"Truly inspirational speech, you put words and statistical facts to my feelings. Having moved 3,5 yrs ago from Switzerland to Athens without a professional or family reason, I've never been able to explain my move to my Greek friends. They were telling me "you must be crazy, you leave a good job, good money and a clean and organized country". I could explain why for me Switzerland was not adequate except maybe for good skiing, but had a hard time making them realize all the good things about living in Greece. Most of them just see the negatives.Your message contains, spiritual values, that we usually hear from people that are often regarded with mistrust. Coming from a businessman, these simple messages come through most effectively. I particularly like your quote "it doesn't matter who made the mistake, we are here to fix it". - Rea K.

3 months later, I continue to receive extraordinary emails of support from friends and total strangers! More than 7000 people have now seen the talk on YouTube.

Many of you ask how I came up with this concept. It all started with a simple question: "What makes me happy in Greece?" In my eudaimonia chart (shown below), I've scored my 10 categories (from 1 - 10) for all countries that I've lived in.   Family, career & living cost have a multiplier of 3 as they the most important factors to me. Weather, activities & friends have a multiplier of 2 and the rest have no multiplier. I intentionally put a low rating to career in Greece, as I am not detached from the tough reality! I dare you to do your chart!

"Thank you so much for this speech! It filled me with optimism again! Especially now, with this crisis and everybody talking about leaving Greece. I hear it all the time, how bad things are and that the only way to survive and be actually happy is to leave. I've lived abroad till I was thirteen and I am certainly happy that I came here, besides all the difficulties. Greece is not a perfect country, but still I can't imagine my life away. Away from its people, their smiles and friendliness, the sun, the sea...Thanks again"  - Maria P.

"In your TEDx talk, you stated the feelings of many of us that returned to Greece. These feelings are very strong, make us come back and live in an ill-minded society where a lot of our fellow Greeks simply do not appreciate what they have. For me this is the challenge, to understand what is in front of us and respect it." - Stelios S.

There were some absolutely amazing people putting this TEDx together and some really inspiring speakers in attendance but the really cool part was that the audience was full of young Greeks, thirsty for the positive point of view. Here's an email I received: 

This country really needs more optimism and less cynicism. We need to collectively exercise virtue and pursue our eudaimonia. Let"s resurrect Greece.