August 2013. Summer, friends and relax. After a long year that was the time of dreaming, engaging, creating and performing what you could not complete because of your job. It had been a while that Alessandro and a university friend of his wanted to realize a game that recalled fantasy football, but in that case the sport would have been basketball. They were both young, and they perceived that people were such good talkers as lousy actors. They became aware that if they deeply wished to accomplish their dream they had to put it into action and not fill the air with their soaking-with-desire words, as the only thing that could have been soaked in that moment were the towels they wrapped themselves in after swimming in the Mediterranean. As they came back to Milan, they knew that they needed a third person to work with them in order to have a further financial help. Alessandro and his partner began to ask their university friends and current coworkers whether they would like to join them in this project. They had been waiting for days and then weeks for a positive response, but nevertheless they did not gave up. After a while Alessandro’s colleague came up with one of his high school mates who seemed intrigued by that idea. At first it began as a lost-found finance attempt, since the money they could invest was not much; yet they kept developing the game with all the means at their disposal. In first place Alessandro felt conflicting emotions. Sometimes he felt fired up and ready to work and create, but other times he just felt doubtful and insecure. His soul was a roller coaster of feelings, where the heart was the driver of the carriage and his brain was the traffic light telling him to slow down as, in the beginning, it was natural to feel overwhelmed, but as long as he believed in himself he would never lose in life. He created new ideas while working at Danone, an international food company; he tried to carve out time each day, never taking a break. Alessandro and his coworkers were committed to completing the game. At that point nothing could have stopped their will in succeeding in the project, especially after receiving a collaboration’s request from “La Gazette Dello Sport”, the most widely read sport newspaper in Italy, which helped them financially. Later on, Alessandro, realized that his job no longer satisfied him and his relationship with his colleagues was invaluable, so he decided to quit and to spend all of his time just working on the game, which at that point had been given a name, Dunkest. It came out from the words dunk, a type of basketball shot, and basket. Since that choice, Alessandro has never regretted it as he was still young and, in case the project would not have worked, he could have found a new job effortlessly. Although his family and friends did not agree with his resignation, when they noticed the improvement of the game and its advertisement, they changed their mind and supported him whenever he needed. To play the game you have to register on the website, create your team and then you can decide either play globally or make your own private championship to which your friends can be part of it. The creation process of Dunkest began with the set of the rules and the way you can make your own team. Then the game needed a media advertisement, in fact the three partners opened on September 2013 social media’s accounts on Facebook and subsequently on Instagram, which both received a high number of followers since the beginning. Dunkest, after its first collaboration, received even a request from Sky! At that point they could finally afford some improvements, thus they decided to translate the game in different languages so that it could have had a wider access. Dunkest, in fact, is currently translated in six languages: Italian, English, Spanish, Portoguese, French and German. In the meantime though, Alessandro and his colleagues, had to deal with the problem that in Italy people are more interested in watching and playing soccer rather than basketball. Then, when the website of Dunkest opened on October 2013, they faced technical issues because more people had accessed the game than they expected; as a result, the game was blocked for several days. When that occurred the three of them were scared that the interest in Dunkest would decrease, but despite the initial problem, people kept enrolling in the website and downloading the app. They could not be more thrilled and satisfied after all the hard work and time spent on that project. Their efforts had paid off. Alessandro asserts that from this experience he learned that if you have a valuable idea, you have to consider how to accomplish it. This means that you need to be practical instead of theoretical, otherwise you will never see projects accomplished. Then he noticed that people receive many offers every day, but this does not mean that they have to accept all of them, as they have to be aware, due to their final goal, of what are the best opportunities they can be offered. Eventually Alessandro understood that the risky choice he made at the beginning of this journey was the right one as it has helped him mature and be more independent and enthusiastic about his job. He is, in fact, eager every Monday to go to work, to create always something new, to work on collaborations and lately, his partners and him, have even been working on new projects, for instance, the Dunkest’s merchandising that includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, cases for the phone and much more! Then, they accepted the challenge to create a brand new game, Kickest, the soccer version of Dunkest with its same dynamics. Alessandro, after all he has been through, realized that linking his passions and job and making up his own company, even though it requires responsibilities, has combined both duty and pleasure. Now he is ready to find new and fresh ideas and always be positive, thrilled and prepared to face everything he could bump into along his path. Despite it though, he recognize that his job takes more energy and time out of his life than he expected. Indeed it is hard to find a balance between work and social life as he always needs to be updated on everything that happens in his company. For this reason his current personal goal is finding an equilibrium between these two.
Posted on November 25th, 2019 by emarzotto01
Filed under: People, STORY | No Comments »
Where do I wanna go?