pros and cons
• tailored suits and dress shirts with crisp collars
• monitoring dozens of rapidly changing graphs and figures
• hailing a taxi with the wave of one tired hand
• reading treatises on various economic philosophies, filling the margins with your own annotations
• calculating risk and rewards with a cool objectivity
• organized desk drawers, stacks of manila folders
• debating different economic models
• studying financial collapses, learning from the errors of the past
• the elegant logic of supply and demand
• keeping an eye on current events, anticipating how markets will shift
• a collection of currencies from around the world
• understanding the historical context that continues to shape the modern economy
• using past data to predict the future
• the glow of headlights on wet pavement
• examining the forces that shape our modern economy
• gaining a deep understanding of deceptively simple concepts
• reminders scribbled on notepads in bold black ink

“Be brave to stand for what you believe in even if you stand alone.”